stations. But with every disposition to assist and promote the growth of
these remote and infant settlements, the council felt itself restrained
by the uncertain and indefinite state of the relations existing between
the colonists and the state of Virginia, from complying fully with his
demand. The Kentuckians had not yet been recognized by the Legislature
as citizens, and the proprietary claimants, Henderson & Co., were at
this time exerting themselves to obtain from Virginia, a relinquishment
of her jurisdiction over the new territory. The council, therefore,
could only afford to _lend_ the gunpowder to the colonists as
_friends_, not _give_ it to them as _fellow-citizens_."[32]

At the same time, they required Clark to be personally responsible for
its value, in the event the Legislature should refuse to recognize the
Kentuckians as citizens, and in the mean time to defray the expense of
its conveyance to Kentucky. Upon these terms he did not feel at liberty
to accept the proffered assistance. He represented to the Council, that
the emissaries of the British were employing every means to engage the
Indians in the war; that the people in the remote and exposed Stations
of Kentucky might be exterminated for the want of a supply which he, a
private individual, had at so much hazard and hardship, sought for their
relief, and that when this frontier bulwark was thus destroyed, the fury
of the savages would burst like a tempest upon the heads of their own
citizens.

To these representations, however, the Council remained inexorable; the
sympathy for the frontier settlers was deep, but the assistance already
offered was a stretch of power, and they could go no further. The keeper
of the public magazine was directed to deliver the powder to Clark; but
having long reflected on the situation, prospects, and resources of the
new country, his resolution to reject the assistance, on the proposed