t he calls a "diary of transactions" that he had
preserved.] It is worthy of note that, while the priest at Kaskaskia
proved so potent an ally of the Americans, the priest at Detroit was one
of the staunchest supporters of the British. Hamilton started with
thirty-six British regulars, under two lieutenants, forty-five Detroit
volunteers (chiefly French), who had been carefully drilled for over a
year, under Captain Lamothe; seventy-nine Detroit militia, under a major
and two captains; and seventeen members of the Indian Department
(including three captains and four lieutenants) who acted with the
Indians. There were thus in all one hundred and seventy-seven whites.
[Footnote: _Do_., Series B., Vol. 122, p. 253, return of forces on Dec.
24th.] Sixty Indians started with the troops from Detroit, but so many
bands joined him on the route that when he reached Vincennes his entire
force amounted to five hundred men. [Footnote: _Do_. Hamilton's letter
of July 6, 1781, the "brief account." Clark's estimate was very close to
the truth; he gave Hamilton six hundred men, four hundred of them
Indians. See State Department MSS., No. 71, Vol. I., p. 247. Papers
Continental Congress. Letter of G. R. Clark to Gov. Henry, April 29,
1779. This letter was written seven months before that to Mason, and
many years before the "Memoir," so I have, where possible, followed it
as being better authority than either.]

Difficulties of the Route.

Having embarked, the troops and Indians paddled down stream to Lake
Erie, reaching it in a snowstorm, and when a lull came they struck
boldly across the lake, making what bateau men still call a "traverse"
of thirty-six miles to the mouth of the Maumee. Darkness overtook them
while still on the lake, and the head boats hung out lights for the
guidance of those astern; but about midnight a gale came up, and the
whole flotilla was nearly swamped, being beached with great difficulty
on an oozy flat close to the mouth of the Maumee. The waters of the
Maumee were low, and the boats were poled slowly up against the current,
reaching the portage point, where there was a large Indian village, on
the 24th of the month. Here a nine miles' carry was made to one of the
sources of the Wabash, called by the voyageurs "la petite riviere." This
stream was so low that the boats could not have gone down it had it not
been for a beaver dam four miles below the landing-place, which backed
up the current. An opening w