Two or three prominent creoles, who were devoted adherents of the American cause, made loans of silver to the Virginian Government, as represented by Clark, thereby helping him materially in the prosecution of his campaign.

Chief among these public-spirited patriots were Francis Vigo, and the priest Gibault, both of them already honorably mentioned.

Vigo advanced nearly nine thousand dollars in specie,--piastres or Spanish milled dollars,--receiving in return bills on the "Agent of Virginia," which came back protested for want of funds; and neither he nor his heirs ever got a dollar of what was due them.

He did even more.

The creoles at first refused to receive any thing but peltries or silver for their goods; they would have nothing to do with the paper, and to all explanations as to its uses, simply answered "that their commandants never made money." [Footnote: Law's "Vincennes," pp.