On the Lakes 103 



operate with their army; while the Americans held 

 it for barely two months and a half. In fact the 

 conduct of the two fleets on Lake Ontario during 

 the latter part of the war was almost farcical. As 

 soon as one, by building, acquired the superiority, 

 the foe at once retired to port, where he waited 

 until he had built another vessel or two, when he 

 came out, and the other went into port in turn. 

 Under such circumstances it was hopeless ever to 

 finish the contest by a stand-up sea-fight, each com 

 mander calculating the chances with mathematical 

 exactness. The only hope of destroying the enemy's 

 fleet was by co-operating with the land-forces in a 

 successful attack on his main post, when he would 

 be forced to be either destroyed or to fight and this 

 co-operation Chauncy refused to give. He seems 

 to have been an excellent organizer, but he did not 

 use (certainly not in the summer of 1813) his mate 

 rials by any means to the best advantage. He was 

 hardly equal to his opponent, and the latter seems 

 to have been little more than an average officer. 

 Yeo blundered several times, as in the attack on 

 Sackett's Harbor, in not following up his advantage 

 at Oswego, in showing so little resource in the ac 

 tion off the Genesee, etc., and he was not troubled 

 by any excess of daring ; but during the period when 

 he was actually cruising against Chauncy on the 

 lake he certainly showed to better advantage than 



