28 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: 
in English shops, and formed a not inconsiderable item in 
the ordinary supplies for the Indian trade. Under these 
circumstances, the war of 1812, generally regarded in his- 
torical annals as a maratime contest, presented far other 
features to the enterprising settlers of the west. To them 
it implied a fearful aggravation of the difficulties and dan- 
gers by which they had been constantly surrounded, as well 
as the liability to open attack from those whose hostilities 
had been confined to more underhanded measures, in insti- 
gating others. Nor had they to wait long for these open 
manifestations. Mackinaw, the key to the northwest, then 
occupied by a weak garrison of barely fifty-seven men, was 
captured by a British force on July 17th, 1812, before the 
news of an actual declaration of war had reached that re- 
mote station. In less than a month after (August 16th), 
Detroit was also disgracefully surrendered by its incompe- 
tent commander, General Hull. Still more disastrous was 
the retreat and massacre at Ft. Dearborn (Chicago), oceur- 
ring on the 15th of August of that same year. In this re- 
treat, fully equalling in barbarity the massacre of Ft. Wm. 
Henry in 1757, nearly two-thirds of the retreating party 
were killed by the Indians; and the scene of this terrible 
catastrophe along the lake shore southeast of Chicago was, 
for years, marked by the ghastly trophies of Indian bar- 
barity 
Had there been sufficient inducements in the way of 
plunder, no doubt the Upper Mississippi, then at the merey 
of the British forces, backed by their savage allies, would 
have presented a repetition of these scenes of war and 
massacre. But the settlements were sparse, and difficult of 
access, besides offering little substantial results for the dan- 
gers to be incurred. St. Louis, then the military headquar- 
ters of the United States forces, was far distant and too 
strongly manned to justify an attack by the limited means 
E the command of the British outposts. Hence, with the 
