pelled them to surrender to half their
number.'

"General Brock engaged the Indians to throw away the scalping
knife--implanting in their hearts the virtue of clemency, and teaching
them to feel pleasure and pride in compassion extended to a vanquished
enemy. In return, they revered him as their common Father, and whilst
under his control, were guilty of no excesses; and thereby the noble
Tecumseh was humane as well as brave."[196]

Such was the character and results of the first American invasion of
Canada.

It may be worth while to notice some events which preceded the taking of
Detroit, and which doubtless disappointed and disheartened General Hull.
In the island of St. Joseph, in Lake Huron, there was a fort or
block-house, under the command of Captain Roberts, with thirty regulars.
General Brock, in communicating to Captain Roberts the American
declaration of war against Great Britain, instructed him to take every
precaution for the protection of St. Joseph, and, if possible, to get
possession of Michilimackinac, now called Mackinac, and pronounced
Mackinaw, an island about nine miles in circumference, commanding the
entrance from Lake Huron into Lake Michigan, on which the Americans had
a fort with a captain in command, and a garrison of seventy-five men.
Captain Roberts was aided by Mr. Pothier, a gentlemen of the South-west
Fur Company, who volunteered his own services, attended by about 160
Canadian voyageurs, and placed the contents of the stores at the
disposal of Captain Roberts, who, with his little armament, consisting
of thirty regulars, two artillerymen and a sergeant, 160 Canadians, and
two iron field-pieces, set out on the 16th of July with his flotilla of
boats and canoes, convoyed by the _Caledonia_ brig, belonging to the
North-West Company, loaded with stores and provisions. On the ensuing
morning he reached Mackinac, a distance of about forty miles, landed
without opposition, and immediately summoned the garrison to surrender,
which was complied with in a few minutes. Thus was this key of the West
taken without the effusion of a drop of blood.

The Americans had carried on a brisk trade in schooners and sailing
vessels from Detroit, through Lake Huron, to the head of Lake Michigan,
now Chicago. The capture of Mackinac--which was a surprise to the
commander, who had not heard of the declaration of war--interrupted this
trade, and gave confidence to the Canadian voyageurs and Indians in the
Brit