Company's Post, at St. Joseph's, that gentleman
patriotically tendered his services. Mr. Pothier, attended by about a
hundred and sixty voyageurs, the greater part of whom were armed with
muskets and fowling pieces, joined Captain Roberts with his detachment
of three artillerymen and thirty soldiers of the line, and in a
flotilla of boats and canoes, accompanied by the North West Company's
brig _Caledonia_, laden with stores and provisions, a descent was
made upon Michillimackinac. They arrived at the enemy's fort, without
having met with the slightest opposition, and summoned it to surrender.
The officer in command of the American fort at once complied. He had
indeed received no certain information that war had been declared. Very
shortly afterwards two vessels, laden with furs, came into the harbour,
ignorant of the capture of the fort, and were taken possession of,
though subsequently restored to their proprietors, by Major-General
DeRottenburgh, the President of the Board of Claims. Unimportant as
this achievement was, it yet had the effect of establishing confidence
in Upper Canada. It had an excellent effect upon the Indian tribes,
with whose aid the struggle with the Americans, was afterwards
efficiently maintained.

Upon the declaration of war, the government of the United States
despatched as skilful an officer, as they had, to arm the American
vessels on Lake Erie, and on Lake Ontario, with the view of gaining,
if possible, the ascendancy on those great inland waters, which
separate a great portion of Canada from the United States. The
American army was distributed in three divisions:--one under General
Harrison called "The North Western Army," a second under General
Stephen Van Rensellaer, at Lewiston, called "The Army of the Centre,"
and a third under the Commander-in-Chief, General Dearborn, in the
neighbourhood of Plattsburgh and Greenbush. As yet the armies had not
been put in motion, but on the 12th of July, General Hull, the
Governor of Michigan, who had been sent, at the head of two thousand
five hundred men, to Detroit, with the view of putting an end to the
hostilities of the Indians in that section of the country, crossed
to Sandwich, established his head-quarters there, and issued a
proclamation to the inhabitants of Canada. He expressed the most
entire confidence of success. The standard of union, he alleged, waved
over the territory of Canada. He tendered the invaluable blessings of
liberty, civ