on either side,--rain and sleet
continuously. Drummond foresaw that the season would compel the
abandonment of Fort Erie, and on November 5, a scout came in with word
that the invaders had crossed to the American side and Fort Erie had
been blown up.

{378} While Drummond is fighting for the very life of Canada along the
Niagara frontier, the war continues in desultory fashion elsewhere.
Kentucky riflemen raid western Ontario from Detroit to Port Dover. Up
on the lakes is a story of the war that reads like a page from border
raiders. American fur traders destroy Sault Ste. Marie. Canadian fur
traders retaliate by swooping on Mississippi fur posts. Out on the
Pacific Coast an English gunboat has captured John Jacob Astor's fur
post on the Columbia; and now in the fall of 1814 the Northwest Fur
Company of Montreal are conveying from Astor's fort the furs, worth
millions of dollars, in canoes across the Upper Lakes to Ottawa River.
Two armed American schooners, hiding on the north shore of Lake Huron,
lie in wait for the gay raiders of the Northwest Company; but at the
Sault the Nor'west voyageurs get wind of the danger. They, in turn,
hide their canoes in some of the blue coves of the north shore. Then,
stealing out at night, in canoes with muffled paddles, the Nor'westers
come on one schooner while the watch is asleep. They board her,
bayonet the crew, "pinion some of the wounded to the decks," and with
the captured vessel sidle up to the other vessel, and, before she is
aware of the new masters on board, have captured her too. Then, scalps
flaunting at the prows of their canoes, the Nor'west fur traders gayly
go their way. Down at Lake Champlain occurs the great fiasco of the
war,--the blot on Canada's escutcheon. Prevost with ten thousand
reenforcements has been ordered by the English Governor to proceed from
Montreal against the Americans by both water and land. While an
English fleet attacks the Americans, Prevost is to lead the troops
against Plattsburg. But the Canadian fleet meets terrible disaster.
The commander is killed by a rebounding cannon ball just as the action
begins; and twelve of the gunboats manned by the hired foreigners
desert _en masse_. The rest of the fleet is literally destroyed.
Instead of seconding attack by a battle on land, Prevost sits behind
his trenches waiting for the little fleet to win the battle for him;
and when the fleet is defeated, Prevost's courage sinks with the {37