{[cRUIKSHANK] GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 265 
home to work in the harvest-fields, and the remainder of those regiments 
were warned to be in readiness for immediate active service. Two 
hundred of the First and Second Norfolk and the Oxford and Middle- 
sex regiments, under Major George C. Salmon, were ordered to assemble 
at Oxford and advance to the Moravian village in the Township of 
Delaware, where they were to await the arrival. of Major Chambers 
with fifty men of the 41st Regiment from Fort George. Lieut. Wil- 
liam Hamilton Merritt, an intelligent and enterprising young officer, 
was ordered from his station at Chippawa with half a dozen troopers 
of the Provincial cavalry to precede this movement. The difficulty of 
equipping and supplying even so small a force as this was considerable, 
and day by day most discouraging news continued to arrive. On July 
26th he learned with dismay and amazement that the Indians of the 
Grand River, who had hitherto made the strongest professions of loyalty, 
had decided to remain neutral after the return of several of their chiefs 
from a visit to Detroit, and with the exception of about fifty, all their 
warriors had positively refused to join Chambers. Their dubious atti- 
tude had an intimidating effect upon the militia in the vicinity, who 
became naturally reluctant to leave their families at the mercy of several 
hundred Indians whose intentions they had strong reason to suspect. 
‘As Brock remarked, “they become more apprehensive of the internal 
than the external enemy and would willingly have compromised.” 1 
Only the paramount necessity of being present at the special session 
of the Legislature, which he had summoned to meet on the following 
day, prevented Brock from hastening westward at once instead of pro- 
ceeding to York for that purpose. The session was opened by him with 
the following vigorous speech :— 
“The urgency of the present crisis is the only consideration which 
could have induced me to call you together at a time when public (as 
well as private) duties elsewhere demand your care and attention. 
“But, gentlemen, when invaded by an enemy whose avowed object 
is the entire conquest of this province, the voice of loyalty, as well as of 
interest, calls aloud to every person in the sphere in which he is placed 
to defend his country. 
“Our militia have heard that voice and obeyed it. They have 
evinced by the promptitude and loyalty of their conduct that they are 
worthy of the King whom they serve, and the Constitution which they 
enjoy, and it affords me particular satisfaction that while I address you 
as legislators, I speak to men who, in the day of danger, will be ready 
to assist not only with their counsel, but with their arms. We look, 

* Brock to Prevost, July 26th; Brock to Baynes, July 29th. 
