194] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



and twelve millions of dollars, 

 more than doubling the estimated 

 revenue of the year 1815. 



On November 5th, the Ameri- 

 can garrison evacuated Fort Erie, 

 having first blown up the works, 

 and completely demolished the 

 place, and retreated to their own 

 shores. Military operations were 

 at an end in this quarter. 



A British expedition was un- 

 dertaken in the autumn in the 

 gulf of Mexico, of which we have 

 only some imperfect accounts 

 through the medium of the Ame- 

 rican papers. From these it ap- 

 pears that Lieutenant-Colonel Ni- 

 choUs, styling himself command- 

 ant of his Britannic Majesty's 

 forces in the Floridas, issued a 

 proclamation to the people of 

 Louisiana, dated Pensacola, Aug. 

 29th, in which he stated himself 

 to be at the head of a large army 

 of Indians, disciplined and com- 

 manded by British officers, and 

 seconded by the aid of a nume- 

 rous British and Spanish squadron 

 of ships of war, and called upon all 

 the settlers in that province to con- 

 tribute their aid' in abolishing the 

 American usurpation. He also 

 addressed a letter to Mons. La Fete, 

 or Fitte, a Frenchman, the chief 

 of a band of outlaws or pirates, as 

 they are termed in an American 

 paper, who had posted themselves 

 in an island called Barataria, in an 

 arm of the sea running up towards 

 the Mississippi below New Orleans; 

 in which he acquainted La Fete 

 with his arrival, and made him 

 large offers for his assistance. We 

 have no farther direct information 

 of the proceedings of Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Nicholls; but a letter from 

 Major-General Jackson to the 

 American secretary at war, dated 

 Mobile, Sqitember 17th, commu- 



nicates an official report from 

 Major W. Laurence of his success 

 in repulsing an attack by a British' 

 land and naval force upon Fort 

 Bowyer, on the point of Mobile, 

 on the 15th. From this relation 

 it appears that the British expedi- 

 tion bore down at noon on that 

 day directly for the fort, when an 

 American battery opened on the 

 foremost ships, and the action be- 

 came general. It continued till 

 seven, at which time the leading 

 ship was so much disabled, her 

 cable being cut by the shot, that 

 she drifted on shore within six 

 hundred yards of the battery, 

 where she was exposed to such d 

 tremendous cannonade, that her 

 remaining crew set her on fire and 

 abandoned her, and she blew up 

 at ten o'clock. Another ship and 

 a brig retired, having suffered 

 much injury ; and the whole fleet 

 stood out to sea in the night. 

 General Jackson mentions, that he 

 has since discovered that the ship 

 destroyed was the Henries, of 

 from 24 to 28 guns, Captain the 

 Hon. W, H. Percy ; and the other 

 ship was the Carron, of the same 

 force. Captain Spencer, said to be 

 the son of Earl Spencer, the loss 

 on board of which was 85 men 

 killed and wounded. Among the 

 latter is named Colonel Nicoll of 

 the marines, doubtless the Lieut.- 

 colonel Nicholls above-mentioned. 

 The British land force is said to 

 have been 110 marines, 20 artil- 

 lerists, and 200 Creek Indians. 



In the prospect of an indefi- 

 nite continuance of the war, with 

 more vigorous exertions on the 

 part of Great Britain, measures 

 were proposed in congress by the 

 American government, for mak- 

 ing defensive preparations ade- 

 quate to the emergence, A lettef 



