not more than 1000 Indians in arms at any one time. These Indians went to and fro as they pleased to their country and back, and were very troublesome to the women when their husbands were gone, as they plundered and took what they pleased, and often beat them to force them to give them whiskey, even when they were not in possession of any, and when they saw any man that had not gone to the lines, they called him a Yankee, and threatened to kill him for not going to fight, and indeed in some instances these threats have been put into execution. They acted with great authority and rage when they had stained their hands with human blood.

"The inhabitants at large would have been extremely glad to have got out of their miserable situation at almost any rate, but they dared not venture a rebellion without being sure of protection.

"From the commencement of the war there had been no collection of debts by law in the upper part of the Province and towards the fall in no part, nor would anyone pay another. No person could get credit from anyone to the amount of one dollar, nor could anyone sell any of their property for any price except provisions or clothing, for those who had money were determined to keep it for the last resort. No business was carried on by any person except what was necessary for the times.

"In the upper part of the Province all the schools were broken up and no preaching was heard in all the land. All was gloom, war and misery.

"Upon the declaration of war the Governor laid an embargo on all the flour destined for market, which was at a time when very little had left the Province. The next harvest was truly bountiful as also the crops of corn, buckwheat, and peas, the most of which were gathered except the buckwheat which was on the ground when all the people were called away after the battle of Queenston. Being detained on duty in the fall not one half of the farmers sowed any winter grain."

All supplies from Montreal were cut off by the American fleet being in possession of Lake Ontario from the 8th November until the close of navigation. Flour and salt were scarcely to be purchased at any price and the condition of many families soon became almost too wretched to be endured. It is not surprising then that numbers of those who had no very strong ties to retain them, seized the first opportunity of escape.

Lake Erie was frozen over as early as the 12th of January. A few days later two deserters and three civilians made their way from Point Abino to Buffalo upon the ice. They stated that the British forces were greatly reduced by sickness and desertion and that they did not believe there were more than thirty regulars stationed along the river between Fort Erie and Niagara. In fact several companies of the 41st had been recently despatched to strengthen the garrison of Amherstburg which was again threatened with an attack, and a show of force was kept up by ostentatiously sending out parties along the river in sleighs by day and bringing them back to quarters after dark.

Stimulated by the information derived from these men the commandant at Buffalo projected the surprise of Fort Erie by crossing on the ice, but the desertion of a non-commissioned officer, Sergeant Major Macfarlane, disconcerted his plans.

Late in March the arrival of three families of refugees at Buffalo by the same route is recorded. They confirmed former accounts of want and distress and the weakness of the British garrisons on the Niagara. The American officers were enabled, by information obtained from these and other sources, to estimate with precision the actual force which might be assembled to resist an invasion. But as they failed to make their attacks simultaneously it happened in several instances that they encountered the same troops successively at different places many miles apart. Soldiers of the 41st, who had been present with Brock at the taking of Detroit fought at Queenston on the 13th of October and returned in time to share in the victory at the River Raisin on the 22nd January, 1813. Two companies of the 8th that took part in the assault upon Ogdensburg on the 22nd February, faced the invaders at York on the 27th April and again at Fort George a month later. Finding themselves repeatedly confronted with considerably larger forces than they had been led to expect, the American generals soon ceased to put much confidence in the reports of their spies.

The cabinet had at first designated Kingston, York, and Fort George points of attack in the order named. The attempt upon Kingston was quickly abandoned owing to a false report that the garrison had been largely increased and it was determined to limit the operations of the "Army of the Centre" in the first instance to the reduction of the two latter places.

On the 17th of March, Major General Morgan Lewis, who had been appointed to the command of the division on the Niagara, arrived at Buffalo attended by a numerous staff. At noon of the same day, the batteries at Black Rock began firing across the river and continued the cannonade with little intermission until the evening of the 18th. A few houses were destroyed and seven soldiers killed or wounded near Fort Erie. Three of the American guns were dismounted by the British batteries. A week later the bombardment was resumed with even less result.

York was taken without much difficulty on the 27th April, but it cost the assailants their most promising general and between three and four hundred of their best troops. They ascertained on that occasion that they still had many warm sympathizers in that part of the Province. A letter from an officer who accompanied this expedition, published in the Baltimore Whig at the time, states that "our adherents and friends in Upper Canada suffer greatly in apprehension or active misery. Eighteen or twenty of them who refused to take the oath of allegiance lived last winter in a cave or subterraneous hut near Lake Simcoe. Twenty-five Indians and whites were sent to take them but they killed eighteen of the party and enjoyed their liberty until lately when being worn out with cold and fatigue, they were taken and put in York jail whence we liberated them." Michael Smith corroborates this account in some respects. He relates that twelve days after the battle of Queenston Colonel Graham, on Yonge Street, ordered his battalion to assemble that a number might be drafted to go to Fort George. Forty of them did not come but went out to Whitchurch township which was nearly a wilderness and joined thirty more fugitives that were already there. Some men who were home for a few days from Fort George offered to go and bring them in but as they were not permitted to take arms they failed and the number of fugitives increased by the first of December to 300. When on my way to Kingston to obtain a passport, I saw about fifty of these people near Smith's Creek in the Newcastle District on the main road with fife and drum beating for recruits and huzzaing for Madison. Some of them remained in the woods all winter, but the Indians went out in the spring of 1813 and drove them into their caves where they were taken.

So pronounced was the disaffection among the inhabitants in the vicinity of York, that Chief Justice Powell warned the Governor General that "in the event of any serious disaster to His Majesty's arms little reliance is to be had on the power of the well disposed to depress and keep down the turbulence of the disaffected who are very numerous."

On the 29th of April, the capture of York became known at Fort George and the boats and stores deposited at Burlington were removed to a place of safety. On the 8th of May the American fleet came over to Fort Niagara and landed the brigade of troops that had been employed in reduction of York. Although victorious they were described by General Dearborn as being sickly and low spirited. Next day