-power of the Americans told, and the entire British
flotilla was compelled to surrender. This enabled Harrison, who had
been waiting for months in his fortifications, to advance and pursue
Proctor into upper Canada. On October 5 he brought him to action near
the river Thames, winning a complete victory and killing Tecumseh. The
Americans then returned to Detroit, and the Indian war gradually
simmered down, until in August, 1814, the leading tribes made peace.
To the eastward no such decisive action took place. Sir James Yeo and
Commodore Chauncey, commanding the British and American vessels
respectively on Lake Ontario, were each unwilling to risk a battle
without a decisive superiority; and the result was that no serious
engagement occurred. This rendered it impossible for either side to
attain any military success in that region; and so the year 1813 {226}
shows only a succession of raids, a species of activity in which the
British proved much the more daring and efficient. During one of these
affairs, General Dearborn occupied the Canadian town of York, now
Toronto, and burned the public buildings--an act of needless
destruction for which the United States was destined to pay heavily.
Further eastward, General Wilkinson and General Hampton began a joint
invasion of lower Canada, Wilkinson leading a force of over 6,000 men
down the St. Lawrence, Hampton advancing with 4,000 from Lake Champlain
toward the same goal, Montreal. But at Chrystler's Farm, on November
11, the rearguard of Wilkinson's army suffered a thorough defeat at the
hands of a small pursuing force; and Hampton underwent a similar
repulse from an inferior body of French-Canadians under Colonel de
Salaberry, at Chateauguy, on October 25. Finally, Hampton, suspecting
that Armstrong and Wilkinson intended in case of any failure to throw
the blame on him, decided to withdraw, November 11, and Wilkinson
followed. The whole invasion came to an inglorious conclusion.

At sea the uniform success of American cruisers came to a stop, for,
out of four naval duels, two were British victories, notably the taking
of the unlucky _Chesapeake_ by the {227} _Shannon_. Only where
privateers and sloops swept West Indian waters and hung about British
convoys was there much to satisfy American feelings; and all the while
the blockading squadrons cruised at their ease in Chesapeake and
Delaware bays and Long Island Sound. The country was now subjected to
increasin