204 The Winning of the West 



ole, having loaded his pirogue with goods to the 

 value of two thousand dollars, sent it down to trade 

 with the Indians near the Chickasaw Bluffs. Here 

 it was seized by the Creole commandant of the Span 

 ish post at the Arkansas. The goods were confis 

 cated and the men imprisoned. The owner appealed 

 in vain to the commandant, who told him that he 

 was ordered by the Spanish authorities to seize all 

 persons who trafficked on the Mississippi below the 

 mouth of the Ohio, inasmuch as Spain claimed both 

 banks of the river; and when he made his way to 

 New Orleans and appealed to Miro he was sum 

 marily dismissed with a warning that a repetition 

 of the offence would ensure his being sent to the 

 mines of Brazil. 13 



Outrages of this kind, continually happening alike 

 to Americans and to Creoles under American pro 

 tection, could not have been tamely borne by any 

 self-respecting people. The fierce and hardy fron 

 tiersmen were goaded to anger by them, and were 

 ready to take part in, or at least to connive at, any 

 piece of lawless retaliation. Such an act of revenge 

 was committed by Clark at Vincennes, as one re 

 sult of his ill-starred expedition against the Wabash 

 Indians in 1786. As already said, when his men 

 mutinied and refused to march against the Indians, 

 most of them returned home; but he kept enough 

 to garrison the Vincennes fort. Unpaid, and under 

 no regular authority, these men plundered the 



18 State Dept. MSS., No. 150, Vol. Ill, p. 519. Letter of 

 Joseph St. Mary, Vincennes, August 23, 1788. 



