[428-1] The first permanent settlement in Indiana was made on the Wabash
River 117 miles southwest of the present city of Indianapolis. On what
was originally the location of a prominent Indian village, the French
established a fort in 1702, and it was generally known as _The Post_. In
1736 the name of Vinsenne, an early commandant of the post, was applied
to the little settlement, and this name later came to be written
_Vincennes_, in its present form.
The English took the place in 1763; in 1778 the weak English garrison
was driven out by the forerunners of George Rogers Clark, who from
Kaskaskia sent Captain Helm to take charge. The same winter Captain Helm
and the one soldier who constituted his garrison were compelled to
surrender to the British General, Hamilton, who had come from Detroit to
recapture the fort. It was in the following February that Clark made the
final capture as told in these memoirs. Thereafter Vincennes belonged to
Virginia, who ceded it to the United States in 1783. Vincennes was the
capital of Indiana territory from 1801 to 1816.
[428-2] The selection is taken from General Clark's Memoirs.
[431-3] These were men from Vincennes whom Clark had taken from canoes
and from whom he obtained much information, although it was not given
with perfect willingness.
[437-4] It was said with some show of justice that General Hamilton had
paid the Indians a bounty on the scalps of American settlers. His course
in many ways had aroused the bitterest hatred among the colonists, and
especially among the "Big Knives."
[446-5] The letter addressed to Lieutenant-governor Hamilton read as
follows:
"SIR:--In order to save yourself from the impending storm that now
threatens you, I order you immediately to surrender yourself, with all
your garrison, stores, etc. For, if I am obliged to storm, you may
depend on such treatment as is justly due to a murderer. Beware of
destroying stores of any kind or any papers or letters that are in your
possession, or hurting one house in town: for, by heavens! if you do,
there shall be no mercy shown you.
(Signed) G. R. CLARK."
In reply the British officer sent the following:
"Lieutenant-governor Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Colonel Clark that
he and his garrison are not disposed to be awed into any action unworthy
British subjects."
[452-7] Clark was a man of action, not a scholar; and the errors of
which his writings are full may well be overlooked, so full of interest
is what he says. The selections above have been slightly changed,
principally, however, in spelling and the use of capital letters.
Hamilton was sent in irons to Virginia and was kept in close
confinement, at Williamsburg, till nearly the end of the Revolution.
Washington wrote, as a reason for not exchanging the British prisoner,
that he "had issued proclamations and approved of practices, which were
marked with cruelty towards the people that fell into his hands, such as
inciting the Indians to bring in scalps, putting prisoners in irons, and
giving men up to be the victims of savage barbarity."