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Nothing, however, but honour was gained by this victory. The communication was opened no farther than the points of their bayonets extended; and the necessary care of the sick and wounded, and a severe storm of rain, rendered their return to camp indispensably necessary. Boats had been sent from Detroit to transport the wounded thither by water; but the attempt was found impracticable. The boats being descried from Malden, the Hunter and Queen Charlotte were despatched in pursuit, and they were forced to convey the wounded from the boats into the woods, and there leave them until waggons could be procured from Detroit.

12. It was now determined entirely to abandon Canada, and accordingly the fort at Sandwich was evacuated and destroyed.

Suspicions of treachery in the general, which had begun to arise immediately after the return of the army to Detroit, had now become very prevalent among the troops. A letter was written to governor Meigs of Ohio, by five of the principal officers, begging him instantly to make every effort to open the communication, and informing him of their fears and suspi

cions.

§ 13. On the 14th of August, another attempt was made to penetrate to the river Raisin, where it was understood the detachment from Ohio had arrived with the provisions. Colonels M'Arthur and Cass selected 400 of the most effective men, and set off by an upper route through the woods. The same day the British began to erect batteries opposite Detroit.

On the 15th, general Brock despatched two officers, with a flag of truce, from Sandwich, which had previously been taken possession of by the British, requiring the surrender of Fort Detroit to the arms of his Britannic majesty, and threatening that the Indians would be beyond his controul the moment the contest commenced. General Hull, in his answer, replied, that he was ready to meet any force which might be at his disposal, and any consequences which might result from his exertion of it.

On the return of the flag of truce, the British commenced a fire upon Detroit from their batteries, which was vigorously returned from the American fort. The British continued to fire and throw shells till 10 o'clock that night, and at break of day the firing was renewed on both sides.

14. During the night the ships of war had moved up the river, nearly as high as Detroit, and the British and Indians landed under cover of their guns, and were advancing towards the fort, when general Hull ordered a white flag to be hoisted, and the firing to be discontinued. The firing from the oppo

VOL. II.

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the seamen for the relief of the orphans, by which § 800 were instantly collected for their maintenance and education, to be placed in the hands of suitable trustees for the purpose.

§ 10. But of all the victories which have been achieved by single vessels, perhaps the most brilliant is that which it has now become our most pleasing task to record. At the time of the declaration of war, the Wasp sloop of war, commanded by captain Jacob Jones, was on her passage from Europe, whither she had carried despatches to our ministers in England and France. She arrived in the Delaware a few weeks after that event, and sailed again on a cruize on the 13th of October. On the 16th she experienced a heavy gale, in which she lost her jibboom and two men. On the evening of the following day, about eleven o'clock, in a clear moon-light evening, being then in the track of vessels passing from Bermuda to Halifax, she found herself near five strange sail, steering eastward. "As some of them seemed to be ships of war, it was thought better to get farther from them. The Wasp, therefore, hauled her wind, and having reached a few miles to windward, so as to escape or fight as the occasion might require, followed the strange sail through the night. At day-break on Sunday morning, captain Jones found that they were six large merchant ships, under convoy of a sloop of war, which proved to be the Frolic, captain Whinyates, from Honduras to England, with a convoy, strongly armed and manned, having all forty or fifty men, and two of them mounting sixteen guns each. He determined, however, to attack them, and, as there was a heavy swell of the sea, and the weather boisterous, got down his top-gallant yards, close reefed the top-sails, and prepared for action. About 11 o'clock the Frolic showed Spanish colours; and the Wasp immediately displayed the American ensign and pendant. At 32 minutes past 11, the Wasp came down to windward, on her larboard side, within about sixty yards, and hailed. The enemy hauled down the Spanish colours, hoisted the British ensign, and opened a fire of cannon and musketry-this the Wasp instantly returned; and, coming near to the enemy, the action became close and without intermission. In four or five minutes the maintop-mast of the Wasp was shot away, and falling down with the main-top-sail yard across the larboard fore and fore-top-sail braces, rendered her head yards unmanageable during the rest of the action. In two or three minutes more her gaft and mizentop-gallant-mast were shot away. Still she continued a close and constant fire. The sea was so rough that the muzzles of the Wasp's guns were frequently in the water. The Americans, therefore, fired as the ship's side was going down, so that their shot went either on the enemy's deck or below it, while the

day, 35 years before, viz. the 16th of August, 1777. Twentyfive hundred muskets and rifles, and a considerable quantity of ammunition, likewise fell into their hands.

The reasons stated by general Hull for this unfortunate surrender, were, the great inferiority of his force to that of the enemy, joined to the numerous band of Indians, who were daily increasing in number; the hazardous situation in which the detachment under colonels M'Arthur and Cass was placed; and the impossibility of furnishing his army with the necessary supplies of provisions, military stores, clothing, and comforts for the sick, on pack horses, through a wilderness of 200 miles, filled with hostile savages. The contest, he observes, could not have been sustained more than a day for the want of powder, and but a very few days for the want of provisions. "A large portion," continues he, "of the brave and gallant officers and men I commanded, would cheerfully have contested until the last cartridge had been expended, and the bayonets worn to the sockets. I could not consent to the useless sacrifice of such brave men, when I knew it was impossible for me to sustain my situation."

15. The disasters accompanying this expedition did not end here. On the change of prospects in general Hull's army in Canada, a messenger was despatched to Chicago, or fort Dearborn, situated near the south-west corner of lake Michigan, with orders to captain Heald, to evacuate that post, and proceed with his command, which consisted of 66 men, to Detroit, leaving it to his discretion to dispose of the public property as he thought proper. The neighbouring Indians, hearing that the goods in the factory were to be given to them, crowded into the fort from all quarters. On the 13th of August, captain Wells arrived from fort Wayne, with 30 Miamies, whom he had brought by request of general Hull, for the purpose of escorting the garrison to Detroit. The following day all the goods in the factory store were delivered to the Indians. The surplus arms and ammunition, however, and the spirituous liquors, were destroyed, lest the Indians should make a bad use of them if put into their possession.

On the 15th the garrison commenced their march for Detroit, a part of the Miamies being detached in front, and the remainder in the rear, as guards, under the direction of captain Wells. Their course lay along the beach of lake Michigan, the lake on their left, and a high sand bank on their right, distant about 100 yards. They had not proceeded two miles before they were fired on by the Indians from behind the bank, and an action immediately commenced; but the Miamies giving the garrison no assistance, in fifteen minutes thirty-eight soldiers, two women,

and twelve children were killed, and the Indians had gained possession of all their horses, provisions, and baggage. The remainder were surrounded, and made prisoners. They were then carried back to the fort, and distributed among the different tribes. Next morning the Indians burnt the fort, and carried off their prisoners. The number of Indian warriors in the action was between four and five hundred; their loss about fifteen. Captain Heald and his lady were carried to the mouth of the river St. Joseph, and being both badly wounded, were permitted to reside there with an Indian trader, whence they took an opportunity of going to Michillimackinac, where the captain surrendered himself to the British as a prisoner of war. A lieutenant, twenty-five non-commissioned officers and soldiers, and eleven women and children, were prisoners when the captain separated from them.

By the disastrous issue of this unfortunate expedition of general Hull, besides the loss of men and arms at Detroit, a weak frontier of vast extent was expossed to the brutality of Indian warfare, which continued for twelve months to harass the western settlements, and the territory of Michigan was occupied as a British province.

CHAPTER II.

§ 1. Character of the American navy. § 2. Cruise of the squadron under commodore Rodgers. § 3. Pursuit of the Belvidera. § 4. Escape of the Constitution. 5. Capture of the Guerriere. § 6. Cruise of the Essex. 7. Rodgers' second cruise. 8. The Argus. 9. Capture of the Macedonian. § 10. Capture of the Frolick and Wasp. § 11. Affairs on the lakes. § 12. Capture of the Caledonia and Detroit. § 13. Battle of Queenstown. § 14. Smyth's abortive expedition.

1. FROM the disastrous scenes which followed the first efforts of our arms in the north-west, we turn with pleasure to record the glorious events that have taken place on the ocean. There our gallant tars, strong in spirit, though weak in number, in despite of the thousand ships of the self-styled mistress of the ocean, have triumphantly borne the flag of America through every sea, from the rude and inclement shores of Greenland, to the rich and temperate regions of Chili and Peru. The enemy, with his immense disparity of force, has to boast of but two triumphs over us, whilst we can claim almost as many as we have ships.

But the courage of our tars, though it has achieved victories which have thrown a halo of glory around our little navy, forms by no means the most conspicuous or lovely trait in their charac

Their modesty and disinterestedness, their humanity and liberality to the conquered, have been such as uniformly to extort the grateful acknowledgments of the enemy that they have thus doubly vanquished, and have convinced the world, that the character of bravery which they have acquired does not rest merely on the exertion of physical strength and technical skill.

Nor has the naval glory of America suffered by the few reverses that have taken place. On no occasion has its honour been in the slightest degree tarnished; it has been equally sustained in defeat as in victory; and the clouds of adversity have served but to display its character in a new light, and to show that it is adequate to every emergency.

These remarks do not solely apply to national vessels. The commanders and crews of our privateers have not been outshone either in courage or magnanimity, as has been amply proved by their valorous deeds, and by the numerous public testimonies

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