194 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
‘The two squadrons will be in as great force as they can be this 
year,” Yeo wrote, ‘and immediately we are both ready a general 
action must take place, as every military operation depends entirely 
on whoever can maintain the naval superiority on the lake.” 
“T am happy to state only one seaman has deserted to the enemy, 
and their conduct has generally been orderly and good; every reason- 
able and proper indulgence has been given them to keep them in this 
temper, but the encouragement that is held out by the agents of the 
enemy, of which there are many in this province, may, I fear, seduce 
them in time.’’ He declared that it was absolutely necessary that 
“more grown-up young men as midshipmen and seamen should be 
sent out, for even a victory over the enemy would not enable us to 
maintain the superiority without a reinforcement being sent immediate- 
ly as the enemy from their rivers have every facility and means of 
whatever they stand in need of in a few days.’ 
Learning that Chauncey had laid down a brig, he began the con- 
struction of a ship considerably larger than the Wolfe. 
By this time Chauncey had been strongly reinforced with an 
excellent class of seamen drafted from ships of war blockaded in- the 
Atlantic ports. Early in June he was joined by Captain Sinclair 
with more than eighty officers and men belonging to the crew of 
the Alert. The remainder of the crew of that ship and the greater 
part of the crew of the Vixen, recently exchanged, soon followed, 
accompanied by a hundred marines? On June 29, thirty-five seamen 
and boys arrived from New York and on July 1, ninety-four came on 
from Boston. ‘‘These reinforcements will make us formidable with 
the assistance we shall receive from the army,” he wrote.* 
On that day, while under apprehension of an immediate attack 
he arrested a man of some local influence who was suspected with 
good reason of acting as a spy and communicating information. 
“It would be very desirable to hang this traitor to his country, as 
he is considered respectable in the country where he lives,” he declared 
angrily, ‘and I think it full time to make an example of some of our 
countrymen who are so base and degenerate as to betray their country- 
men by becoming spies and informers of our enemy.’’* 
On July 16 Captain Crane arrived with the entire crew of the 
frigate, John Adams. Five days later came forty-five seamen from 
New York. Chauncey was thus enabled to detach with safety two 
schooners to Niagara, taking one hundred and thirty seamen for service 

1 Veo to Croker, No. 6, July 16. 
2 Secretary of the Navy to Chauncey, June 14. 
3 Chauncey to the Secretary of the Navy, July 1. 
4 Chauncey to the Secretary of the Navy, July 4. 
