Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/37

Rh in the fall by the British Lieutenant-governor Hamilton of Detroit. The latter had pushed his difficult way up the Maumee and down the Wabash to seize the revolted town. Throughout the winter Clark feared a swift advance from Vincennes; and, to save himself from being captured by Hamilton, Clark desperately resolved to capture him. By February 5 a new "grand army," of four companies, possibly one hundred and sixty strong, well-armed, but without tents and horse, save a few pack-horses, departed from Kaskaskia on the desperate journey across the swimming prairies and flooded rivers of Illinois for Vincennes. Had one man dropped from the ranks each mile, not one of the one hundred and sixty would have reached the Wabash. Few expeditions in American history have been recounted more than this; it is strange that the route of this immortal little army has never been care-