drink up the other." In this statement Clark was giving the Indians the choice of going to battle with him and his troops, or having peaceful relationship. The Indians chose the white belt of peace and they and Clark's forces smoked from the peace pipe and partied all night. After this act of diplomacy, George Rogers Clark and his forces had no further problems with the Indians from this area. Now Clark could give all his attention to attacking Hamilton and his British Troops at Fort Sackville in Vincennes. Upon hearing of the conquering of Kaskaskia Governor Hamilton and about 500 troops came to Vincennes from Detroit to secure Fort Sackville. Clark hearing of this and Hamilton's plan to attack Kaskaskia, capture him and join the British forces in the East was pushed into a very tough decision. With his limited troops and ammunition there was no way his force could fend off an attack from the British. Also, many of his troops service was up, so Clark was going to have to convince his army to stay and get as many of the Kaskaskians to join him as he could. In a speech to the troops that were free to leave Clark thanked them for the care they had of my person and told them it was the fate of war that a good soldier never out to be afraid of his life where there was a probability of his doing service by venturing of it. Again Clark's diplomacy was very important, he was able to get some of the troops to stay and more importantly got many of the Kaskaskians to join America's cause. Next, Clark had to procure supplies and ammunition for the trip to do this he went to his trader friend Francis Vigo who gave him all the supplies he needed in exchange for bills of credit from Virginia which Clark himself indorsed. On February 4th 1779 Clark and his small band of no more than 170 troops began the long 200 miles journey to Vincennes, after receiving absolution from Father Pierre Gibault, the priest of Kaskaskia. What ma...
