quest, declaring that its powers did not extend so far. Clark, however, was not to be denied; he knew the dire need of his associates in Kentucky he had journeyed through many difficulties and dangers to Virginia in their behalf, and was not to be put off by pleas of lack of jurisdiction. He pressed his request with such insistence that the council finally concluded that it would assume the responsibility of lending him five hundred pounds of powder, holding him responsible in the event that the house of burgesses did not uphold the transaction. Clark wanted that powder very badly, but not on these terms. In addition to his desire for the powder for defensive purposes, he desired that Virginia should assume, as of right and duty, the defense of the western frontier. He returned the order of the council with a brief note in which he declared his intention to return at once to Kentucky, there to set up an independent state, declaring for the benefit of the council that "a country which is not worth defending is not worth claiming." It was Clark, the diplomat, who penned that indignant statement accompanying his refusal to accept a loan of powder. He knew the members of the council better than they knew themselves and acted accordingly, the result being that Clark was called a second time before the council and on August 23, 1776, he was given another order for five hundred pounds of powder to be conveyed by Virginia officials to Pittsburg, "to be safely kept and delivered to George Rogers Clark, or his order, for the use of the said inhabitants of Kentucky."

Clark had won a double victory, in that he had secured the much needed powder and what, in his view, was more important, an expression from Virginia that it was her duty to defend the western frontier and its brave pioneer occupants. This first and important step he hoped would soon be followed by a direct assertion of Virginia's authority over the territory in Kentucky. Overjoyed with the success thus far attendant upon his efforts, Clark

wrote to his friends in Kentucky requesting them to receive the powder at Pittsburg and safely convey it to Kentucky that it might be used in defense against the expected savage forays under English guidance. Clark himself, remained in Virginia awaiting the reassembling of the assembly. Joined by his colleague, Gabriel John Jones, he proceeded to Williamsburg and presented the memorial of the Kentucky colonists to the assembly. Once again victory was with Clark; the personality which in the near future was to mark him so distinctly as a soldier now stood him in good stead as the civil representative of his people. The Transylvania Company knew that Clark and Jones were in Virginia, claiming rights as delegates to the assembly from "the western portion of Fincastle county," and had put forth every effort of their inventive minds to destroy the effect of their pleas. Notwithstanding the efforts of Colonel Henderson and his associates, the Virginia assembly on December 7, 1776, passed an act which divided the county of Fincastle, which covered a vast and not altogether well-defined western territory, into three sections to be thereafter known as Kentucky county, Washington county and Montgomery county, Virginia.

December 7, 1776, may therefore be claimed as the anniversary of Kentucky, as it undoubtedly was the day when Transylvania met its death blow. That was a rather wide and expansive territory, which the Virginia assembly called Kentucky county, and which is practically the state of Kentucky of today, but it was not wide enough nor expansive enough for the sovereignty of Virginia and of the Lords Proprietors of Transylvania to occupy together; so the latter passed out of existence and have never nor can they ever have a successor in our country.

To George Rogers Clark be all the honor, for to him it is largely due that the Kentucky of today exists. Yet how few of the inhabitants of the state know the great value of his

services at a critical period in our history, or the tremendous effect of his subsequent military successes upon the history of our country. Fewer still know that he sleeps in a humble grave not many miles from the great metropo

lis of the state, which he helped to politically found and so faithfully served. Nor do they know that outside the pages of history there has been practically no recognition of his great services.

Clark having won his double victory in securing the powder unconditionally and defeating the plans of Henderson, was preparing to start upon his return to Kentucky, when he learned that no one had appeared at Pittsburg to take charge of the powder which had cost him so much in danger and labor. It was not an easy matter to transport this powder over the mountains to Kentucky. Danger was attended upon every step, since through spies, or otherwise, the Indians had learned that it had been granted Clark and was to be transmitted to Kentucky. But danger never caused Clark to hesitate; it rather spurred him to action.

Accompanied by his colleague, Gabriel John Jones, who appears to have been always around but never doing anything in particular, Clark set out for Pittsburg with the determination to get that powder safely to Kentucky at no matter what cost. The safety of the few scattered stations was dependent upon it. Reaching Pittsburg, Clark and Jones secured a small boat into which the powder was placed and began their long journey down the Ohio river to the Kentucky settlements. They succeeded in escaping the Indians by whom they were pursued and who knew what cargo they carried. The savages unable to keep pace with Clark's boat by water, took to the land, but without success, and were far behind when the latter landed at a point near where Maysville now stands, the landing-place being then known as Three Islands. Entering the mouth

of Limestone creek, Clark concealed parts of his precious cargo at each of several points along its heavily wooded shore, allowing his boat after removal of the powder to drift down the stream and into the river to mislead the pursuing Indians.

Clark and his eight companions, the names of none of whom are known, other than that of his colleague, Jones, then set out for the settlement at Harrodsburg. While journeying through the forest they met at the cabin of John Hinkson, a party of surveyors, who stated that, owing to the depredations of the Indians, many of the small stations had been abandoned. These surveyors also informed Clark that Colonel John Todd was somewhere in the neighborhood in command of a body of men sufficiently large, if joined with his own, to safely convey the powder to the settlements. Clark sent Jones and five boatmen to find Colonel Todd and his party while he, with two other men, went forward to McClelland's Fort, where he found the garrison so weakened by desertions, following the renewal of Indian depredations, as to be barely sufficient to retain the fort; none could therefore be spared for the purpose of securing the precious powder. At this post, Clark met with Simon Kenton, who was to play so important a part in the future of Kentucky, and under his guidance hastened to Harrodsburg, where he secured a guard of adequate strength and retraced his steps towards Hinkson's where disaster had preceded him. disaster had preceded him. After his depar

ture for Harrodsburg, Colonel Todd with some five or six men had arrived at Hinkson's and upon hearing of the hidden powder, had requested Jones to lead him to the places of deposit.

December 25, 1776, as Todd and his party of ten approached the banks of the Limestone to secure the powder, they were fired upon by a body of Indians commanded by Pluggy, a noted Mingo chief, who had discovered the abandoned boat and followed Clark's trail. Jones, poor fellow! who had been Clark's faithful shadow and had uncomplainingly played second fiddle in the Virginia negotiations, and William Graydon, were killed and two others captured, while Colonel Todd and his remaining men escaped to McClelland's station, where Clark and Kenton soon afterwards found them. This was a welcome reinforcement to the weakened garrison.

One week after the killing of Jones, on New Year's Day, 1777, Pluggy, believing the fort to be but weakly garrisoned, led his warriors to an attack upon it, but suffered a repulse, the savages being driven off after the killing of their chief, Pluggy. Of the garrison, McClelland and one other were killed. After the repulse of the savages, Clark hastily secured the hidden powder which was safely taken to Harrodsburg. McClelland's station was abandoned, some going to the stockades while others, not being true pioneers and having no desire for further conflicts with the Indians, returned across the mountains to the older settlements whence they came.

The rejoicing of the pioneers over the success of Clark in securing the powder and safely conveying it to them, was not so great as their satisfaction caused by his victory over Colonel Henderson and his associates. These brave men had pushed out into the wilderness, in the face of savage opposition, to make homes for themselves, when they had been confronted by Henderson with quit rents and titles which might or not stand the scrutiny of

the courts. They desired indefensible titles to the lands entered by them and feared that the Lords Proprietors could not give them. When Clark returned from Virginia, they not only saw the Henderson idea dissolve into the air, but they saw something tangible behind their titles; they saw Virginia claiming the territory in which their lands were found; and more than that, they saw Virginia ready to assert that claim and to protect it. More than all else, they saw George Rogers Clark, the soldier-pioneer, ever ready, ever willing, to go out in defense of their rights; to face the savage foe; to endure any hardship; to do all, to dare all, that might be necessary to not only defend the territory they occupied but to venture beyond and seize from the enemy that which he claimed as his own.

Before the coming of Clark, the pioneer conducted his own campaigns. He went out to-day and killed any stray Indian whom he might meet and returned to his station. This method of disposing of the opposing forces had its limitations. Of course if every pioneer went out every day and every pioneer killed an Indian every day, it was only a question of mathematics as to when the Indian would be eliminated from the problem. But sometimes the Indian killed the pioneer, which interfered with the problem of arithmetical progression. Clark's return changed these conditions, because the Indians had changed their methods under the guidance of their British teachers. Whereas, they had before gone among the white settlers of Kentucky in small parties, burning, robbing and murdering in outlying stations, they now came in larger and more compact bodies, frequently under the command of British officers, and conducted their campaigns in keeping with the rules of recognized warfare, save in the instances where they were successful in defeating the settlers, on which occasions they gave way to their savage instincts and ruthlessly tortured and slaughtered their helpless cap

tives. It is to the everlasting disgrace of our own kith and kin, our English forefathers, that they permitted the torture of white prisoners by their Indian allies. Clark knew of this

from conferences with the settlers in Kentucky, with whom he conferred, and planned an expedition for their relief.