250 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Artillery. This might have been increased to about two hundred by 
the militia of the settlement and the crews of the vessels lying in the 
harbour. . But the garrison was wholly unprepared for resistance, as 
the first intimation of danger was received from the surgeon, who saw 
the inhabitants hurriedly quitting their dwellings under Dousman’s 
directions as he passed through the village. About nine o’clock in the 
morning the first gun was placed in position on the crest of the ridge 
commanding the stockade and Indians were seen in considerable num- 
bers in the skirts of the woods. Two hours later, an officer bearing a 
flag of truce, accompanied by three American traders who had been made 
prisoners, presented himself at the gate of the fort and demanded its 
immediate surrender. The prisoners assured Lieut. Hanks that the 
force they had seen numbered nearly a thousand men provided with 
artillery and scaling ladders, and that a powerful reinforcement of 
Indians was expected to join them at any moment. They urged him 
to surrender without waiting for an assault and thus preserve the lives 
of the garrison and other inmates of the fort, as resistance appeared 
hopeless. After a brief consultation with his officers and some leading 
civilians, Hanks consented to do this, and articles of capitulation were 
accordingly drawn up, by which it was arranged that the garrison should 
march out with the honours of war and be sent to Detroit on parole 
until regularly exchanged, and all citizens of the United States who 
declined to take the oath of allegiance to the King should be at liberty 
to leave the island with their property within a month. By a supple- 
mentary article it was arranged that the crews of nine small vessels in 
the harbour should become prisoners of war, thus increasing the number 
to one hundred and ten. A considerable quantity of military stores 
was found in the fort. 
During the negotiations with the garrison, the Indians were kept 
so well under control that Roberts himself was agreeably surprised. 
“Tt is a circumstance, I believe, without precedent,” he wrote, “and 
demands the greatest praise for all those who conducted the Indians, 
that though these people’s minds were much heated, yet as soon as they 
heard the capitulation was signed they all returned to their canoes, and 
1 Return of ordnance taken, enclosed in a letter from Prevost to Bathurst, 
20th March, 1813. Brass guns, two 5% inch howitzers, two six pounders, 
one three pounder. Iron guns—two nine inch pounders. Shells—51% inch 
fixed 18, unfixed 374; case shot, 5% inch, 65; round shot, 9 pounder, 480; 
case shot, 6 pounder, fixed 50; unfixed, 60; round shot, 864; grape, 18; 
fixed round shot, 80; case shot, 3 pounder, 51; round shot, fixed, 37; grape, 
23; loose round shot, 463; muskets, 179; rifles, 6. Two of these guns had 
been surrendered at Yorktown. 
