Dorchester then was wholly averse to war; but being on the spot he saw more clearly than ministers in England that, the people of the United States being minded for war, want of preparation and appearance of timidity on the British side were likely to bring it on, that plain speaking and firm action might have a good effect. Simcoe, who was responsible under him for the frontier of Upper Canada, seems to have been of the same mind. Accordingly, in replying to two Indian deputations, one in the autumn of 1793, the other on the 10th of February, 1794, Dorchester took occasion to speak out, condemning the aggression of the United States which, he said, had nearly exhausted the patience of Great Britain, and referring to war between the two nations as imminent. At the same time, as a counterblast to Wayne’s advance in the Ohio territories, and as an outpost in the case of a movement against Detroit, he ordered a fort to be constructed and garrisoned on what were called the Miami rapids on the Maumee river, south-west of Lake Erie, near the site where a fort had been constructed and held during the War of Independence. Copies, or what purported to be copies, of the governor’s speeches, and reports of his action, reached the American Government in due course, and Randolph, who had succeeded Jefferson, protested, characterizing them as ‘hostility itself’. In view of this protest Dundas, in July, 1794, by which time Jay, Washington’s emissary of peace, had arrived in England, addressed a mild remonstrance to Dorchester, expressing fear that what had been said and done might rather provoke hostilities than prevent them; and upon receipt of this dispatch in the following September Dorchester tendered his resignation. The Duke of Portland, who succeeded Dundas, was at pains to retain the old governor’s services, but, though nearly two years intervened before Dorchester actually left Canada, the correspondence which passed in the interval showed his anxiety to be gone, now that the danger of war between Great Britain and the United States had for the moment passed away. [Sidenote: Jay’s treaty signed.] [Sidenote: The border forts transferred to the United States in 1796.]