226 The Winning of the West 



became so angered with the Americans that they 

 wished to lay their grievances before the French 

 Minister at Philadelphia ; and many of them crossed 

 the Mississippi and settled under the Spanish flag. 

 The courts rapidly lost their power, and the worst 

 people, both Americans and Creoles, practiced every 

 kind of rascality with impunity. All decent men 

 joined in clamoring for Clark's return; but it was 

 impossible for him to come back. The freshets and 

 the maladministration combined to produce a dearth, 

 almost a famine, in the land. The evils were felt 

 most severely in Vincennes, where Helm, the cap- 

 tain of the post, though a brave and capable man, 

 was utterly unable to procure supplies of any kind. 

 He did not hear of Clark's success against Piqua 

 and Chillicothe until October. Then he wrote to 

 one of the officers at the Falls, saying that he was 

 "sitting by the fire with a piece of lightwood and 

 two ribs of an old buflloe, which is all the meat we 

 have seen this many days. I congratulate your suc- 

 cess against the Shawanohs, but there's never 

 doubts where that brave Col. Clark commands ; we 

 well know the loss of him in Illinois. . . . Ex- 

 cuse Haste as the Lightwood's Just out and mouth 

 watering for part of the two ribs." 9 



In the fall of 1780 a Frenchman, named la Balme, 

 led an expedition composed purely of Creoles against 

 Detroit. He believed that he could win over the 

 French at that place to his side, and thus capture 



9 Calendar of Va. State Papers, I, pp. 380, 382, 383, Oct 

 24-29, 1780. 



