s, as well as of his officers, and
determined forthwith to cross the river and attack Fort Detroit. The
Indians were to cross in the night, which they did some three or four
miles below Detroit, and spread themselves in the woods that surrounded
the town, which then contained from 6,000 to 8,000 inhabitants. The
night-erected battery was unmasked by felling the trees and underwood in
front of it, when, to the astonishment and terror of the Americans, they
saw a battery fully equipped, and already firing effectually upon their
town and fort. Early in the morning of the 15th of August, General
Brock, with his little army of 730 men (the militia being accoutred as
regular soldiers), crossed the river unopposed about three miles below
the fort (which was in the centre of the town), and marched in order of
battle, under cover of corn fields, to within half a mile of the fort,
from which, not cannon balls, but a flag of truce was sent out,
proposing the surrender to the British commander of the fort, army,
town, and territory.[195]

The terrific war-whoop of the dreaded Indians, who seemed to swarm in
the woods around the town, filled the people and General Hull with
irresistible terror; and at the very moment that General Hull was
holding a council of war with his officers in a room within the fort, a
shell, thrown from the British battery at Windsor, fell into the council
room, killed some officers, and wounded several more. This catastrophe,
with the terrible yells of the surrounding Indians, seemed to have
decided General Hull and his advisers that _surrender_ "was the better
part of valour."

A _second_ incident connected with the surrender of Detroit and the
Michigan territory is the council which General Brock held with the
Indians the day before the attack upon and surrender of Detroit, and his
interview with them the day after, for the account of which I am
indebted to Colonel John Clarke's manuscripts in the Dominion Library at
Ottawa:

"On General Brock's arrival at Sandwich, a council of war was assembled
on the following morning. Along with others were 1,000 Indians, whose
equipment generally might be considered very imposing.

"The council was opened by General Brock, who informed the Indians that
he was ordered by their great Father, the King, to come to their
assistance, and with them to drive the enemy from Fort Detroit. His
speech was highly applauded, and Tecumseh was unanimously called upon to
speak i