rs in the United States, and an equal number were
put by the American government into close confinement as hostages for
the security of the traitors.

On the 18th of October, General Smyth assumed the command at Niagara,
and applied to the British general for an armistice; and notwithstanding
the well-known prejudicial effect of the former one proposed by Sir
George Prevost, it was agreed to by Major-General Sheaffe![118] This
unaccountable proceeding, as might easily have been foreseen, proved of
material detriment to the British on Lake Erie, as the Americans availed
themselves of so favorable an occasion to forward their naval stores
unmolested from Black Rock to Presqu'ile by water, which they could not
otherwise have effected, but with immense trouble and expense by land,
and equipped at leisure the fleet which afterwards wrested from us the
command of that lake. When the enemy was prepared for a third invasion
of Upper Canada, General Smyth did not fail to give the thirty hours
notice required for the cessation of the armistice, which terminated on
the 20th of November.

"After the surrender of Detroit," said the inhabitants of Niagara in
their spirited letter to Sir George Prevost, already quoted (page 279),
"the enemy were suffered unmolested to concentrate a large force on the
Niagara, at Sackett's Harbour on Lake Ontario, and at Ogdensburg on the
St. Lawrence; they were not interrupted in bringing forward to these
places a large quantity of field and heavy artillery, with the requisite
supplies of ammunition, and in equipping a flotilla, to dispute with us
the superiority of the lakes. When their preparations were
complete--when our regular and militia forces were nearly exhausted with
incessant watching and fatigue, occasioned by the movements of the
enemy, which kept them constantly on the alert by uncertainty as to the
point of attack--they at length, on the 13th of October, attacked our
line at Queenstown. The behaviour of both regulars and militia on that
memorable occasion is well known to your excellency, and added another
wreath to the laurels they had gained at Detroit: the glories of that
day were, however, obscured by the death of our beloved and now lamented
chief, whose exertions had prepared the means of achieving this great
victory. This was another triumph for the militia; they had fairly
measured their strength with the enemy, and derived additional
confidence from the glorious result. Here w