TORONTO: AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 
of seeing if the ball would take effect, ascended the 
bastion. In the meantime the artilleryman, waiting 
the word of command to fire, held the match behind 
him, as is usual in such circumstances; and the trav- 
elling magazine, a large wooden chest, containing 
cartridges for the great guns, being open just at his 
back, he unfortunately put his match into it, and the 
consequence was dreadful indeed. Every man ‘in the 
battery was blown into the air. The officers were 
thrown from the bastion by the shock, but escaped 
with a few bruises; the cannon were dismounted, and 
the battery was rendered completely useless. I was 
standing at the gate of the garrison when the poor 
soldiers who escaped the explosion with a little life 
remaining were brought into the hospital, and a more 
afflicting sight could scarcely be witnessed.” 
The American general, Pike, was killed by the 
explosion, as well as a large number of his men, and 
on the capture of the town the Parliament Buildings 
were burned. It was partly in reprisal for this act 
that the British forces destroyed the Government 
Buildings at Washington some months later, when 
General Ross captured that city. That New Eng- 
land was opposed to the war the Hartford Convention 
clearly showed. While thus tending to separate the 
Union it did much to consolidate the Provinces, for 
the French were quite as vigorous in their defence: 
as the Loyalists of the Upper Province. There cam 
be no doubt that the success with which the Cana~ 
dians repelled the invader was mainly owing to the 
2 17 
