r of midnight, to the spot
where, at the last expiring rays of twilight, they had beheld her
carelessly anchored, and apparently lulled into security, the subject
of their search was never to be met with. No sooner were objects on the
shore rendered indistinct to the eye, than the anchor was silently
weighed, and, gliding wherever the breeze might choose to carry her,
the light bark was made to traverse the lake, with every sail set,
until dawn. None, however, were suffered to slumber in the presumed
security afforded by this judicious flight. Every man was at his post;
and, while a silence so profound was preserved, that the noise of a
falling pin might have been heard upon her decks, every thing was in
readiness to repel an attack of their enemies, should the vessel, in
her course, come accidentally in collision with their pigmy fleets.
When morning broke, and no sign of their treacherous foes was visible,
the vessel was again anchored, and the majority of the crew suffered to
retire to their hammocks, while the few whose turn of duty it chanced
to be, kept a vigilant look-out, that, on the slightest appearance of
alarm, their slumbering comrades might again be aroused to energy and
action.

Severe and harassing as had been the duty on board this vessel for many
months,--at one moment exposed to the assaults of the savages, at
another assailed by the hurricanes that are so prevalent and so
dangerous on the American lakes,--the situation of the crew was even
less enviable than that of the garrison itself. What chiefly
contributed to their disquietude, was the dreadful consciousness that,
however their present efforts might secure a temporary safety, the
period of their fall was only protracted. A few months more must bring
with them all the severity of the winter of those climes, and then,
blocked up in a sea of ice,--exposed to all the rigour of cold,--all
the miseries of hunger,--what effectual resistance could they oppose to
the numerous bands of Indians who, availing themselves of the
defenceless position of their enemies, would rush from every quarter to
their destruction.

At the outset of these disheartening circumstances the officer had
summoned his faithful crew together, and pointing out the danger and
uncertainty of their position, stated that two chances of escape still
remained to them. The first was, by an attempt to accomplish the
passage of the river Sinclair during some dark and boisterous night,
wh