e Fort George. As the regimental music rang out the last march
of the two dead officers, minute guns were fired in sympathy all along
the American shore. "He would have done as much for us," said the
American officers of the gallant Brock.

Van Rensselaer at once resigns. "Proclamation" Smyth, whose addresses
resemble Fourth of July backwoods orations, succeeds as commander of
the American army; but "Proclamation" Smyth makes such a mess of a raid
on Fort Erie, retreating with a haste suggestive of Hull at Detroit,
that he is mobbed when he returns to the United States shore. But what
the United States lose by land, they retrieve by sea. England's best
ships are engaged in the great European war. From June to December,
United States vessels sweep the sea; but this is more a story of the
English navy than of Canada. The year of 1812 closes with the cruisers
of Lake Ontario chasing each other through many a wild snowstorm.

As the year 1812 proved one of jubilant victory for Canada, so 1813 was
to be one of black despair. With the exception of four brilliant
victories wrested in the very teeth of defeat, the year passes down to
history as one of the darkest in the annals of the country. The
population of the United States at this time was something over seven
millions, and it was not to be thought for one moment that a nation of
this strength would remain beaten off the field by the little province
of Ontario (Upper Canada), whose population numbered barely ninety
thousand. General Harrison hurries north from the Wabash with from six
to eight thousand men to retrieve the defeat of Detroit. At Presqu'
Isle, on Lake Erie, hammer and mallet and {349} forging iron are heard
all winter preparing the fleet for Commodore Perry that is to command
Lake Erie and the Upper Lakes for the Americans. At Sackett's Harbor
similar preparations are under way on a fleet for Chauncey to sweep the
English from Lake Ontario; and all along both sides of the St.
Lawrence, as winter hedged the waters with ice, lurk scouts,--the
Americans, for the most part, uniformed in blue, the Canadians in
Lincoln green with gold braid,--watching chance for raid and counter
raid during the winter nights. The story of these thrilling raids will
probably pass into the shadowy realm of legend handed down from father
to son, for few of them have been embodied in the official reports.

From being hard pressed on the defensive, Canada has suddenly sp