APPENDIX III



  The original of the document known as Clark's Me-
moir is in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical
Society. It consists of one hundred and twenty-eight
pages of manuscript and gives a detailed account of
affairs in the West between the years 1775 and 1779
inclusive. Many early writers on this period have ac-
cepted this narrative of events by Clark as trustworthy.
But numerous authors of more recent date and notably
Theodore Roosevelt in his Winning of the West assert
that there is evidence in the Memoir of errors and exag-
geration due to the desire on the part of the writer "of
trying to increase the dramatic effect of the situation."
"It was written," wrote Mr. Roosevelt, "at the desire
of Presidents Jefferson and Madison; and therefore
some thirty or forty years after the events of which it
speaks ..     It undoubtedly contains some rather
serious errors." 1
  While it would be futile to attempt to prove that the
Memoir is wholly trustworthy, it is regarded as worth
the effort to try to determine what portions may be
approved. In the correspondence carried on between
Clark and John Brown, delegate in Congress from
Kentucky, it is shown that at least one hundred pages,
the greater part of the Memoir, were written in the
rears 1789 and 1790. The essential portions of these
letters are here given.
lRoosevelt, lWinning of the W1est, ii., 36, n., 44, 47, n., 55, 57, 63, n.



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