1898-99. | THE CONTEST FOR THE COMMAND OF LAKE ERIE IN 1812-13. 378 
wisely refused to take the lake until provided with a sufficient comple- 
ment of able seamen. The number then at his disposal is not stated 
but must have been at least thrice as many as Barclay had, though he 
was no doubt unaware of his opponent’s weakness in this essential re- 
spect. He is said to have brought 152 from Newport but of these one- 
third were detained for service at Sackett’s Harbour. Fifty-five were 
detailed to his assistance by Chauncey on May 29th and there must 
have been some at the navy yards at Black Rock and Erie before he 
took command. A recruiting station had been established at Erie and 
over one hundred ordinary seamen and landsmen besides forty marines 
had been enlisted. His command is said to have suffered much from 
disease but he must have had nearly three hundred seamen of all des- 
criptions when Barclay appeared off the port on July roth. His crews 
could no doubt have been easily completed with boatmen, soldiers, and 
militia but Perry would not consent to do this and risk defeat. The 
British squadron passed and repassed the harbour’s mouth and in the 
afternoon disappeared in the direction of Long Point. On the 2Ist it 
returned and ran in close enough to exchange shots with the gunboats 
inside. 
“Tt is a most mortifying situation for me,’ Perry wrote to General P. 
B. Porter, “ my vessels being ready and no men being forwarded for 
them while an enemy of inferior force in vessels and guns are blockad- 
ing us.” 
“Conceive of my feelings,” he said in a letter to Chauncey, “ An 
enemy within striking distance, my vessels ready and not men enough 
to man them. Going out with those I now have is out of the question. 
You would not suffer it, were you here.” 
Two days later Sailing-master Champlin arrived with seventy men. 
Letter after letter from the Secretary of War and from General Harri- 
son were received urging immediate co-operation with the army advan- 
cing upon Detroit but Perry still firmly refused to move until supplied 
with satisfactory crews. “ The vessels are all ready to meet the enemy,” 
he informed Chauncey, “the moment they are officered and manned. 
Our sails are bent, provisions on board, and in fact everything is ready.” 
In the same letter he sharply criticised the quality of the men lately 
sent him whom he described as “a motley set, blacks, soldiers, and 
boys.” Chauncey sent the officers and men demanded but retorted that 
he “had yet to learn that the color of the skin can affect a man’s qualifi- 
cation or usefulness. I have nearly fifty blacks on board of this ship 
and many of them are among my best men.” The tone of his letter 
