The officers did not know how to support their authority; they were very improvident, and one or two became implicated in serious scandals.

The soldiers soon grew turbulent, and there was constant clashing between the civil and military rulers.

Gradually the mass of the Creoles became so angered with the Americans that they wished to lay their grievances before the French Minister at Philadelphia; and many of them crossed the Mississippi and settled under the Spanish flag.

The courts rapidly lost their power, and the worst people, both Americans and Creoles, practised every kind of rascality with impunity.

All decent men joined in clamoring for Clark's return; but it was impossible for him to come back.