us precautions for the secrecy and good order of his march. But
the Indians, apprized of his design, were prepared to defeat it, and
every step from the fort only conducted the English troops further into
the jaws of destruction. Their advance was suddenly arrested by a sharp
fire on their front, which was presently followed by a similar discharge
on their rear, and then succeeded by destructive vollies from every
side. In the darkness neither the position nor the numbers of the
Indians could be ascertained. Dalzell was slain early, and his whole
detachment was on the brink of irretrievable confusion and ruin when
Captain Grant, the next in command, perceiving that a retreat, now the
only resource, could only be accomplished by a resolute attack, promptly
rallied the survivors, who, steadily obeying his orders, charged the
Indians with so much spirit and success as to repulse them on all sides
to some distance. Having thus extricated themselves from immediate
peril, the British hastily regained the shelter of the fort, with the
loss of 70 killed and 40 wounded; and the Indians, unable to reduce the
fort by a regular siege, and pausing long enough to ascertain that the
garrison was completely on its guard against stratagem and surprise,
broke up their camp and abandoned the vicinity of Detroit.

The Indians, thus grievously disappointed in their designs on Detroit
and Pittsburg, now closely beleaguered Niagara, which they justly
considered as not less important. They hoped to reduce it by famine, and
on the 14th of September, surrounding a convoy of provisions which had
nearly reached its destination, they succeeded in making it their prey
by a sudden attack, in which 70 of the British soldiers were slain.
Shortly after, as a schooner was crossing Lake Erie with supplies for
Detroit, she was attacked by a numerous fleet of canoes, in which were
nearly 400 Indians. But this attempt was less successful, and, after a
warm engagement, the Indian flotilla was repulsed with considerable
loss, as, in a conflict with an armed vessel, they were exposed to the
same disadvantages which attended their operations against fortified
places. Niagara having at length been powerfully reinforced and well
supplied, the Indians abandoned all hope of reducing it, and thenceforth
confined themselves to their wonted predatory hostility. In the spring
and summer of the following year, the British troops attacked them with
such vigour and success,