out waiting for a
single round he hoisted a white flag in token of submission, when McKay
took possession of the fort. It contained only three officers and
seventy-one men, but the exploit was a gallant one, nevertheless, and
of essential service in securing British influence over the Indian
tribes.

The Americans on being informed that Michillimackinac had been
reinforced, and perhaps anticipating that further mischief to them
might ensue, sent Colonel Croghan without loss of time to capture it.
Croghan dispatched Major Holmes upon Ste. Marie to plunder the North
West Company of their stores. The miscreant was only too successful.
Not content with plunder only, he set fire to the buildings and reduced
them to ashes. He gave further proof of the possession of a cruel and
barbarous disposition, by enjoying the unavailing efforts of a poor
horse to extricate itself from a burning building to which it had been
inhumanly attached, to be burnt to death, after having been employed
the greater part of the day in carrying off the plunder from the
stores. This wretch, accompanied by nine hundred men, of a stamp
similar to himself, effected a landing near Michillimackinac, on the
4th of August. But the reception given to him was of such a nature that
he speedily re-embarked, leaving seventeen dead men, besides his own
inanimate remains, to be buried by the people in the fort.
Michillimackinac was not yet, however, quite safe. There were on the
lake two American armed vessels, the _Tigress_ and _Scorpion_, each
carrying a long twenty-four pounder gun, on a pivot, and manned by
thirty-two men, which intercepted the supplies intended for the
garrison. It was most necessary to destroy or get hold of them, and
this not unimportant business was entrusted to Lieutenant Worsley, of
the Royal Navy, and Lieutenant Bulger, of the Royal Newfoundland
Regiment. These two gallant officers proceeded to the despatch of
business with praiseworthy alacrity. On the evening of the 3rd of
September, one vessel was boarded and captured, and on the morning of
the 5th the other craft was captured. Michillimackinac was now
sufficiently safe.

The war, which was no longer, on the part of the British, a merely
defensive one, was now being offensively prosecuted with vigour in
several quarters, almost simultaneously. Washington had been taken and
Baltimore assailed on one side; and Fort Erie, containing the American
army of the West, was closely invested.