, with
three guns and one brass howitzer, were taken in this intrepid attack,
which, as it reduced the Americans from offensive to defensive
operations, was of the greatest importance to the salvation of the Upper
Province. The enemy, however, occupied Fort George till the month of
December, when they were compelled to evacuate it and retreat across the
Niagara.[127] In that month, Colonel Murray surprised, and very
gallantly captured by a night assault, Fort Niagara, which was retained
by the British till the end of the war.

The recovery of Michilimakinack had long been seriously contemplated by
the American government, and would have been attempted in the fall of
1813, but for the lateness of the season, when the expulsion of the
British from the banks of the Detroit had opened the passage into Lake
Huron. On the other hand, the necessity of retaining a post so favorably
situated, if in the hands of an enemy, for annoying the British
north-western trade, pressed itself on Sir George Prevost; and in April,
1814, a reinforcement of about 90 men, under an active and zealous
officer, Lieut.-Colonel M'Douall, was forwarded with military stores and
provisions, by a back route to Michilimakinack. They embarked in
twenty-four bateaux from Nottawassega Bay on Lake Huron, distant 260
miles from Michilimakinack, and, after a very tempestuous passage of
twenty-five days, reached the fort on the 18th of May. On the 26th July,
an American expedition from Lake Erie, consisting of three brigs and two
schooners of war, under Captain Sinclair, with nearly 800 troops on
board, appeared off Michilimakinack, and a landing was effected by them
on the 4th of August. The British force on the island amounted to only
190 men, including regulars, militia, and Indians, with which
Lieut.-Colonel M'Donall repulsed every effort of the Americans to
approach the fort; so that they were glad, to re-embark the same evening
in the utmost haste and confusion, leaving 17 dead on the ground, while
the garrison had only one Indian killed. Captain Sinclair stated what
does not appear to have been known to Lieutenant Hanks, when he
surrendered the island in 1812 to Captain Roberts,[128] "that
Michilimakinack is by nature a perfect Gibraltar, being a high
inaccessible rock on every side,[129] except the west, from which to the
heights you have nearly two miles to pass through a wood so thick, that
our men were shot in every direction, and within a few yards o