Clark was to raise his own company among the
frontiersmen. The whole burden of making the necessary preparations rested
upon him.
CLARK STARTS ON HIS LONG JOURNEY
With good heart he shouldered it, and in May, 1778, was ready with one
hundred and fifty-three men to start from the Redstone Settlements, on the
Monongahela River. He stopped at both Pittsburg and Wheeling for needed
supplies. Then his flatboats, manned by tall backwoodsmen in their
picturesque dress, rowed or floated cautiously down the Ohio River.
They did not know on how great a journey they had entered, for even to his
followers Clark could not tell his plan.
Toward the last of the month, on reaching the falls of the Ohio, near the
present site of Louisville, they landed on an island, where Clark built a
fort and drilled his men. Some of the families that had come with him, and
were on their way to Kentucky, remained there until autumn, planting some
corn and naming the island Corn Island.
When about to leave, Clark said to the men: "We are going to the
Mississippi." Some were faint-hearted and wished to turn back. "You may
go," said Clark, for he wanted no discontented men among his number.
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