Having embarked, the troops and Indians paddled down stream to Lake Erie, reaching it in a snowstorm, and when a lull came they struck boldly across the lake, making what bateau men still call a “traverse” of thirty-six miles to the mouth of the Maumee.  Darkness overtook them while still on the lake, and the head boats hung out lights for the guidance of those astern; but about midnight a gale came up, and the whole flotilla was nearly swamped, being beached with great difficulty on an oozy flat close to the mouth of the Maumee.  The waters of the Maumee were low, and the boats were poled slowly up against the current, reaching the portage point, where there was a large Indian village, on the 24th of the month.  Here a nine miles’ carry was made to one of the sources of the Wabash, called by the voyageurs “la petite riviere.”  This stream was so low that the boats could not have gone down it had it not been for a beaver dam four miles below the landing-place, which backed up the current.  An opening was made in the dam to let the boats pass.  The traders and Indians thoroughly appreciated the help given them at this difficult part of the course by the engineering skill of the beavers—­for Hamilton was following the regular route of the hunting, trading, and war parties,—­and none of the beavers of this particular dam were ever molested, being left to keep their dam in order, and repair it, which they always speedily did whenever it was damaged. [Footnote:  Haldimand’s MSS.  Hamilton’s “brief account.”]

It proved as difficult to go down the Wabash as to get up the Maumee.  The water was shallow, and once or twice in great swamps dykes had to be built that the boats might be floated across.  Frost set in heavily, and the ice cut the men as they worked in the water to haul the boats over shoals or rocks.  The bateaux often needed to be beached and caulked, while both whites and Indians had to help carry the loads round the shoal places.  At every Indian village it was necessary to stop, hold a conference, and give presents.  At last the Wea village—­or Ouiatanon, as Hamilton called it—­was reached.  Here the Wabash chiefs, who had made peace with the Americans, promptly came in and tendered their allegiance to the British, and a reconnoitering party seized a lieutenant and three men of the Vincennes militia, who were themselves on a scouting expedition, but who nevertheless were surprised and captured without difficulty. [Footnote:  Do. The French officer had in his pocket one British and one American commission; Hamilton debated in his mind for some time the advisability of hanging him.] They had been sent out by Captain Leonard Helm, then acting as commandant at Vincennes.  He had but a couple of Americans with him, and was forced to trust to the creole militia, who had all embodied themselves with great eagerness, having taken the oath of allegiance to Congress.  Having heard rumors of the British advance, he had dispatched a little party to keep watch, and in consequence of their capture he was taken by surprise.