| CRUIKSHANK] A STUDY OF DISAFFECTION IN UPPER CANADA 39 
States since the declaration of war and who failed to return after re- 
ceiving a reasonable notice to reclaim their property, should be included 
in the act.! 
In a proclamation dated September 4, after stating his belief that 
in several instances, paroles from the enemy had been sought and ob- 
tained by inhabitants of the province as a means of evading the per- 
formance of militia duty and anticipating that others might be animated 
by similar or worse motives to withhold their services when required 
for the construction of public works for the defence of the country, 
Sir George Prevost announced his intention of sending “all such useless 
and disaffected characters out of the country to the enemy to whom 
they consider themselves as belonging as prisoners of war, there to re- 
main as such until regularly exchanged.’’” 
Nine days later Major General Procter actually proclaimed martial 
law in the Western District “to take effect as far as supplying the wants 
of his troops of the sending away or apprehending all traitorous or 
disaffected persons” might render it expedient.® 
When the result of the disastrous action at Moraviantown on October 
5 became known to de Rottenburg he retired in much haste from the 
vicinity of Niagara to the position at Burlington Heights, at the same 
time calling in the detachment of regular troops stationed at Port Dover 
to maintain communications with Amherstburg. The American force 
that had been blockaded by him at Fort George sallied forth and made 
a three days’ march through the surrounding country during which 
according to their own account they were welcomed by many of the 
inhabitants as “deliverers and friends.’’4 
Some disaffected persons living near Long Point lost no time in 
proceeding to Buffalo where they were speedily joined by a number of 
refugees and volunteers from Chapin’s irregular corps and were supplied 
with arms and ammunition. Thirty of these men under the command 
of William Sutherland then started on a raid into Canada, as they stated, 
with the object of seizing public property and taking militia officers, 
but, really, as their conduct proved, with the purpose of plundering 
the loyal inhabitants and taking revenge for private grudges. They 
succeeded in making some prisoners, who were sent off under guard, 
and robbed several houses. Lieut. Colonel Henry Bostwick, an energetic 
young officer, who was in command of the Oxford militia, assembled 
a body of forty-five volunteers, among whom were no less than thirteen 
officers, and surprised the marauders in the house of John Dunham, 
1 Earl Bathurst to Prevost, August 11, 1813. No. 39, Can. Arch. Q 122, p. 50. 
? Proclamation printed in Kingston Gazette, September 7, 1813. 
3 Proclamation in Jarvis MSS. 
* Letter in the Ontario Messenger, October 19, 1813. 

