[Footnote 7: Fort Kaskaskia: see map in paragraph 161.]
163. The march to Fort Kaskaskia; how a dance ended.--It was a hundred
miles to the fort, and half of the way the men had to find their way
through thick woods, full of underbrush, briers, and vines. The
British, thinking the fort perfectly safe from attack, had left it
in the care of a French officer. Clark and his band reached Kaskaskia
at night. They found no one to stop them. The soldiers in the fort
were having a dance, and the Americans could hear the merry music
of a violin and the laughing voices of girls.
|