In the Current of the Revolution 77 



of his departure, the inhabitants in great alarm 

 urged him to stay, saying that otherwise the British 

 would surely retake the post. He made a show of 

 reluctantly yielding to their request, and consented 

 to stay with two companies; and then finding that 

 many of the more adventurous young Creoles were 

 anxious to take service, he enlisted enough of them 

 to fill up all four companies to their original 

 strength. His whole leisure was spent in drilling 

 the men, Americans and French alike, and in a short 

 time he turned them into as orderly and well disci- 

 plined a body as could be found in any garrison of 

 regulars. 



He also established very friendly relations with 

 the Spanish captains of the scattered Creole villages 

 across the Mississippi, for the Spaniards were very 

 hostile to the British, and had not yet begun to real- 

 ize that they had even more to dread from the Amer- 

 icans. Clark has recorded his frank surprise at 

 finding the Spanish commandant, who lived at St. 

 Louis, a very pleasant and easy companion, instead 

 of haughty and reserved, as he had supposed all 

 Spaniards were. 



The most difficult, and among the most important, 

 of his tasks, was dealing with the swarm of fickle 

 and treacherous savage tribes that surrounded him. 

 They had hitherto been hostile to the Americans; 

 but being great friends of the Spaniards and French 

 they were much confused by the change in the sen- 

 timents of the latter, and by the sudden turn affairs 

 had taken. 



