In the Current of the Revolution 101 



Next morning they resumed their march, the 

 strongest wading painfully through the water, while 

 the weak and famished were carried in the canoes, 

 which were so hampered by the bushes that they 

 could hardly go even as fast as the toiling footmen. 

 The evening and morning guns of the fort were 

 heard plainly by the men as they plodded onward, 

 numbed and weary. Clark, as usual, led them in 

 person. Once they came to a place so deep that 

 there seemed no crossing, for the canoes could find 

 no ford. It was hopeless to go back or stay still, and 

 the men huddled together, apparently about to de- 

 spair. But Clark suddenly blackened his face with 

 gunpowder, gave the war-whoop, and sprang for- 

 ward boldly into the ice-cold water, wading out 

 straight toward the point at which they were aim- 

 ing; and the men followed him, one after another, 

 without a word. Then he ordered those nearest him 

 to begin one of their favorite songs; and soon the 

 whole line took it up, and marched cheerfully on- 

 ward. He intended to have the canoes ferry them 

 over the deepest part, but before they came to it one 

 of the men felt that his feet were in a path, and by 

 carefully following it they got to a sugar camp, a 

 hillock covered with maples, which once had been 



Creoles once got dejected and wished to return, but the Ameri- 

 cans, by Clark's own statement, never faltered at all. Law's 

 "Vincennes" is an excellent little book, but he puts alto- 

 gether too much confidence in mere tradition. For another 

 instance besides this, see page 68, where he describes Clark 

 as entrapping and killing "upward of fifty Indians," instead 

 of only eight or nine, as was actually the case. 



