[CRUIKSHANK] COMMAND OF LAKE ONTARIO, 1812-1813 189 
Cruising eastward close into the American shore on the 13th. 
of June, Yeo observed two merchant schooners and several bateaux 
approaching Fort Niagara. They were chased into Eighteen Mile 
Creek and captured. They were loaded with hospital supplies and 
other valuable stores for the American army. Prisoners taken on 
this occasion stated that a depot of provisions had been formed at 
the mouth of the Genesee River. A party of seamen was landed 
there and brought off several hundred barrels of flour and pork with 
a sloop loaded with grain. A hundred tons of pressed hay were 
burned. On June 19 the squadron came to anchor in Oswego bay 
and a landing party was embarked in boats, but observing that bat- 
teries had been constructed and armed and an armed schooner moored 
across the mouth of the river, this design was abandoned. Yeo then 
sailed westward to Great Sodus Bay where he arrived next day. 
Two small schooners loaded with supplies and bound for Sackett’s 
Harbour were taken on the way. A landing was effected in the face 
of some opposition by a strong body of militia in which a few men 
were wounded on either side. Six hundred barrels of provisions were 
removed and the storehouses burned. After cruising between Oswego 
and Sackett’s Harbour for a week longer in the unfulfilled expectation 
of intercepting boats engaged in the transportation of stores, Yeo 
returned to Kingston on June 28 to receive supplies and refit his 
squadron, having held command of the lake for twenty-five days. 
The moral as well as the material advantage of these operations was 
considerable. 
Chauncey had quickly abandoned his intention of seeking an 
encounter, if indeed, he ever seriously entertained it. On June 10a 
boat came in from Niagara with information that three days before 
the British squadron had been seen off the mouth of that river steering 
westward. Atthe same time he learned that General Dearborn’sadvan- 
ced troops had received a serious check. ‘‘Immediately upon receiving 
this information,” he wrote, “I prepared to proceed in quest of the 
enemy, but upon more mature reflection I have determined to remain 
at this place and preserve the new ship at all hazards. My feelings 
upon this occasion can better be imagined than described; on the one 
hand I had the prospect, (if I succeeded against the enemy), of im- 
mortalising myself; on the other hand if I was beaten, the loss and dis- 
appointment to my country would be irreparable. The only question 
was whether I was to fight for my own aggrandisement or that of my 
country? If the latter there could be no question as to the course 
that I ought to pursue, which was to put nothing to hazard; for by 
remaining here four weeks I could prepare the new ship for service, 
and with her I should consider myself as having the complete and un- 
