(7) The great Indian ally of the British was the Shawnee war-chief Tecumseh, who fell fighting for them against the Americans, in the campaign on Lake Erie. In September, 1813, the British arms had suffered a severe defeat on the Lake, when Commodore Perry with nine American vessels captured six vessels under Captain Barclay. The British commander, General Proctor, with whom Tecumseh was co-operating, was compelled to retreat into Canada before an American force under General Harrison outnumbering them by four to one. They were hotly pursued, and compelled to make a stand at Moravianstad, on the river Thames east of Lake St. Clair, and in the conflict which ensued the British were defeated, and Tecumseh their faithful ally killed.

(8) In Nova Scotia, and along the maritime provinces, much privateering was done, and damage inflicted upon the ships engaged in fishing. Chester was attacked several times, and Hall's Harbour, on the coast of the Bay of Fundy, was the headquarters of a band of pirates who made raids upon the Cornwallis Valley. An exciting scene was witnessed in Mahone Bay. A privateer, named the Young Teazer, ran up the bay, closely pursued by two British war-vessels. When its capture was imminent, the privateer suddenly blew up, and out of thirty-six men on board only eight remained alive. From these it was learned that the destruction of the vessel was caused by a British deserter who, to save himself from being captured, threw fire into a powder magazine. The British were able also to carry the war into the enemy's country. Sir James Yeo and General Drummond captured the fort of Oswego in the State of New York. Sir John Sherbrooke, the Governor of Nova Scotia, sailing from Halifax, took possession of a district on the coast of Maine between the Penobscot and the St. Croix, which was held by the British till the end of the war. A British force under

Admiral Cochrane and General Ross captured Washington and burned the Capitol.

(9) Meanwhile Napoleon had been defeated in Europe, and greater attention was given to American affairs. Sixteen thousand veteran troops were sent to Canada and placed under the command of Sir George Prevost; but unfortunately this splendid force was miserably. mismanaged at Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, and a reverse inflicted on the British arms. The last scene of the war was enacted at New Orleans, where, towards the end of the year, the army and fleet which had taken Washington arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi and attacked the city, which was strongly fortified by breastworks of sand-bags and cotton-bales. The British were

unsuccessful here also, and retired after a loss of 2000 men, the Americans, it is said, only losing eight men. Although towards its end the British troops suffered these sudden and unexpected reverses, the war, generally speaking, had been long, cruel, and desultory. In fighting the Canadians, the Americans always had the advantage of numbers, and were able to replenish their supplies of cannon, arms, ammunition and clothing from a convenient basis. The Canadian militia were comparatively raw and undisciplined, especially at first, and were scarcely ever fully armed.

(10) The most important and sanguinary battle of the whole campaign was fought in July, 1814, at a place called Lundy's Lane, where Generals Drummond and Riall, at the head of an inferior force, met the Americans under Generals Ripley and Scott. The battle, which was fought out within sound of the falls of Niagara, commenced at five o'clock in the afternoon, and lasted till midnight, when the Americans withdrew with a loss of 1200 men. The British lost 900, and General Riall was taken prisoner. During the conflict many acts of individual

daring and many deeds of heroism were performed, not only in the ranks, but by individuals. The women, we are told, were not a whit less brave than the men. A lady of the name of Mrs. Secord, whose husband had been wounded at the battle of Queenston, and her house plundered and destroyed by the Americans, was the means of warning a British outpost at a place called Beaver-dams, by undertaking alone through the forest a journey of twenty miles. The Americans often carried on the war with great cruelty; and on the 10th of December, 1813, one of the very coldest nights of the Canadian winter, the village of Niagara was burned, the wretched inhabitants only receiving half an hour's notice to quit their homes. The British retaliated by burning a village called Lewiston, on the American side. It was time, however, that this wretched war ended. The United States had gained no glory or fame by it, and had learnt that the Canadians were brave antagonists, willing to sacrifice everything in the extremities of war for their country and their cause.

(11) Peace was restored by the Treaty of Ghent (1814); and the Americans, who had lost forts and territory during the war, received them back again. This is the brief and pregnant verdict of the Canadian historian Macmullen: From first to last the course pursued by the United States presents few grounds for justification. They had commenced an unrighteous war, by the invasion of an unoffending and harmless people. When they found they could not seduce them from allegiance to their Sovereign, their generals burned their villages and farm-houses, and plundered them of their property. But, by a righteous dispensation of Providence, they were most deservedly punished. Nothing had been gained by all the lavish expenditure of American blood and treasure. Not one solitary dollar had been added to the

wealth of the people of the United States, nor one inch to their territory. On the other hand, their export trade had dwindled down in 1814, from twenty-two millions sterling, to less than one and a-half millions; and their imports, from twenty-eight million pounds sterling, had been reduced to three. Nearly three thousand of their merchant-ships had been captured, their entire sea-board insulted; two-thirds of the mercantile and trading classes of the whole nation had become insolvent, and the Union itself was threatened with dissolution, by the secession of the New England States. Then, if Canada suffered much misery-if many of her gallant sons were laid low-the war was a real benefit to her. The lavish expenditure of money enriched, more or less, all classes of her small population, and thus gave a vast impulse to the general prosperity of the country. Nor did this expenditure add much to the burdens of the people, being chiefly borne by the mother-country, while the inhabitants of the United States were grievously oppressed by taxation, and thus directly punished for their eagerness to engage in war, and coveting their neighbours' lands, whilst millions of acres of their own territory lay waste.'

CHAPTER XVI.

Events from 1814 to 1837. The Papineau Rebellion.

(1) IT was not easy for those passions to subside which had been aroused during the late war. For three years the colonists had been in a state of fever and unrest. The enemy might be expected at any moment to swoop down upon their farms and homesteads, whether along the lakes of the interior or the sea-coast of Nova Scotia, and along the Bay of Fundy. Throughout the country a warlike and turbulent feeling had prevailed, which had naturally checked peaceful expansion. The mothercountry showed her care for her loyal colonial children, by granting small pensions to those who had been disabled by the war, and giving gratuities to the widows and orphans of those who had been killed. The paper money was redeemed at its full value without delay. The population increased rapidly by immigration from Europe, and settlers were encouraged to take up their abode in the country by offers of free passage, grants of land, and provisions for a year. This at a time when England, wearied and exhausted with her tremendous struggle in Europe, was bleeding, as it were, at every pore.

(2) For some time after the war, settlers from the United States were regarded with suspicion, and were allowed to remain only as aliens, liable to be expelled at any time. But these regulations against them were gradually allowed to fall into disuse, and many Americans came across the border and settled in Canada. The era into which the country had now entered was a peaceful