The owner appealed in vain to the commandant, who told him
that he was ordered by the Spanish authorities to seize all persons who
trafficked on the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio, inasmuch as
Spain claimed both banks of the river; and when he made his way to New
Orleans and appealed to Miro he was summarily dismissed with a warning
that a repetition of the offence would ensure his being sent to the
mines of Brazil. [Footnote: State Dept. MSS., No. 150 vol. iii., p. 519.
Letter of Joseph St. Mary, Vincennes, August 23, 1788.]
Retaliation of the Frontiersmen.
Outrages of this kind, continually happening alike to Americans and to
Creoles under American protection, could not have been tamely borne by
any self-respecting people. The fierce and hardy frontiersmen were
goaded to anger by them, and were ready to take part in, or at least to
connive at, any piece of lawless retaliation. Such an act of revenge was
committed by Clark at Vincennes, as one result of his ill-starred
expedition against the Wabash Indians in 1786. As already said, when his
men mutinied and refused to march against the Indians, most of them
returned home; but he kept enough to garrison the Vincennes fort.
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