230 The Winning of the West 



Sandusky, and the Lakes in their raids on the set- 

 tlements. 15 By this time, however, Cornwallis had 

 surrendered at Yorktown, and the British were even 

 more exhausted than the Americans. Some of the 

 French partisans of the British at Detroit, such as 

 Rocheblave and Lamothe, who had been captured 

 by Clark, were eager for revenge, and desired to be 

 allowed to try and retake Vincennes and the Illi- 

 nois; they saw that the Americans must either be 

 exterminated or else the land abandoned to them. 16 

 But the British commandant was in no condition to 

 comply with their request, or to begin offensive op- 

 erations. Clark had not only conquered the land, 

 but he had held it firmly while he dwelt therein ; and 

 even when his hand was no longer felt, the order 

 he had established took some little time before 

 crumbling. Meanwhile, his presence at the Falls, his 

 raids into the Indian country, and his preparations 

 for an onslaught on Detroit kept the British authori- 

 ties at the latter place fully occupied, and prevented 

 their making any attempt to recover what they had 

 lost. By the beginning of 1782 the active opera- 

 tions of the Revolutionary war were at an end, and 

 the worn-out British had abandoned all thought of 

 taking the offensive anywhere, though the Indian 

 hostilities continued with unabated vigor. Thus the 

 grasp with which the Americans held the conquered 

 country was not relaxed until all danger that it 

 would be taken from them had ceased. 



16 Va. State Papers, III, 502. 



16 Haldimand MSS. Letter of Rocheblave, Oct. 7, 1781 ; of 

 Lamothe, April 24, 1782. 



