[CRUIKSHANK] COMMAND OF LAKE ONTARIO, 1812-1813 203 
flags of truce were sent over in rapid succession to obtain information 
and the last of these reported that the whole of the British squadron 
had left port. 
Yeo had sailed on the 23rd for Burlington Bay with guns and a 
small party of seamen whose services were urgently needed on Lake 
Erie taking under convoy several small transports loaded with supplies 
for the troops in the western part of the province. A combined 
attack on the American positions near the mouth of the Niagara 
had been contemplated but delayed to await the arrival of siege guns 
and howitzers. These had been shipped from Montreal but were delay- 
ed by a report that several small hostile craft were lurking among the 
Thousand Islands. The commandant at Prescott was in consequence 
ordered to make a thorough search for them. 
“IT wrote to Lt. Colonel Pearson by express informing him that 
in a memorandum of instruction you had left with me on your de- 
parture,’’ Colonel Baynes reported to the Governor-General who had 
gone to Niagara to supervise this important operation, ‘‘that the 
utmost vigilance and exertion should be preserved to secure the 
communication between Prescott and Kingston from insult and inter- 
ruption; that it appeared to me an object of the first importance 
that these pirates should be dislodged with as little delay as possible 
and their intended depredations by that means counteracted, that a 
force could not be spared from this place for that service as the armed 
sloop and only gunboat fit for service were on the point of sailing 
to convoy two small vessels with stores to the head of the lake, which 
could not be delayed as their cargoes were much wanted above and the 
only remaining gunboat was under repair but would be ready Tuesday 
evening and that all the disposable force of this garrsion was held 
in readiness for an ulterior movement which could not be interfered 
with. — I therefore recommended his availing himself of the detach- 
ment of the 100th Regt. under Major Taylor and of the seamen of 
H.M.S. Dover with all the Indians he could collect as well as militia 
volunteers and such further reinforcement from the garrison of 
Prescott as he might deem necessary to complete a detachment 
with his five gunboats capable of rooting out and destroying this nest 
of robbers; that so favorable an occurrence as the junction of the 100th 
and the seamen could not again be speedily looked for; that it was 
necessary these reinforcements, particularly the seamen, should be 
sent forward with the least possible delay; that nevertheless, I felt 
confident Your Excellency would approve of their detention for a 
short period, if thereby so important an object as the destruction or 
capture of the enemy’s flotilla could be achieved.’’! 

1 Baynes to Prevost, Kingston, August 16. 
