Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/26

 8 MEMOIR OF SIR ISAAC BROCK.

more subject to hostile influence, as the population was partly composed of natives of the United States, or their descendants ; but there the machinations of the evil-disposed were quickly counteracted by that good spirit which animated the people generally, and Major- General Brock soon experienced the gratifica- tion of receiving voluntary offers of service from the militia most easily embodied. In the attainment of this important object gentlemen of the first character and respectability eagerly came forward ; and no sooner had the British commander reached Amherst- burgh, than he was joined by the Indian warriors in considerable numbers, among whom the gallant Te-cum-seh was conspicuous. The Americans com- plained loudly of the employment of men whom they termed savages ; but the major-general, with his limited means, could not consistently refuse the assist- ance of such willing and useful auxiliaries, the more particularly as, in compliance with his wishes, they submitted in some degree to the restraints of discipline, and promised to treat their prisoners with huma- nity, — a promise which they faithfully performed.

The American government, previously to its decla- ration of war, had detached to the Michigan territory an army of about two thousand five hundred men, under the command of Brigadier-General Hull, who, said the president in his message to congress, " pos- sessing discretionary authority to act offensively, passed into Upper Canada with a prospect of easy and victorious progress." The enemy evidently con- fided in the very limited defensive means of the Province, and in the impossibility of its receiving early assistance from the mother country. They relied also on the supposed disaffection of many of

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