the gallant opposition of a British detachment of three hundred men which was posted at the village. By this handful of troops the passage was long and obstinately contested, until General Brock, who arrived, unattended, from Fort George during the struggle, fell in the act of cheering on his little band to a charge. With him the post was lost : a retreat, was effected, and sixteen hundred of the enemy established themselves in position on the heights of Queenston. Meanwhile, the whole of the British disposable force on the Niagara, of about one thousand men, of whom five hun- dred and sixty were regulars, had assembled near Queenston ; at three in the afternoon, they advanced against the American line, and, after a short and spirited contest, put the enemy completely to rout, capturing on the field Brigadier- General Wadsworth, nine hundred men, a piece of cannon, and a stand of colours. Many of the enemy were drowned in the attempt to swim to their own shore, and four hundred of them were killed and wounded, while the whole British loss did not exceed one hundred men.
" Such was the dismay of the enemy at the result of the action at Queenston, that had General Sheaflfe, who commanded after the death of Brock, crossed over immediately afterwards, as it is said he was strongly urged by his officers to do, the fort of Niagara, which its garrison had even evacuated for some time, might have been captured, and the whole of that line cleared of the American troops. But General Sheaffe, like his superior, was a lover of armistices, and after the action he concluded one of his own with the American general, for which no reason, civil or military, was ever assigned. Such were the principal occurrences of the cam- paign of 1812, in Upper Canada 5 those in the lower province were utterly insignificant.
"In reviewing the campaign in the Canadas of 1812, the most striking feature is the failure of the enemy in attempting the subjugation of the British provinces. So extravagant were the hopes of the American government regarding the issue of the contest, that their secretary at war declared from his seat in congress, that they ' could take the Canadas without soldiers ; they had only to send officers into the provinces, and the people, disaffected towards their own government, would rally round the American standard.' Mr. Clay, of Virginia, added, that 'it was absurd to suppose that the enterprise would fail of success ; he was not for stopping at Quebec, or any where else ; he would take the continent from the British ; he never wished to see a
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