t is a matter of
unsettled dispute as to whether the explosion of Fort Erie was caused by
the Americans, or was accidental. General Pike was killed in the
explosion which took place in the fort at York, and Colonels Drummond
and Scott were killed at the explosion of Fort Erie: many of the British
and Canadians were killed in the explosion in the fort at York, but none
of the Americans were killed at the explosion in Fort Erie.]

[Footnote 223: The greater part of the foregoing accounts of the
campaign of 1814 are extracted and condensed from Thompson's and
Christie's Histories of the War of 1812, compared with other histories
of the same events.]

CHAPTER LIX.

MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS AND PAPERS, EXTRACTED FROM MANUSCRIPTS
RESPECTING THE U.E. LOYALISTS IN THE DOMINION LIBRARY AT OTTAWA.

"CHARACTER OF THE MILITIA." ETC., ETC.

I. "Amongst the first settlers on the frontier of Upper Canada were
those faithful and loyal men, the United Empire Loyalists, with the Six
Nations of Indians, who, at the sacrifice of their all, were steadfast
to the British Crown during the revolutionary struggle of the old
British colonies, now the United States, for independence, and other
United States citizens who had adopted Canada as a home for themselves
and their children. That struggle ended by the treaty of 1783.

"Those faithful men, the U.E. Loyalists and their associates, sought an
asylum under Britain's Crown in this, the then wilderness of Canada,
which now stands as one of the most flourishing provinces of our beloved
Sovereign. In that then wilderness the flag of England was unfurled, and
after the lapse of one century, and on the commencement of another, that
flag floats triumphantly over this loyal Canadian land. Those first
settlers were our first militiamen, under our first and venerated
Governor, Sir John Graves Simcoe, in the year 1791.

"The descendants of those faithful men, with some soldiers and sailors
and others, the sons of Britain who had adopted Canada, were our first
militiamen in the war of 1812; and those who are left of them are
therefore the veteran soldiers of 1812. The war was declared by the
United States Government against Great Britain, June 18th,
1812--involving Imperial interests alone, and not those of the
colonies.[224] This declaration of war against Britain was the signal
for the loyal inhabitants of Canada to rush _en masse_ to the frontier
of their country to repel invasion. In th