In the Current of the Revolution 93 



and of Ottawas, often accompanied by French par- 

 tisans, went toward the Illinois country. 16 Hamil- 

 ton intended to undertake a formidable campaign 

 in the spring. He had sent messages to Stuart, the 

 British Indian agent in the south, directing him to 

 give war-belts to the Chickasaws, Cherokees, and 

 Creeks, that a combined attack on the frontier might 

 take place as soon as the weather opened. He him- 

 self was to be joined by reinforcements from De- 

 troit, while the Indians were to gather round him 

 as soon as the winter broke. He would then have 

 had probably over a thousand men, and light cannon 

 with which to batter down the stockades. He 

 rightly judged that with this force he could not only 

 reconquer the Illinois, but also sweep Kentucky, 

 where the outnumbered riflemen could not have 

 met him in the field, nor the wooden forts have 

 withstood his artillery. Undoubtedly he would 

 have carried out his plan, and have destroyed all 

 the settlements west of the Alleghanies, had he been 

 allowed to wait until the mild weather brought him 

 his host of Indian allies and his reinforcements of 

 regulars and militia from Detroit. 



But in Clark he had an antagonist whose far- 

 sighted daring and indomitable energy raised him 

 head and shoulders above every other frontier 

 leader. This backwoods colonel was perhaps the 

 one man able in such a crisis to keep the land his 

 people had gained. When the news of the loss of 



16 Hamilton's "brief account," and his letter of Decem- 

 ber 1 8th. 



