Then, warmed and fed, all lay down by the fire
for the night's rest.
As long as this lasted the journey was by no means hard; but by the end of
a week conditions had changed, for they had reached the drowned lands of
the Wabash.
Coming first to the two branches of the Little Wabash, they found the
floods so high that the land between the two streams was entirely under
water, and they were facing a mighty river five miles wide and at no point
less than three feet deep, while, of course, in the river beds it was much
deeper.
But Clark was resourceful. He at once had his men build a pirogue, or
dugout canoe. In this he rowed across the first branch of the river, and
on the edge of the water-covered plain put up a scaffold. Then the men and
the baggage were ferried across in the pirogue, and the baggage was placed
on the scaffold. Last of all, the pack-horses swam the channel, and
standing by the scaffold in water above their knees, received again their
load of baggage.
[Illustration: Clark's Advance on Vincennes.]
All then proceeded to the second channel, which was crossed in the same
way. It took three days to build the pirogue and cross the two branches of
the river.
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