Fort Erie and the Mouth of the Niagara, by Pfister, in
1764.
From the original in the British Museum.
Anthony Wayne's army now took full possession of the Niagara region. With the exception of a small strip of land on the river and lake, all the present State of Michigan was occupied by Indians—Pottawattomies, Miamis, Wyandots, Chippewas, Winnebagoes, and Ottawas. The first American commander of the post was Colonel John Francis Hamtramck, who died in 1803. At that period Detroit was headquarters of the Western Army, but the whole garrison only consisted of three hundred men.
Niagara-on-the-Lake may be called the Plymouth Rock of upper Canada. It was once its proud capital. Variously known in the past as Loyal Village, Butlersbury, Nassau, and Newark, it had a daily paper as early as 1792, and was a military post of distinction at the same period, its real beginnings, however, being contemporaneous with the War of Independence. Here, within two short hours' ride of the most populous and busy city of western New York, typical of the material forces that have moulded the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we come upon a spot of intensest quiet, in the shadow of whose ivy-mantled church tower sleep trusted servants of the Georges, Loyalists and their Indian allies.
The place has been overtaken by none of that unpicturesque commercial prosperity which further up the frontier threatens to destroy all the natural beauties of the river-banks.
The Welland Canal and the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railway systems diverted the great part of the carrying trade, and with it that growth and activity which have signalised the neighbouring cities of Canada. "Refuse the Welland Canal entrance to your town," said the Commissioners, "and the grass will grow in your streets." Here General Simcoe opened the first Upper Canadian Legislature; and later, from here the noble Brock planned the defence of Upper Canada. While the cities of western New York, which have now far eclipsed it, were rude log settlements, at "Newark" some little attempt was made at decorum and society.
Here landed in 1783-'84 ten thousand United Empire Loyalists, who, to keep inviolate their oaths of allegiance to the King, quitted their freeholds and positions of trust and honour in the States to begin life anew in the unbroken wilds of Upper Canada. History has made us somewhat familiar with the settlement of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by the expatriated Loyalists. Little has been written of the sufferings and privations endured by the "makers" of Upper Canada. Students and specialists who have investigated the story of a flight equalled only by that of the Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes have been led to admire the spirit of unselfish patriotism which led these one hundred thousand fugitives to self-exile. While the Pilgrims came to America leisurely, bringing their household goods and their charters with them, the United Empire Loyalists, it has well been said, "bleeding with the wounds of seven years of war, left ungathered the crops of their rich farms on the Mohawk and in New Jersey, and, stripped of every earthly possession, braved the terrors of the unbroken wilderness from the Mohawk to Lake Ontario." Inhabited to-day by the descendants of these pioneers, the old-fashioned loyalty and conservatism of the Niagara district is the more conspicuous by contrasting it with neighbouring republicanism over the river.
Here, over a century ago, near Fort George, stood the first Parliament House of Upper Canada. Here, seventy years before President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the first United Empire Loyalist Parliament, like the embattled farmers at Concord, "fired a shot heard round the world." For one of the first measures of the exiled patricians was to pass an act forbidding slavery. Few readers know that at Newark, now Niagara, was enacted that law by which Canada became not only the first country in the world to abolish slavery, but, as such, a safe refuge for the fugitive slaves from the Southern States.
General Simcoe, the first governor, was born in 1752 and died in 1806. A landed gentleman of England and likewise a member of the British House of Commons he voluntarily relinquished all the luxuries of his beautiful English home and estates to bury himself in the wilderness of Canada and the Niagara region. As governor-general he exemplified the extremest simplicity. His guard consisted of four soldiers who came from Fort George, close by, to Newark, every morning and returned thither in the evening. Mrs. Simcoe not only performed the duties of wife and mother, but also acted as her husband's secretary. The name of Simcoe is indelibly entered in the history of the development of the Niagara, and it is doubly appropriate that her interesting drawings should illustrate a volume dealing with this region she loved.
Here Cooper is said to have written his admirable novels of border and Indian life, novels which have been devoured by me and millions of readers; it is fair to predict that the stories will be read for another century to come.[29] Many other interesting characters have at different periods made Fort George their abode. In 1780, a handsome house within its enclosure was occupied by General Guy Johnson.
Chapter X
The Hero of Upper Canada
General Isaac Brock, the Hero of Upper Canada, was the kind of man men delight to honour—honest, capable, ambitious, faithful, kind. Nothing less than a tremendous gorge, such as separates Queenston from Lewiston Heights, could keep the people of one nation from knowing and loving this hero of another; since Brock's day this gorge has been spanned by beautiful bridges, and it is full time now, as the centennial of the second war with England approaches, that the appreciation of the characters of the worthy, patriotic heroes of that olden day o'erleap the chasm of bitter rivalry and hostility and become common and genuine to the northward and the southward of the Niagara.
Isaac Brock was the eighth son of John Brock, Esq., born on the sixth day of October, 1769, in the parish of St. Peter-Port, Guernsey—the famous birth-year of Wellington and Napoleon. Tall, robust, and mentally conspicuous as a lad, Isaac followed his elder brother into the British Army, purchasing the ensigncy in the 8th, or King's Regiment, in 1785. His promotion was the result of merit in addition to possessing the means to purchase higher office; in 1790 we find him a lieutenant in the 49th Regiment, advancing to his majority in 1795 and two years later becoming senior lieutenant-colonel. Supplanting now an officer accused of peculation who had brought the whole regiment into public notice, Brock exerted an influence that seemed to transform the regiment, making it "from one of the worst," said the Duke of York himself, "one of the best regiments in the service."
Major-General Brock.
The opportunity of active service soon came, as the 49th was thrown into Holland, Brock being wounded at Egmont-op-Zee, or Bergen. His simple statement concerning being struck in the breast by a spent bullet is interesting: "I got knocked down soon after the enemy began to retreat," he remarks, "but never quitted the field, and returned to my duty in less than half an hour."[30] Here Brock fought under Sir John Moore and Sir Ralph Abercrombie; in 1801 he was second in command of the land forces at Copenhagen and saw Lord Nelson on the Elephant write his famous letter to the Crown Prince of Denmark. During the next year the 49th was sent to Canada and was quartered at Fort George near Newark, the present Niagara-on-the-Lake. The character of Brock's management of the troops under him is well illustrated in the case of a strange mutiny that came near to breaking out at this time at Fort George due to the useless annoyance, or alleged actual severity, which so exasperated the men that an almost inconceivable plot to kill the officers was discovered. After the crime the soldiers were to cross the river into the United States and escape. One of the confederates was sent by the commanding officer to Brock at York with a letter describing the horrifying discovery. The incensed commander compelled the soldier at the point of a musket to disclose the chief conspirators. Hastening to Fort George the ringleaders were apprehended at the dinner table and hurried off to Quebec, where they were summarily shot. As a result Brock himself was ordered to make Fort George his headquarters, whereupon all trouble seems to have ceased.
In 1805 Brock received his colonelcy and with it leave of absence. While at home he made a report to the commander-in-chief which throws an interesting light on affairs at that period, favouring the formation of a veteran battalion for service in Upper Canada. He wrote:
The artifices employed to wean the soldier from his duty, conspire to render almost ineffectual every effort of the officers to maintain the usual degree of order and discipline. The lures to desertion continually thrown out by the Americans, and the facility with which it can be accomplished, exacting a more than ordinary precaution on the part of the officers, insensibly produces mistrust between them and the men, highly prejudicial to the service.
Experience has taught me that no regular regiment, however high its claim to discipline, can occupy the frontier posts of Lower and Upper Canada without suffering materially in its numbers. It might have been otherwise some years ago; but now that the country, particularly the opposite shore, is chiefly inhabited by the vilest characters, who have an interest in debauching the soldier from his duty; since roads are opened into the interior of the States, which facilitate desertion, it is impossible to avoid the contagion. A total change must be effected in the minds and views of those who may hereafter be sent on this duty, before the evil can be surmounted.[31]
Such was the warlike tenor of despatches now at hand from Canada that Brock, eager to be at the post of duty at a critical time, hastened from London in June, 1806, cutting short his leave of absence. Throughout that year and its successor he was actively engaged in studying his province with regard to military demands that might suddenly be made upon it; it is noteworthy that the commander feared that in case of an outbreak between England and America a considerable part of the inhabitants of Upper Canada (Loyalists) would prove friendly to the young Republic. Discussing a new militia law he wrote as follows to the Council:
In thus complying with the dictates of his duty, Colonel Brock was not prepared to hear that the population of the province, instead of affording him ready and effectual support, might probably add to the number of his enemies; and he feels much disappointment in being informed by the first authority, that the only law in any degree calculated to answer the end proposed was likely, if attempted to be enforced, to meet with such general opposition as to require the aid of the military to give it even a momentary impulse.
If such were the apprehensions of the commanding officer in Canada little wonder General Hull, in later days, counted on the co-operation of many of the inhabitants of the trans-Niagara country. In September, 1807, Brock, who was acting-governor in Canada pending the arrival of Sir James Craig, was fortifying Quebec in anticipation of an immediate outbreak of the impending war. In this connection a little incident displays his character. He had caused to be erected at Quebec a very powerful battery, and of it he wrote his brothers:
I erected . . . a famous battery, which the public voice named after me; but Sir James, thinking very properly that anything so very pre-eminent should be distinguished by the most exalted appellation, has called it the King's Battery, the greatest compliment, I conceive, that he could pay to my judgment.
The true modesty of the really great man shines out in these charming words.
As the war cloud seemed to dissipate toward the close of 1808, General Brock seems to have set his eyes toward Europe in the hope of opportunity of active service; on November 19th he writes quite despondently:
My object is to get home as soon as I can obtain permission; but unless our affairs with America be amicably adjusted, of which I see no probability, I scarcely can expect to be permitted to move. I rejoice Savery [Brock] has begun to exert himself to get me appointed to a more active situation. I must see service, or I may as well, and indeed much better, quit the army at once, for no one advantage can I reasonably look to hereafter if I remain buried in this inactive, remote corner, without the least mention being made of me.
It is exceedingly noticeable that Brock now seems to pin all his hope to being recalled in order that he might win his laurels in the tremendously spectacular campaigns against Napoleon in Spain. From his letters we learn that the French-Canadians looked for the Corsican's ultimate triumph and his final possession of Canada itself, and adds that under like circumstances Englishmen would be even more restless under French rule than the French-Canadians were under English; "Every victory which Napoleon has gained," he observes, "for the last nine years has made the disposition here to resist more manifest."
In the middle of July Brock writes his sister-in-law, Mrs. William Brock, that the die is cast and that he is ordered to Upper Canada. If it is character, rather than mere performance that, in the last analysis, gives every man his historic position in the annals of the world, the truth is nowhere better shown than here in the case of this splendid Canadian hero. Could his Governor have spared him Brock would have, ere this, been at home or en route to Spain and fame; but the conditions demanded a strong, diplomatic officer at Fort George, and there was nothing for it but that Brock must go; and there followed war—and bloody Queenston Heights. "Since I cannot get to Europe," are his gloomy words, "I care little where I am placed."
By September 13th he is writing his brothers from Fort George, but still hinting of his hopes to get leave to return to England eventually. What an out-of-the-way place for fame to seek and find a man—a man repining that he cannot go in search of her! Yet he writes: "I should stand evidently in my own light if I did not court fortune elsewhere." The attitude of Sir James Craig in the matter of his transfer to the European service was candidly stated by a letter from Colonel Baynes as follows:
In reply to an observation of mine, that you regretted the inactive prospect before you, and looked with envy on those employed in Spain and Portugal, he said: "I make no doubt of it, but I can in no shape aid his plans in that respect; I would not, however, be the means of preventing them, and although from his local knowledge I should regret losing him in this country, yet I would not oppose it if he could obtain an appointment to the staff on service; but in that case I would ask for another general officer being sent in his place immediately to Upper Canada." I tell you this, my dear general, without reserve, and give you, as far as I can recollect, Sir James's words. If he liked you less, he might, perhaps, be more readily induced to let you go; as matters stand, I do not think he will, although I am convinced that he will feel very sincere regret in refusing you on a subject upon which you appear to be so anxious.
In his correspondence we now and then get a glimpse of the General's tastes and inclinations; that he was not a frugal entertainer we have considerable proof,[32] likewise evidence of his temperate tastes. In his lonely life by the Niagara he had recourse to such books as were to be found.
But books are scarce [he writes], and I hate borrowing. I like to read a book quickly, and afterwards revert to such passages as have made the deepest impression, and which appear to me most important to remember—a practice I cannot conveniently pursue unless the book be mine. Should you find that I am likely to remain here, I wish you to send me some choice authors in history, particularly ancient, with maps, and the best translations of ancient works. I read in my youth Pope's Translation of Homer, but till lately never discovered its exquisite beauties. As I grow old, I acquire a taste for study. I firmly believe that the same propensity was always inherent in me, but, strange to tell, although many were paid extravagantly, I never had the advantage of a master to guide and encourage me. But it is now too late to repine. I rejoice that my nephews are more fortunate.
Colonel Vesey, writing to Brock, states that he regrets not having a daughter of marriageable age. "You should be married," runs the letter, "particularly as fate seems to detain you so long in Canada—but pray do not marry there." In another letter, dated Portsmouth, June 10, 1811, the same correspondent refers to Brock's appointment as Major-General. Oddly enough General Vesey says, referring to his friend's probable future: "It may perhaps be your fate to go to the Mediterranean, but the Peninsula is the most direct road to the honour of the Bath, and as you are an ambitious man, that is the station you should prefer. . . ." Only sixteen months from the day this letter was written Brock was gazetted Knight of the Bath—the lonely, patient, splendid man winning the great honour in the very land he was longing so sincerely to leave. On October 17th a communication from Lieutenant-Colonel Torrens gives General Brock permission to return to England, but it was too late; both honour and necessity demanded his presence in Canada as the exciting days of 1812 drew on apace.
A Plan of Fort Niagara after English Occupation, by Montresor.
At the outbreak of hostilities in this year the United States embraced an immense territory, extending from the St. Lawrence to Mexico, excepting Florida—which remained in the possession of Spain until 1819—and from the Atlantic indefinitely westward to the Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast, afterwards acquired by the United States. The total population of the United States was upwards of eight million souls, of whom a million and a half were negro slaves in the South. Large wastes of wild land lay between the Canadian settlements and the thickly populated sections of New England, New York, and Ohio. It was only with great difficulty and expense that men, munitions of war, and provisions could be brought to the frontier during the contest.
The principal causes of the war are quite intelligible to the historical student. Great Britain was engaged in a great conflict at the beginning of the nineteenth century, not only for her own national security but also for the integrity of Europe, then threatened by the insatiable ambition of Bonaparte. It was on the sea that her strength mainly lay. To ensure her maritime supremacy England reserved the right of searching neutral, especially American, vessels. This so-called right meant that wherever an English warship met American merchantmen or war-vessels, the latter were required to stop, order their men on deck, and permit as many sailors to be seized and forced into the English service as were unable to prove their nationality. It was maintained that only deserters from the English navy were wanted; but in the period from 1796 to 1802, nearly two thousand American seamen were pressed into the English naval service on the plea that they were deserters. Likewise England became jealous of American trade. French, Spanish, and even English traders raised the American flag in order to get the advantages of neutrals. Thus it appeared that English commerce would fall into the hands of her rivals. It cannot be denied that illicit trade and outrages were really committed and brought back to American doors. The Lion roared. English vessels were stationed just outside the ports of more or less importance to the United States. British cruisers virtually blocked the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia. Then happened the Chesapeake affair. On June 27, 1803, the British war-vessel Leopard signalled the Chesapeake to stop as she was leaving Norfolk Harbour. An officer was sent on board, but Commodore Barron refused to muster his men. The Leopard thereupon opened fire, took the Chesapeake by surprise, three men being killed and eighteen wounded. One Englishman was found when the search was completed; nevertheless, three American sailors (one being a negro) were taken away. This affair excited the American people almost beyond precedent. Indignation meetings were held all over. War soon became the cry. President Jefferson sent an agent to England to demand reparation for the attack on the Chesapeake, but England paid no attention to the President's representations.
The Embargo Act of President Jefferson and similar measures solved none of the difficulties they were intended to solve. The South suffered much hardship, tobacco and wheat shrinking to one-half their former value.
Then came the Little Belt affair, when, in May, 1811, the United States frigate President encountered the British sloop Little Belt, and, after a hot chase of several hours practically annihilated her. Never was news more welcome to American ears, and the Chesapeake affair had been revenged. But the incident did not help to improve the situation. Lastly it was generally believed that England instigated the Indian attacks which led to the battle of Tippecanoe, where the Americans, under General William Henry Harrison, gained a complete victory, to which our readers' attention will be directed later.
All these causes would, perhaps, have been ineffective but for the revolution in the following year which took place in the American Republican party—the controlling party since 1801. Henry Clay of Kentucky, and John S. Calhoun of South Carolina, advocated war; others followed and President Madison joined them. They hoped to compel Europe to respect the American flag; they had confidence in the young Republic; they dreamed, perhaps, of an alliance with France, of an annexation of Canada. After long and stormy debates war was declared June 18th, the invasion of Canada had already begun!
The War of 1812 officially commenced on June 18th. Great Britain, indeed, had extended a reconciliatory hand but it was too late. The army of the United States numbered at that time 6744 regulars. Congress had authorised its increase to 25,000, and provided, at least by law, for a second volunteer army of 50,000 men. The militia of several States was likewise called on to co-operate with the regulars and the volunteers. But the result was very unsatisfactory. The regular army during the war never reached 10,000; the volunteers appeared only in small numbers, and the militia offered to serve only for short terms and preferably in their own States. The Treasury, with its "sinews of war" was in a precarious condition. The Union had to resort to loans to which the capitalists did not respond with alacrity. On the other hand the British troops in Canada numbered barely seven thousand men; their line of defence was one thousand miles long. England was contending in Europe with her great enemy, Napoleon. The English Navy was, however, the undisputed mistress of all the seas; the British North Atlantic Squadron counted three battleships, twenty cruisers, and fifty smaller ships.
The mind of the man who had been unwittingly awaiting the impossible in the Upper Province for so many gloomy months is well displayed now in a letter written to headquarters at the first intimation of the declaration of war which reached him through round-about sources:
Fort George, July 3, 1812.
I have been anxiously expecting for some days to receive the honour of your excellency's commands in regard to the measures the most proper to be pursued on the present emergency.
The accounts received, first through a mercantile channel, and soon after repeated from various quarters, of war having been declared by the United States against Great Britain, would have justified, in my opinion, offensive operations. But the reflection that at Detroit and Michilimakinack the weak state of the garrisons would prevent the commanders from accomplishing any essential service, connected in any degree with their future security, and that my means of annoyance on this communication were limited to the reduction of Fort Niagara, which could easily be battered at any future period, I relinquished my original intention, and attended only to defensive measures. My first object has been the calling out of the flank companies of militia, which has produced a force on this line of about eight hundred men. They turned out very cheerfully, but already show a spirit of impatience. The king's stores are now at so low an ebb, that they scarcely furnish any article of use or comfort. Blankets, hammocks, and kettles, are all to be purchased; and the troops, when watching the banks of the river, stand in the utmost need of tents. Mr. Couche has adopted the most efficacious means to pay the militia in paper currency. I cannot positively state the number of militia that will be embodied, but they cannot exceed throughout the province four thousand men.
The Americans are very active on the opposite side, in the erection of redoubts; we are not idle on our part, but unfortunately having supplied Amherstburg with the guns which that post required from Fort George, depending upon getting others from Kingston to supply their place, we find ourselves at this moment rather short of that essential arm. I have, however, every reason to think that they are embarked on board the Earl Moira, which vessel, according to Major M'Pherson's report, was to have sailed on the 28th ultimo. The Americans have, I believe, about 1200 regulars and militia between Fort Niagara and Black Rock, and I consider myself at this moment perfectly safe against any attempt they can make. About one hundred Indians from the Grand River have attended to my summons; the remainder promise to come also, but I have too much reason to conclude that the Americans have been too successful in their endeavours to sow dissension and disaffection among them. It is a great object to get this fickle race interspersed among the troops. I should be unwilling, in the event of a retreat, to have three or four hundred of them hanging on my flank. I shall probably have to sacrifice some money to gain them over, and the appointment of a few officers with salaries will be absolutely necessary.
The Americans make a daily parade of their force, and easily impose on the people on this side in regard to their numbers. I do not think they exceed 1200, but they are represented as infinitely more numerous.
For the last fortnight every precaution has been taken to guard against the least communication, and to this day we are ignorant whether the President has sanctioned the war resolutions of the two houses of Congress; that is, whether war be actually declared.
I have not been honoured with a line from Mr. Foster,[33] nor with all my endeavours have I been able to retain information of any consequence. The Prince Regent made her first voyage this morning, and I purpose sending her to Kingston this evening, to bring such articles as are absolutely necessary, which we know have arrived from Quebec. I trust she will out-sail the Oneida brig.
The arrival of General Hull at Detroit and his "invasion" of Canada followed hard on the declaration of war; as a preliminary step previous to invasion he issued the Proclamation for which he was afterward so roundly scored. The proclamation was really an invitation to all disaffected persons in the Upper Provinces to join Hull's army. That it had no more success than it did, was due, it may be believed, to the personal magnetism of the able man in control of affairs—to the trust that the people had as a whole in General Brock. To counteract Hull's proclamation Brock replied in one of his own, and it contains several statements of interest as displaying the character of its author:
The unprovoked declaration of war by the United States of America against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and its dependencies, has been followed by the actual invasion of this province, in a remote frontier of the western district, by a detachment of the armed force of the United States.
The officer commanding that detachment has thought proper to invite his majesty's subjects, not merely to a quiet and unresisting submission, but insults them with a call to seek voluntarily the protection of his government.
Without condescending to repeat the illiberal epithets bestowed in this appeal of the American commander to the people of Upper Canada, on the administration of his majesty, every inhabitant of the province is desired to seek the confutation of such indecent slander in the review of his own particular circumstances. Where is the Canadian subject who can truly affirm to himself that he has been injured by the government, in his person, his property, or his liberty? Where is to be found, in any part of the world, a growth so rapid in prosperity and wealth, as this colony exhibits? Settled not thirty years, by a band of veterans, exiled from their former possessions on account of their loyalty, not a descendant of these brave people is to be found, who, under the fostering liberality of their sovereign, has not acquired a property and means of enjoyment superior to what were possessed by their ancestors.
"Navy Hall Opposite Niagara."
A drawing on bark by Mrs. Simcoe.
The unequalled prosperity would not have been attained by the utmost liberality of the government, or the persevering industry of the people, had not the maritime power of the mother-country secured to its colonists a safe access to every market, where the produce of their labour was in request.
The unavoidable and immediate consequences of a separation from Great Britain must be the loss of this inestimable advantage; and what is offered you in exchange? To become a territory of the United States, and share with them that exclusion from the ocean which the policy of their government enforces; you are not even flattered with a participation of their boasted independence; and it is but too obvious that, once estranged from the powerful protection of the United Kingdom, you must be re-annexed to the dominion of France, from which the provinces of Canada were wrested by the arms of Great Britain, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, from no other motive than to relieve her ungrateful children from the oppression of a cruel neighbour. This restitution of Canada to the empire of France, was the stipulated reward for the aid afforded to the revolted colonies, now the United States; the debt is still due, and there can be no doubt but the pledge has been renewed as a consideration for commercial advantages, or rather for an expected relaxation in the tyranny of France over the commercial world. Are you prepared, inhabitants of Canada, to become willing subjects, or rather slaves, to the despot who rules the nations of continental Europe with a rod of iron? If not, arise in a body, exert your energies, co-operate cordially with the King's regular forces to repel the invader, and do not give cause to your children, when groaning under the oppression of a foreign master, to reproach you with having so easily parted with the richest inheritance of this earth—a participation in the name, character, and freedom of Britons!
The same spirit of justice, which will make every reasonable allowance for the unsuccessful efforts of zeal and loyalty, will not fail to punish the defalcation of principle. Every Canadian freeholder is, by deliberate choice, bound by the most solemn oaths to defend the monarchy, as well as his own property; to shrink from that engagement is a treason not to be forgiven. Let no man suppose that if, in this unexpected struggle, his majesty's arms should be compelled to yield to an overwhelming force, the province will be eventually abandoned; the endeared relations of its first settlers, the intrinsic value of its commerce, and the pretensions of its powerful rival to possess the Canadas, are pledges that no peace will be established between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland, of which the restoration of these provinces does not make the most prominent condition.
Be not dismayed at the unjustifiable threat of the commander of the enemy's forces to refuse quarter, should an Indian appear in the ranks. The brave bands of aborigines which inhabit this colony were, like his Majesty's other subjects, punished for their zeal and fidelity, by the loss of their possessions in the late colonies, and requited by his Majesty with lands of superior value in this province. The faith of the British government has never yet been violated—the Indians feel that the soil they inherit is to them and their posterity protected from the base arts so frequently devised to over-reach their simplicity. By what new principle are they to be prohibited from defending their property? If their warfare, from being different to that of the white people, be more terrific to the enemy, let him retrace his steps—they seek him not—and cannot expect to find women and children in an invading army. But they are men, and have equal rights with all other men to defend themselves and their property when invaded, more especially when they find in the enemy's camp a ferocious and mortal foe; using the same warfare which the American commander affects to reprobate.
This inconsistent and unjustifiable threat of refusing quarter, for such a cause as being found in arms with a brother sufferer, in defence of invaded rights, must be exercised with the certain assurance of retaliation, not only in the limited operations of war in this part of the King's dominions, but in every quarter of the globe; for the national character of Britain is not less distinguished for humanity than strict retributive justice, which will consider the execution of this inhuman threat as deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending power must make expiation.
Few men ever had the task that General Brock now essayed thrown upon their shoulders. With some fifteen hundred men he had to occupy the forts St. Joseph, Amherstburg (Malden), Chippewa, Erie, and George, together with York (Toronto) and Kingston; maintain British supremacy, if possible, on three great lakes; preserve the long communication and defend a frontier eight hundred and more miles in length. And it is to be remembered that even in time of peace there had been no little trouble in keeping the British regulars from deserting to the American side of the Niagara—probably to take advantage of the splendid agricultural and commercial opportunities in the West just then being thrown open to the pioneer hosts and to which Easterners were flocking "in shoals," as one observer put it. His position was the more peculiar because of the nature of the larger portion of the inhabitants of the upper province, the loyalists. Having fled from the United States in the hours of the Revolution, fancy now the thoughts of these honest people as they faced the prospect of their land of refuge being invaded by an army from the land below the lakes! Seldom did a people have more cause for apprehension; seldom did the inhabitants of an invaded land look less for commiseration on the part of the invaders. The result was that a very few fled back again to the land of their birth; but the vast majority resolved to trust the issue to Providence—and these looked to General Brock to preserve the land.
The situation was unique and gave the man at the helm a singular opportunity to prove himself and win the deathless devotion of a whole people. Little wonder that the man who proved himself equal to this critical hour will forever be known as "The Hero of Upper Canada."
Brigadier-General Hull had advanced into Upper Canada from Detroit early in July, but it was not until the capture of Hull's despatches by Colonel Proctor in the affair near Brownsville when Van Horne's party was ambushed that Brock planned to execute the daring advance which ended in the astonishing capture of Detroit and Hull's entire army. On the 6th of August Brock departed from York, with five hundred additional volunteers, largely sons of loyalists, who were very true to their adopted country in this crisis—or, perhaps we should say, loyal to this brave leader in whom were suddenly found the qualities required by the extraordinary occasion. Being compelled to leave a part of the little force he was leading westward along the Niagara River, General Brock reached Amherstburg (Malden) in five days and nights with some three hundred followers. It is plain on this showing that whatever the result of the bold enterprise there was now no hesitation in carrying it out. Tecumseh's salute in his honour was suppressed as quickly as possible, such was the scarcity of powder! There is something pathetically interesting in two despatches issued by Brock on two successive days,—August 14th and 15th. One was an appeal to his troops to prevent desertion among the country folk who felt it imperative to get in their crops; the other was an ultimatum to Hull summoning him to surrender. The incongruity of the two epistles is almost amusing, especially when it is remembered that the British had very little powder and a force smaller than that opposed to it beyond the Detroit River. And yet the bombastic order reads:
The force at my disposal authorises me to require of you the immediate surrender of Fort Detroit. It is far from my inclination to join in a war of extermination; but you must be aware that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops will be beyond my control the moment the contest commences. You will find me disposed to enter into such conditions as will satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honour. Lieut.-Colonel M'Donell and Major Glegg are fully authorised to conclude any arrangement that may lead to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood.
An answer of bold and frank tenor from Hull was received by the desperate Brock, who immediately chose his course; there was nothing for it but to retreat or attack the enemies' position; he could not sit still; he was in George Rogers Clark's shoes at Kaskaskia a generation before when Hamilton had captured Vincennes—he must capture Hull or be captured by Hull. It was true to the kind of man he was that Brock should spurn the advice of his officers to retreat and should determine, despite their objections, to put his threat into execution. On Sunday, the 16th of August, Brock's determined men were crossing the Strait. His force included less than four hundred regulars and about that many militia supported by some six hundred Indians. The American troops numbered upwards of two thousand. As is well known Brock received notification as his force was moving upon the fort that General Hull was ready to treat with him. The resolute deportment of the desperate Brock had won for him and his King a bloodless conquest that will go down in history as one of the most heroic on the part of one commander and most despicable on the part of the other to be found in the annals of warfare. Congressmen who had been boasting in debate that it was unnecessary to even send troops into the Canadas since officers alone, by appearing there, could rally armies of disaffected persons about them, now read that one determined man, acting against the advice of his officers had appeared at the gates of Detroit with half an army and taken its keys as readily as though they were voted to him by the city fathers and brought to him on a silver salver. "We have the Canadas," rang the silvery voice of Henry Clay in Congress, "as much under our command as Great Britain has the ocean; and the way to conquer her on the ocean is to drive her from the land." No one could have more completely misjudged an enemy or his own country as did the great Kentuckian in this instance.
It is interesting in the extreme to survey the man who had won a signal triumph as he now marches back to York and Fort George where he had spent so many useless, fruitless years, as it seemed to him—yearning in season and out of season for the opportunity to get away to the Peninsula, or somewhere where fame might be achieved. Brock's success is a great lesson to all ambitious men. Doing the humble drudgery of the duty that lay next his hand, despite the regret and even pain occasioned by lack of opportunity, this man suddenly came into a fame world-wide and the honour of the Bath that he thought could come to him only in sunny Spain. On the 10th of the following October General Brock's brother William was asked by his wife why the park and tower guns were saluting. "For Isaac, of course," he answered, playfully; "don't you know that this is Isaac's birthday?" A little later he learned that the news of the surrender of Detroit had just been received, and that his playful answer was very near the truth after all!
Queenston and Brock's Monument.
From a photograph by Wm. Quinn, Niagara-on-the-Lake.
It is fruitless to imagine what might have been the trend of events in Canada but for the daring decision made by Brock to move upon Detroit; his courage in running in the teeth of the wind and trusting to Providence to fetch the quay by hook or crook, is the very quality of the human heart that mankind most delights to honour; it is remarkable that the imbecility of Hull could have so completely blinded our American eyes to this display of splendid daring of Brock's, which ranks with Clark's bold march through the drowned lands of the Wabash, or Wayne's attack on Stony Point. The capture of Hull and Detroit unquestionably saved Upper Canada to England; for though American arms were successful to some degree beyond the line, as we shall see, the successes did not count toward conquest and annexation as would have been the case, perhaps, had they come at the outbreak of the war. All Canada felt the heartening effect of Brock's inexplicable victory; thousands who had feared instant and ruthless invasion now felt strong to repel any and all invaders; and the effect extended to the Indian allies and across the ocean to the home-country, as well. Had Clay's theory been true and the war had to be settled by land battles, Detroit would have delayed the end for many years; but America was soon to show a power on the sea as surprising as the stupidity of some of her commanders on shore and play England at her own sea-dog game with her own weapons and gain the victory.
The General's letter to his brothers is interesting as exhibiting the man's private views on his great success:
I have received [he writes] so many letters from people whose opinion I value, expressive of their admiration of the exploit, that I begin to attach to it more importance than I was at first inclined. Should the affair be viewed in England in the light it is here, I cannot fail of meeting reward, and escaping the horror of being placed high on a shelf, never to be taken down. Some say that nothing could be more desperate than the measure; but I answer, that the state of the province admitted of nothing but desperate remedies. I got possession of the letters my antagonist addressed to the secretary of war, and also of the sentiments which hundreds of his army uttered to their friends. Confidence in the General was gone, and evident despondency prevailed throughout. I have succeeded beyond expectation. I crossed the river, contrary to the opinion of Colonel Proctor, . . . etc.[34]; it is, therefore, no wonder that envy should attribute to good fortune what, in justice to my own discernment, I must say, proceeded from a cool calculation of the pours and contres.
General Brock, along with most other British leaders who operated along the American frontier, has been accused of using the savages to fight in savage ways the battles of white men against fellow whites. Rossiter Johnson, in his War of 1812, to cite one of the careful students who has thus referred to Brock, in speaking of the minute-guns fired on the American shore during Brock's funeral, says: