{CRUIKSHANK] GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 249 
accordingly despatched to collect as many more of that nation as possible 
and join the expedition on its approach to the island of Mackinac. ‘At 
10 o’clock on the morning of the 16th, the whole of the regulars with 
two heavy iron six-pounder guns were embarked on the Caledonia, and 
that vessel set sail accompanied by a flotilla of ten batteaux and seventy 
bark canoes, containing one hundred and fifty voyageurs and three hun- 
dred Indians, of whom many were unarmed. ‘The remainder of the 
voyageurs and Indians were left as a garrison at St. Joseph’s. The 
lake was calm and the voyage uneventful until midnight, when a canoe 
was seen approaching in the moonlight, paddled by a single person who 
attempted flight but was soon overtaken. ‘The prisoner proved to be 
Michael Dousman, captain of an American militia company on the 
island of Mackinac, who had been sent out to reconnoitre by the &wm- 
mandant, whose suspicions had been aroused by the evident coolness of 
Indians lately professing the utmost friendship. During the day a 
tumour reached him .that a force was being assembled at St. Joseph’s, 
and, although he had received no intimation of the declaration of war, 
he determined to despatch a confidential agent to ascertain its truth, 
and after consulting with the principal residents, Dousman was selected 
to perform this service. 
The expedition then pushed forward with redoubled speed, as it 
was apparent that there was no time to be lost. “ By the unparalleled 
exertions of the Canadians,” Captain Roberts reported, “we arrived at 
the place of rendezvous at three o’clock the following morning.” The 
Ottawas were nowhere to be seen, but a landing was effected at once 
on the west side of the island about two miles from the fort, and Dous- 
man was liberated, after giving a promise not to communicate with the 
garrison and instructed to invite the inhabitants of the village to come 
at once to that place, where they could be placed under the protection 
of a guard of regular soldiers. The Canadians were set at work cutting 
a road across the island, over which the two rather unwieldly iron guns 
they had brought with them were laboriously hauled to the brow of 
the bluff, completely commanding and overlooking the fort at a distance 
of about seven hundred yards with a sheer fall of one hundred feet, 
while Dickson and Askin with the Indians occupied the woods and 
covered these operations. 
This work, which was situated near the edge of a cliff rising pre- 
cipitously from the lake, was a quadrangular stockade of cedar pickets 
twelve or fourteen feet in height, enclosing nearly two acres of ground, 
with blockhouses at each angle and surrounded by a ditch. Seven guns 
were mounted in the blockhouses, but the garrison numbered only 
three officers and sixty-one men of the Ist Regiment of United States 
