f August 12 attacked the American
schooners, as Worsley afterwards did the "Tigress" and "Scorpion." The
"Ohio" and "Somers," each with a crew of thirty-five men, were carried
and brought successfully down the river within the British lines.
Dobbs attributed the escape of the "Porcupine" to the cables of the
two others being cut, in consequence of which they with the victorious
assailants on board drifted beyond possibility of return.[345] To
these four captures by the enemy must be added the loss by accident of
the "Caledonia"[346] and "Ariel," reported by Sinclair about this
time. Perry's fleet was thus disappearing by driblets; but the command
of the lake was not yet endangered, for there still remained, besides
several of the prizes, the two principal vessels, "Lawrence" and
"Niagara."[347]

With these Sinclair returned to the east of the lake, and endeavored
to give support to the army at Fort Erie; but the violence of the
weather and the insecurity of the anchorage on both shores, as the
autumn drew on, not only prevented effectual co-operation, but
seriously threatened the very existence of the fleet, upon which
control of the water depended. In an attempt to go to Detroit for
re-enforcements for Brown, a gale of wind was encountered which
drifted the vessels back to Buffalo, where they had to anchor and lie
close to a lee shore for two days, September 18 to 20, with topmasts
and lower yards down, the sea breaking over them, and their cables
chafing asunder on a rocky bottom. After this, Drummond having raised
the siege of Fort Erie, the fleet retired to Erie and was laid up for
the winter.

FOOTNOTES:

[266] Ante, pp. 118-121.

[267] Documentary History of the Campaign on the Niagara Frontier in
1814, by Ernest Cruikshank, Part I. p. 5.

[268] Captains' Letters, Feb. 24, March 4 and 29, 1814.

[269] Canadian Archives, C. 682, p. 32.

[270] Niles' Register, Feb. 5, 1814, vol. v. pp. 381, 383.

[271] Canadian Archives. C. 682, p. 90.

[272] Armstrong, Notices of the War of 1812, vol. ii. p. 213.

[273] Canadian Archives, C. 683, p. 10.

[274] Ibid., pp. 53, 61-64.

[275] Ibid., C. 682, p. 194.

[276] Niles' Register, April 9, 1814, vol. vi. p. 102.

[277] Captains' Letters, April 11, 1814.

[278] Writings of Madison, Edition of 1865, vol. ii. p. 413.

[279] Wilkinson's letter to a friend, April 9, 1814. Niles' Register,
vol. vi. p. 166. His official report of the affair is given, p. 131.

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