"The army returned to Detroit. Captain Elliot, of the Niagara, volunteered his services to command a naval expedition against Michilimackinac and fort St. Joseph; but the weather proving unfavorable for a number of days, the season became too far advanced to risk the squadron on lake Huron, till spring.

"Lieutenant Le Breton arrived at Detroit on the 15th bearing a flag, and a letter from General Proctor to General Harrison. This letter requested humane treatment to the prisoners, and a restoration of certain property and papers taken on the 5th. As the letter was addressed to the general, "at Moravian towns," he saw no reason for Le Breton's journey to Detroit, and ordered him to join General Proctor by the way of Buffalo and fort George.

"After the return of the commander-in-chief to Detroit, Walk-in-the-water, who had been in the battle of the Thames, came in to implore peace. When he crossed from Sandwich, the white flag which he bore in his hand had attracted a great crowd to the wharf, all anxious to get a near view of the distinguished chief. I was struck with admiration at the firmness and apparent nonchalance with which he ascended the bank, and passed through the ranks of the Kentucky volunteers, whom he had so gallantly opposed in battle but a few days before. I never saw more real dignity of carriage, or a more striking firmness of countenance. Yet his situation was calculated to depress his spirits and produce humility. His town was in the power of the Americans; the British were all taken; the Indians had just suffered a signal defeat; almost all the other chiefs had submitted; he was without the means of living or resistance: still, his manner was that of a conqueror.

"A few days after Proctor's defeat, the town was so full of famished savages, that the issue of rations to them did not keep pace with their hunger. I have seen the women and children searching the ground for bones and

rinds of pork, which had been thrown away by the soldiers; meat, in a high state of putrefaction, which had been thrown into the river, was carefully picked up and devoured: the feet, heads, and entrails of the cattle slaughtered by the public butchers, were collected and sent off to the neighboring villages. I have counted twenty horses in a drove, fancifully decorated with the offals of the slaughter yard.

"Governor Shelby's corps and the twelve month's volunteers, were all honorably discharged. Traveling became safe, and business at Detroit began to resume its wonted course, but the price current of the territory was exorbitant for every thing to eat, drink, or wear. Whisky sold at four dollars a gallon, beef at twentyfour cents a pound, cheese sixty cents a pound, butter seventy-five; potatoes two dollars a bushel. The army was well supplied with rations, as were also about three hundred of the inhabitants of Michigan, and about two thousand Indians, men, women, and children, who had no other means of subsistence. Adventurers soon came on with a sufficient supply of dry goods.

"On the 23d of October, General Harrison, with all his disposable regular troops, embarked on board the fleet, and sailed for Buffalo, in obedience to the orders from the secretary of war. Previous to his departure, he appointed General Cass provisional governor of the Michigan territory; the civil ordinances, as they stood at Hull's surrender, were proclaimed in force. General Cass was left with about one thousand men, not more than seven hundred of whom were effective. The men were industriously employed in preparing winter quarters at the fort. The Scorpion and Ohio schooners were engaged in transporting the supplies from Erie and Cleveland, for the troops during winter. Troops were stationed at Malden and Sandwich. The campaign closed."*

* Brown's History of the Late War. 1815.

CHAPTER X.

THE winter 1813-14 was sedulously employed by Generals Harrison and McArthur, in providing ways and means to move an army of Ohio and Kentucky troops down lake Erie; that when they should join our northern army, they would form such an overwhelming force as would be able to break down all the enemy's strong holds, from fort Malden to Quebec.

The number of volunteers and militia called into service by General Harrison, had created a debt of large amount. The then secretary of war complained loudly of the expensive manner in which the war was conducted by the north-western army. General Harrison admitted that he had employed considerable numbers of volunteers and militia; that numbers were requisite to render success certain; that he had succeeded in every object the government expected; that by his success he had afforded peace and security to more than one thousand miles of exposed frontier, on the lakes, on the rivers Wabash and Mississippi. The secretary of war determined not to be satisfied, kept up such a continual grumbling about the expenses of the war, that General Harrison felt sore at his continual complaining, and in disgust resigned the command of the army.

General McArthur being the senior brigadier-general, the command of the north-western army devolved upon him; and with that command his responsibility increased. As this was the first time he was placed in a situation to be in chief command, he must have been proud of his exalted stand among his fellow men. was popular with the army and with the administration; and was determined that no exertions on his part should

He