[CRUIKSHANK] A STUDY OF DISAFFECTION IN UPPER CANADA 53 
On February 24, he led a party across from the Thames by a little 
known path to the new settlement at Point aux Pins where several 
houses were burned and a number of the inhabitants compelled by 
threats to take an oath of neutrality. About the middle of April he 
made a descent on the village of Oxford and carried off Major Sykes 
Touseley. On May 20 he appeared at Port Talbot after midnight at the 
head of thirty riflemen. Captain Patterson and Wilson were taken 
prisoners at their homes, but the man in charge of Colonel Talbot’s 
mill escaped and gave the alarm. By daybreak Lieut. Colonel Burwell 
had assembled a considerable force of militiamen, but it was then ascer- 
tained that the raiders had stolen off under cover of darkness without 
doing much damage evidently fearing that their retreat might be cut 
off. This settlement was again overrun in the middle of July by a 
body of some 300 men of whom eighty were mounted. Many houses 
were plundered and much of the growing crops destroyed. On August 
16 a party headed by Westbrook succeeded in taking Burwell in his 
own house, while Talbot narrowly escaped by jumping out of a window. 
The horses, cattle and other valuable property of the latter, who was a 
particular object of their animosity, were killed or carried off. Two 
weeks later Westbrook ascended the Thames as far as Oxford, paroled 
many of the inhabitants and carried off three captains and a sergeant 
of the militia. On September 1 this party was ambuscaded and dis- 
persed with the loss of their leader and several others by a party of 
militia hastily assembled under the command of Lieut. Daniel Rapalje 
of the Middlesex regiment. The remainder made their escape by a 
path through woods under the guidance of Westbrook, who had marched 
with the rearguard, but they were compelled to abandon the horses 
and cattle they had taken. Four days later this indefatigable marauder 
revenged this reverse by another raid on Port Talbot, where he burned 
the mills and a number of houses and ravaged the settlement along 
‘the Talbot Road for fifteen miles. 
The situation of many of the inhabitants of the Western District 
had then become so miserable and hopeless that a considerable number 
of the leading men united in a petition to Brigadier General McArthur 
who had lately taken over the command of the American troops at 
Detroit and Amherstburg, particularly directing his attention to a proc- 
lamation issued in September, 1813, by General Harrison and Com- 
modore Perry, promising protection to their lives and property which 
they complained had been persistently violated and alleging that most 
flagrant wrongs had been committed in the impressment of horses and 
carriages. 
“We lament also to inform you, Sir,” they added, “that the most 
arbitrary, degrading and ignominious punishments have been inflicted 
