In the Current of the Revolution 115 



Kaskaskia and the promise of more substantial 

 reward. 46 



Clark was forced to parole most of his prisoners, 

 but twenty-seven, including Hamilton himself, were 

 sent to Virginia. The backwoodsmen regarded 

 Hamilton with revengeful hatred, and he was not 

 well treated while among them, 47 save only by 

 Boone for the kind-hearted, fearless old pioneer 

 never felt anything but pity for a fallen enemy. All 

 the borderers, including Clark, 48 believed that the 

 British commander himself gave rewards to the In- 

 dians for the American scalps they brought in; and 

 because of his alleged behavior in this regard he 

 was kept in close confinement by the Virginia gov- 

 ernment until, through the intercession of Wash- 

 ington, he was at last released and exchanged. Ex- 



46 One hundred and fifty thousand acres of land opposite 

 Louisville were finally allotted them. Some of the Pianke- 

 shaw Indians ceded Clark a tract of land for his own use, but 

 the Virginia Legislature very properly disallowed the grant. 



47 In Hamilton's "brief account," he says that their lives 

 were often threatened by the borderers, but that "our guard 

 behaved very well, protected us, and hunted for us." At the 

 Falls he found "a number of settlers who lived in log-houses, 

 in eternal apprehension from the Indians," and he adds: 

 "The people at the forts are in a wretched state, obliged to 

 enclose the cattle every night within the fort, and carry their 

 rifles to the field when they go to plow or cut wood." He 

 speaks of Boone's kindness in his short printed narrative in 

 the "Royal Gazette." 



48 Clark, in his letter to Mason, alludes to Hamilton's 

 "known barbarity"; but in his memoir he speaks very well 

 of Hamilton, and attributes the murderous forays to his 

 subordinates, one of whom, Major Hay, he particularly 

 specifies. 



