The Winning of the West, Volume Two | Page 7

was
required constantly to expose his life; each lost sons or brothers at the
hands of the Indians, and each thinned the ranks of the enemy with his
own rifle. In such a primitive state of society the man who led others
was expected to show strength of body no less than strength of mind
and heart; he depended upon his physical prowess almost as much as
upon craft, courage, and headwork. The founder and head of each little
community needed not only a shrewd brain and commanding temper,

but also the thews and training to make him excel as woodsman and
hunter, and the heart and eye to enable him to stand foremost in every
Indian battle.
Clark Shares in the Defense of Kentucky.
Clark spent most of the year at Harrodstown, taking part in the defence
of Kentucky. All the while he was revolving in his bold, ambitious
heart a scheme for the conquest of the Illinois country, and he sent
scouts thither to spy out the land and report to him what they saw. The
Indians lurked round Harrodstown throughout the summer; and Clark
and his companions were engaged in constant skirmishes with them.
Once, warned by the uneasy restlessness of the cattle (who were sure to
betray the presence of Indians if they got sight or smell of them), they
were able to surround a party of ten or twelve, who were hidden in a
tall clump of weeds. The savages were intent on cutting off some
whites who were working in a turnip patch two hundred yards from the
fort; Clark's party killed three--he himself killing one,--wounded
another, and sold the plunder they took, at auction, for seventy pounds.
At other times the skirmishes resulted differently, as on the occasion
chronicled by Clark in his diary, when they "went out to hunt Indians;
one wounded Squire Boon and escaped." [Footnote: Clark's Diary,
entry for July 9th.]
The corn was brought in from the cribs under guard; one day while
shelling a quantity, a body of thirty-seven whites were attacked, and
seven were killed or wounded, though the Indians were beaten off and
two scalps taken. In spite of this constant warfare the fields near the
forts were gradually cleared, and planted with corn, pumpkins, and
melons; and marrying and mirth-making went on within the walls. One
of Clark's scouts, shortly after returning from the Illinois, got married,
doubtless feeling he deserved some reward for the hardships he had
suffered; on the wedding night Clark remarks that there was "great
merriment." The rare and infrequent expresses from Pittsburg or
Williamsburg brought letters telling of Washington's campaigns, which
Clark read with absorbed interest. On the first of October, having
matured his plans for the Illinois campaign, he left for Virginia, to see
if he could get the government to help him put them into execution.
The Holston men Help Kentucky.
During the summer parties of backwoods militia from the Holston

settlements--both Virginians and Carolinians--came out to help the
Kentuckians in their struggle against the Indians; but they only stayed a
few weeks, and then returned home. In the fall, however, several
companies of immigrants came out across the mountains; and at the
same time the small parties of hunters succeeded in pretty well clearing
the woods of Indians. Many of the lesser camps and stations had been
broken up, and at the end of the year there remained only
four--Boonsborough, Harrodstown, Logan's station at St. Asaphs, and
McGarry's, at the Shawnee Springs. They contained in all some five or
six hundred permanent settlers, nearly half of them being able-bodied
riflemen. [Footnote: The McAfee MSS. give these four stations; Boon
says there were but three. He was writing from memory, however, and
was probably mistaken; thus he says there were at that time settlers at
the Falls, an evident mistake, as there were none there till the following
year. Collins, following Marshall, says there were at the end of the year
only one hundred and two men in Kentucky,--sixty-five at Harrodstown,
twenty-two at Boonsborough, fifteen at Logan's. This is a mistake
based on a hasty reading of Boon's narrative, which gives this number
for July, and particularly adds that after that data they began to
strengthen. In the McAfee MSS. is a census of Harrodstown for the fall
of 1777, which sums up: Men in service, 81; men not in service, 4;
women, 24; children above ten, 12; children under ten, 58; slaves above
ten, 12; slaves under ten, 7; total, 198. In October Clark in his diary
records meeting fifty men with their families, (therefore permanent
settlers), on their way to Boon, and thirty-eight men on their way to
Logan's. At the end of the year, therefore, Boonsborough and
Harrodstown must have held about two hundred souls apiece; Logan's