[CRUIKSHANK] GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 251 
not a drop of either man’s or animal’s blood was spilt till I gave an 
order for a certain number of bullocks to be purchased for them.” 4 
Learning that two other trading vessels were supposed to be at 
Chicago, Lieut. Joseph Lambeth of the Veteran Battalion was despatched 
with a party of men in boats to look for them, and on the 20th and 21st 
they were taken by him on their way down from Lake Michigan, laden 
with seven hundred bales of valuable furs, the result of a year’s trading 
by the American Fur Company.? 
As the Ottawas from L’Arbre Croche had failed to join Roberts, 
en the second day after the surrender a messenger was sent to inform 
them of his success and invite them to share in a general distribution 
of presents, when they immediately came over alleging bad weather as 
the cause of their delay. Amable Chevalier, however, assured him that 
it actually arose from “indecision on their part while the conquest 
remained in doubt and unknown to them and a predilection in favour 
of the Americans.” * Eight or nine hundred assembled in a few days, 
but information of General Hull’s invasion of Canada greatly damped 
their ardour, and many of them returned to their villages to await the 
result. 
There can be no doubt that the fall of Mackinac greatly increased 
Hull’s embarrassment, and he lost no time in urging that a reinforce- 
ment of fifteen hundred men from Kentucky and five hundred from 
Ohio should be marched to support him as soon as they could be organ- 
ized and equipped by the State authorities without awaiting for a requi- 
sition from the Secretary of War. He asserted that the Canadian Fur 
Companies would make every effort to reopen the Detroit River as the 
most convenient channel of transportation for their supplies for the 
coming winter, and it was the opinion of the officers and traders from 
Mackinac that two or three thousand Indians and engagés could easily 
be assembled by them for that purpose. 
A letter from Mr. McKenzie, the factor at Fort William, to Angus 
Mackintosh, of Moy, had lately fallen into his hands, relating probably 
with some exaggeration the successful efforts made by the agents of the 
Northwest Company at that place to raise a force for the attack of 
Mackinac and asserting their ability to muster five thousand men if 
necessary. Hull had also been informed that despatches announcing 
the capture of Mackinac had been received at Amherstburg and that a 
message demanding assistance had been sent in return.* 
* Roberts to Brock, 17th July, 1812, Can. Arch., C 676, p. 232. 
? Lambeth to Prevost, 2nd June, 1814, Can. Arch., C 231, p. 75. 
* Pothier to Prevost, 8th September, 1812. 
*Hull, Defence, pp. 64-7. 
