1813	British and Americans on Canadian lakes	251

accompanied by some of his schooners, bore down, and took a raking position athwart the bows of the already disabled Detroit. In a short time Lieutenant John Garland, first of the Detroit was mortally, and Captain Barclay himself most severely, wounded. The command then devolved upon Lieutenant George Inglis ; who fought his ship in the most determined manner, until, out of the 10 experienced British seamen on board, eight were killed or wounded, and every hope of success or of escape had fled : he then ordered the colours of the Detroit to be struck. The Hunter and Lady-Prevost surrendered about the same time ; as did the Chippeway and Trippe, as soon as some of the American vessels overtook them on their retreat.

The loss on the British side amounted to three officers and 38 men killed, and nine officers and 85 men wounded. The officers killed were, Lieutenant S. J. Garden, of the Newfoundland regiment, and John Garland, the first lieutenant, on board the Detroit; and the captain of the Queen-Charlotte. The officers wounded were Captain Barclay most dangerously in his left or remaining arm, Mr. John M. Hoffme1ster, purser of the Detroit, Lieutenant John Stokes, and midshipman James Foster, of the Queen-Charlotte, Lieutenants Edward Buchan and Francis Roulette, and master's mate Henry Gateshill, of the Lady-Prevost, and master's mate J. Campbell, commanding the Chippeway. The loss on the American side, as taken from Captain Perry's letter, amounted to 27 killed and 96 wounded, including 22 killed and 61 wounded on board the Lawrence.

The fact of this brig having surrendered is admitted by Captain Perry himself, in the following words: " It was with unspeakable pain, that I saw, soon after I got on board the Niagara, the flag of the Lawrence come down, although I was perfectly sensible that she had been defended to the last, and that to have continued to make a show of resistance, would have been a wanton sacrifice of her brave crew. But the enemy was not able to take possession of her, and circumstances soon permitted her flag again to be hoisted." The chief fault to be found with Captain Perry's letter is, that it does not contain the slightest allusion to the bravery of Captain Barclay, or the inferiority of his means of resistance.

As the Americans are by this time pretty well ashamed of all the bombastic nonsense circulated by the press of the United States, day after day during many months of the war, on the subject of Captain Perry's " Nelsonic " victory, we shall not rake the trash up again ; but we fear that the professional, and therefore presumably correct, dictum of a contemporary, that, " in number and weight of guns, the two squadrons were nearly equal," * will make the Americans imagine, that they really had some ground for their extravagant boasting. However, on

* Brenton, vol. v., p. 132.

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