e supremacy, which Sir James Yeo,
an officer at once brave, prudent, and persevering, had obtained upon
the lakes, contributed, in some measure, to the total evacuation of
Upper Canada by the Americans. He did not conceive that with a couple
or more of armed schooners he could sail hither and thither, and effect
daring feats, but carefully husbanded the means at his disposal, took
advantage of circumstances, and obtained the construction of vessels so
much superior to those of the Americans that it needed not the test of
a battle to decide upon superiority. Indeed had he been afforded
sufficient time, two or more such vessels, and even larger, would have
been placed on Lake Champlain, and Sir George Prevost might have made
such progress in subduing New York that peace might have been dictated
on more flattering terms to Great Britain than they were.

The fleet and army, which had been baffled at Baltimore, by the sinking
of twenty ships in the Patapsco, to obstruct the navigation of the
river, sailed for New Orleans. The squadron arrived off the shoals of
the Mississippi on the 8th of December. Six gun-boats of the enemy,
manned by two hundred and forty men, were prepared to dispute with the
boats of the fleet, the landing of the troops. To settle this
difficulty, Admiral Cockburn put a detachment of seamen and marines,
under the command of Captain Lockyer, who succeeded in destroying the
whole six, after a chase of thirty-six hours. The pursuit, however, had
taken the boats thirty miles from their ships; their return was impeded
by intricate shoals and a tempestuous sea, and it was not until the
12th that they could get back. It was only on the 15th that the landing
of the troops commenced under adverse circumstances. The weather, how
extraordinary soever it may seem, was excessively cold and damp, and
the troops, the blacks more especially, suffered severely. Four
thousand five hundred combatants, and a considerable quantity of heavy
guns and stores were landed, and on the same evening an attack, by the
American militia, was repulsed. Sir Edward Pakenham arrived next day,
when the army advanced to within six miles of New Orleans. New Orleans
was then, as it now is, the emporium of the cotton trade of the United
States. Comparatively with the present day, the population was
inconsiderable. There were not more than 17,000 inhabitants. But it was
a place sure to become of importance, from its situation, and was even
then