r two hours at the very closest quarters till Perry's
flagship _Lawrence_ struck to Barclay's own _Detroit_.
But Perry had previously left the _Lawrence_ for the
fresh _Niagara_; and he now bore down on the battered
_Detroit_, which had meanwhile fallen foul of the only
other sizable British vessel, the _Queen Charlotte_. This
was fatal for Barclay. The whole British flotilla
surrendered after a desperate resistance and an utterly
disabling loss. From that time on to the end of the war
Lake Erie remained completely under American control.

Procter could hardly help seeing that he was doomed to
give up the whole Lake Erie region. But he lingered and
was lost. While Harrison was advancing with overwhelming
numbers Procter was still trying to decide when and how
to abandon Amherstburg. Then, when he did go, he carried
with him an inordinate amount of baggage; and he retired
so slowly that Harrison caught and crushed him near
Moravian Town, beside the Thames, on the 5th of October.
Harrison had three thousand exultant Americans in action;
Procter had barely a thousand worn-out, dispirited men,
more than half of them Indians under Tecumseh. The
redcoats, spread out in single rank at open order, were
ridden down by Harrison's cavalry, backed by the mass of
his infantry. The Indians on the inland flank stood longer
and fought with great determination against five times
their numbers till Tecumseh fell. Then they broke and
fled. This was their last great fight and Tecumseh was
their last great leader.

The scene now shifts once more to the Montreal frontier,
which was being threatened by the converging forces of
Hampton from the south and Wilkinson from the west. Each
had about seven thousand men; and their common objective
was the island of Montreal. Hampton crossed the line at
Odelltown on September 20. But he presently moved back
again; and it was not till October 21 that he began his
definite attack by advancing down the left bank of the
Chateauguay, after opening communications with Wilkinson,
who was still near Sackett's Harbour. Hampton naturally
expected to brush aside all the opposition that could be
made by the few hundred British between him and the St
Lawrence. But de Salaberry, the commander of the British
advanced posts, determined to check him near La Fourche,
where several little tributaries of the Chateauguay made
a succession of good positions, if strengthened by abattis
and held by trained defenders.