=209. Clark’s Expedition.=—Accordingly, having secured permission from the authorities of Virginia, Clark, taking a force of one hundred and eighty men, with boats and artillery, started in the spring of 1778, at Pittsburg, for a voyage down the river to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi. He had no difficulty in capturing Kaskaskia, a small post not very far north of the modern Cairo. Thence he sent messengers to Vincennes, which agreed to submit to him. Later, however, he learned that the British under Colonel Hamilton had retaken the fort. Sending his cannon on a boat to patrol the Ohio and the Wabash, Clark took his men across Illinois in a winter’s march, often through mud and water knee deep, and appeared before Vincennes. The village at once yielded, and the people united with Clark in assaulting the fort. Hamilton was soon obliged to surrender with his whole force. By this brilliant expedition, the frontier was extended to the Mississippi River. The importance of the movement could hardly be understood at the time, but the history of the next hundred years revealed it in many very interesting ways. THE VICTORIES OF PAUL JONES. =210. Early Condition of the Navy.=—Before the war the Americans had no navy, for there was no national government, and the individual colonies, under the Navigation Acts, had no opportunities for the development of foreign trade. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, however, Congress provided for arming vessels, not so much to fight the British warships as to prey upon British commerce. Franklin, as minister to France after 1778, was authorized by Congress to commission vessels to scour the waters for British prizes. [Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN PAUL JONES.]