ordered a perogue amediately built and acted as though crossing the water would be only a piece of diversion. . . My aneziety [anxiety] to cross this place continually increased as I saw that it would at once fling us into a situation of folorn hope as all Ideas of a Retreat would in some Measure be done away that if the Men began after this was accomplished to think seriously of what they had really suffered that they preferd Risking any seeming difficulty that might probably turn out favourable than to attempt to Retreat when they would be certain of Experiencing what they had already felt and if the weather should but Freeze altogether impracticable, except the Ice would bear them." The heroism of Clark's crossing of the Little Wabash has been retold on a thousand pages but it has rarely been suggested that he hurried into these dangers eagerly because they would serve to thwart any hope of retreat. He not only "burned his bridges," but hastened impetuously across waters that could never be bridged, in the hope that they would freeze and cut off all dreams of retreat. This memoir, let
