e water. Smith
concludes his account with the remark that it was "a beautiful and
prospective place, inhabited by civil and industrious people." Dr. John
Mann, a surgeon in the United States army who accompanied the
invading forces and afterwards wrote the "Medical History of the War,"
styles it "a delightful village." The population was probably
underestimated at five hundred exclusive of the regular garrison of Fort
George, usually numbering about two hundred men. The names of John
Symington, Andrew Heron, Joseph Edwards, John Grier, John Baldwin and
James Muirhead have been recorded as some of the principal merchants.

An open plain or common of nearly a mile in width separated the town
from Fort George. This post was described by the Governor General in the
early summer of 1812, in official report on the defences of Upper Canada
as an irregular fieldwork consisting of six small bastions faced with
framed timber and plank, connected by a line of palisades twelve feet
high, and surrounded by a shallow dry ditch. Its situation and
construction were alike condemned as extremely defective. Although it
partially commanded Fort Niagara it was in turn overlooked and commanded
by the high ground on the opposite side of the river near Youngstown.
The troops were lodged in blockhouses inside affording quarters for 220
men, besides which there was a spacious building for the officers. The
magazine was built of stone with an arched roof but was not considered
bombproof. All the works were very much out of repair and reported as
scarcely capable of the least defence.

On the margin of the river immediately in front of the fort stood a
large log building known as Navy Hall, which had been constructed during
the American Revolution, to serve as winter-quarters for the officers
and seamen of the Provincial vessels on Lake Ontario. Near this was a
spacious wharf with good-sized store houses, both public and private.
The Ranger's Barracks, also built of logs and an Indian Council House
were situated on the further edge of the common, just south of the town.
A small stone light house had been built upon Mississauga Point, in
1805-6.

The road leading along the river to Queenston, was thickly studded with
farm buildings, and the latter village is said to have contained nearly
a hundred houses, many of them being large and well built structures of
stone or brick, with a population estimated at 300. Vessels of fifty
tons and upwards, l