GEORGE ROGERS CLARK AND THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST

In 1776, when independence was declared, the United States
included only the thirteen original States on the seaboard. With
the exception of a few hunters there were no white men west of
the Alleghany Mountains, and there was not even an American
hunter in the great country out of which we have since made the
States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All
this region north of the Ohio River then formed apart of the
Province of Quebec. It was a wilderness of forests and prairies,
teeming with game, and inhabited by many warlike tribes of
Indians.

Here and there through it were dotted quaint little towns of
French Creoles, the most important being Detroit, Vincennes on
the Wabash, and Kaskaskia and Kahokia on the Illinois. These
French villages were ruled by British officers comanding small
bodies of regular soldiers or Tory rangers and Creole partizans.
The towns were completely in the power of the British government;
none of the American States had actual possession of a foot of
property in the Northwestern Territory.

The Northwest was acquired in the midst of the Revolution only by
armed conquest, and if it had not been so acquired, it would have
remained a part of the British Dominion of Canada.

The man to whom this conquest was clue was a famous backwoods
leader, a mighty hunter, a noted Indian-fighter, George Rogers
Clark. He was a very strong man, with light hair and blue eyes.