But Clark could not be turned back by such difficulties. He
plunged ahead of his men, struck tip songs and cheers to keep
them in spirit, played the buffoon, went wherever danger was
greatest, and by an almost unmatched display of bravery, tact,
and firmness, won the redoubled admiration of his suffering
followers and held them together. Murmurs arose among the
creoles, but the Americans showed no signs of faltering. For more
than a week the party floundered through the freezing water,
picked its way from one outcropping bit of earth to another, and
seldom found opportunity to eat or sleep. Rifles and powder-horns
had to be borne by the hour above the soldiers' heads to keep
them dry.

Finally, on the 23d of February, a supreme effort carried the
troops across the Horseshoe Plain, breast-deep in water, and out
upon high ground two miles from Vincennes. By this time many of
the men were so weakened that they could drag themselves along
only with assistance. But buffalo meat and corn were confiscated
from the canoes of some passing squaws, and soon the troops were
refreshed and in good spirits. The battle with the enemy ahead
seemed as nothing when compared with the struggle with the
elements which they had successfully waged. No exploit of the
kind in American history surpasses this, unless it be Benedict
Arnold's winter march through the wilderness of Maine in 1775 to
attack Quebec.

Two or three creole hunters were now taken captive, and from them
Clark learned that no one in Vincennes knew of his approach. They
reported, however, that, although the habitants were tired of the