[Footnote 52:  James’ Military Occurrences of the late War between Great Britain and the United States, 2 vols.  London, 1818.]

[Footnote 53:  For a description of the deeds of Pontiac, or Pondiac, as she spells his name, see Mrs. Grant’s “Memoirs of an American Lady,” vol. ii.]

CHAPTER VIII.

The discussions which had been so long pending between Great Britain and the United States, assumed, during the winter of 1811-12, a very serious aspect.  But many did not believe that the latter power was inclined to proceed to extremities; while others, who foresaw that it only awaited a favorable moment to invade the Canadas, which were supposed ripe for revolt and would therefore fall an easy conquest, were prepared to expect what soon after followed, a declaration of war against Great Britain.

As this was not the first time that the American government had proceeded to menaces, and as the northern and eastern states were known to be averse to hostilities, the British ministry were deluded into a belief that peace would yet be maintained.  Mr. Foster, the English minister at Washington, seems to have partaken of this delusion, for it does not appear that he had taken any precautionary measures to convey to the governor of the British North American Provinces the earliest intelligence of the declaration of war on the 18th June, 1812; and, had it not been for the prudent foresight of some British merchants at New York, it is possible that the first intimation would have been received from the mouths of the American cannon.  To Upper Canada Mr. Foster sent no notice whatever of the war, and Major-General Brock was left to learn it officially through the circuitous and dilatory channel of the governor-general.  Happily, individual diligence made up for this unpardonable neglect; and the war was known by private expresses at Montreal, in Lower, and at Fort George, in Upper Canada, on the 24th of June, or in six days after its declaration at Washington.

At this period the exigencies of the Peninsular war, which depended chiefly upon English arms and English money, required the almost undivided attention and energies of the British ministry, who are thus entitled to some excuse for their neglect of North American affairs; but they will still remain amenable to the charge of having been guilty of the folly of too much despising the new enemy arrayed against them at that most busy and critical moment.  The want of a sufficient force for the protection of the Canadas[54] might have proved fatal, at least to the Upper Province, had not Major-General Brock, from the first moment of being placed at the head of his government, been convinced that war was inevitable; and that in consequence every exertion should be used to place the province in as respectable a state of defence as his very limited means would admit.  The instant the navigation opened in the spring, a supply of ordnance and other