s militia rank,
and will be liable to be superseded by any lieutenant-colonel
your excellency may be pleased to appoint.

The expense of defending this province will unquestionably be
great; upon a rough calculation, and supposing that 4,000
militia be constantly embodied, it cannot be estimated at less
than L140,000 per annum. However great the sum, it will be
applied to very considerable advantage, provided your
excellency be enabled to send reinforcements, as without them
it is scarcely possible that the government of the United
States will be so inactive or supine as to permit the present
limited force to remain in possession of the country. Whatever
can be done to preserve it, or to delay its fall, your
excellency may rest assured will be exerted.

Having been suddenly called away from York, I had not time to
close my dispatch, giving your excellency an account of my
proceedings during my stay at Amherstburg. I now have the
honor to forward two documents, detailing the steps taken by
the Indian department to prevail on that unfortunate people to
accommodate their differences with the American government.

_Extract from an American Newspaper_.

BUFFALO, July 14, 1812.

Major-General Brock is at present at Newark, superintending
the various defences on the river. He is stated to be an able
and experienced officer, with undoubted courage. He came from
Little York soon after hearing the declaration of war, and, it
was believed, with a serious intention of attacking Fort
Niagara, but, contrary to what has been reported, he made no
demand of a surrender.

Expecting a descent from the American army, the Canadians
have, for ten days past, been removing their families and
effects from the river into the interior. At Newark,
Queenston, and other villages on the river, there are no
inhabitants except a few civilians and officers and soldiers.
It is even said, that an immense quantity of specie, plate,
&c, from various parts of the province, have been boxed up,
and destined for Quebec.

The British are understood to have about six or seven hundred
regular troops stationed between the lakes, from Fort George
to Fort Erie. These men are generally those who have "seen
service" in various parts of the world. The militia of the
province are ordered out _en masse