1 66 The Winning of the West 



farms, and came into the town. 42 Vincennes then 

 consisted of upward of three hundred houses. The 

 Americans numbered some sixty families, and had 

 built an American quarter, with a strong block 

 house. They only ventured out to till their corn 

 fields in bodies of armed men, while the French 

 worked their lands singly and unarmed. 



The Indians came freely into the French quarter 

 of the town, and even sold to the inhabitants plunder 

 taken from the Americans; and when complaint of 

 this was made to the Creole magistrates, they paid 

 no heed. One of the men who suffered at the hands 

 of the savages was a wandering schoolmaster, named 

 John Fjlson, 43 the first historian of Kentucky, and 

 the man who took down, and put into his own quaint 

 and absurdly stilted English, Boone's so-called "au 

 tobiography." Filson, having drifted West, had 

 traveled up and down the Ohio and Wabash by 

 canoe and boat. He was much struck with the 

 abundance of game of all kinds which he saw on 

 the northwestern side of the Ohio, and especially 

 by the herds of buffaloes which lay on the sand-bars ; 

 his party lived on the flesh of bears, deer, wild tur 

 keys, coons, and water-turtles. In 1785 the Indians 

 whom he met seemed friendly; but on June 2, 1786, 

 while on the Wabash, his canoe was attacked by 

 the savages, and two of his men were slain. He 

 himself escaped with difficulty, and ,reached Vin- 



49 Do., Moses Henry to G. R. Clark, June 7, 1786. 

 48 Do., John Small to G. R. Clark, June 23, 1786. 



