[cruIksHANK] GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 247 
upon them, they were liberated, and allowed to proceed.t A chosen 
band of thirty Menomonees, under the chief Weenusate, was sent off 
at once to Amherstburg to obtain a supply of ammunition, and in reply 
to Glegg’s letter Dickson stated that the remainder of his “ friends,” 
numbering 250 or 300, speaking several languages, were ready to march 
under proper officers duly commissioned for the purpose, and would 
assemble at the Island of St. Joseph about the 30th of June. Punctu- 
ally to the day he arrived there accompanied by about three hundred 
Sioux, Winnebagoes (Puants), and Menomonees (Folles Avoines), led 
by their principal chiefs. The British garrison consisted of a sergeant 
and two gunners of the Royal ‘Artillery and three officers and forty-one 
non-commissioned officers and privates of the 10th Royal Veteran 
Battalion, mostly old and infirm men who were scarcely fit for field 
service. Captain Charles Roberts of the latter corps, who was likewise 
in poor health, was in command. The post there was described as 
“a square consisting merely of high cedar pickets to enclose the block- 
house and public buildings, the whole in bad repair and incapable of 
any defence.” It was armed with four very old six pounders, which 
were honey-combed and nearly useless, and six small swivels. On the 
3rd of July, Mr. Toussaint Pothier, agent of the Southwest Fur Com- 
pany, arrived from Montreal. Five days later a special messenger 
came from Brock at York bringing the first information of the declar- 
ation of war, with instructions to Roberts to make an attack on Mac- 
kinac as soon as practicable. Steps were immediately taken to assemble 
the voyageurs in the employment of the fur companies from all their 
trading stations on the mainland as far west as Sault Ste, Marie, 
and messengers were even despatched to distant Fort William to require 
the agents of the Northwest Fur Company to send down their whole 
available force from that place. They promptly responded to the call, 
but arrived too late to take part in the expedition. “These gentlemen 
with great alacrity came down with a strong party to co-operate,” 
Pothier wrote, “ bringing to Ste. Marie several carriage guns and other 
arms, and although the distance between St. Joseph’s and Fort William 
is about 500 miles, they arrived at Michilimackinac the ninth day from 
the date of the express and found us in peaceable possession.” ? 
About the 12th of July a second express arrived with instructions 
from General Brock to suspend offensive operations until further orders 
were received, but the work of organization was continued without inter- 
+ Federal Republican of Baltimore, 25th September, 1812. Letter from 
a gentleman in Illinois. 
Pothier to Prevost, 8th September, 1812, Can. Arch., C 677, p. 70; 
Bibaud, Histoire du Canada; Coffin, War. 
