In the latter part of July, about 4,000 British and Indians, the former under General Proctor, the latter under Tecumseh, again appeared before Fort Meigs, now commanded by General Clay. After waiting a few days, and not succeeding in drawing out the garrison as he hoped, Proctor withdrew his forces and proceeded to Fort Stephenson, at Sandusky, which was garrison by 120 men, under Major Coghan, a young man of one-and-twenty. The defence of this place was one of the bravest on record. The British were repulsed with great loss, and fled so precipitately that they left behind them a quantity of clothes and military stores. While all this was going forward on land and on the inland seas, the coast was harassed by predatory warfare carried on by large detachments from the British navy. One squadron stationed in Delaware Bay captured and burned every merchant ship they could seize, while another burned the farms and houses along the Chesapeake Bay; several towns also were burned. Various naval actions took place. On the 23rd of February, Captain Lawrence, in the Hornet sloop-of-war, encountered the Peacock sloop-of-war, which was, after an engagement of fifteen minutes, so much damaged that she sank, and spite of every effort of the captors to save the lives of those whom they had just attacked, she went down with thirteen men on board. On his return to shore, Captain Lawrence was appointed to the command of the Chesapeake frigate, then in harbour at Boston. For several weeks the British frigate Shannon, of equal force, commanded by Captain Broke, had been cruising before the port, challenging to combat any American frigate. It had already been triumphantly sung in England, And as the war they did provoke, We’ll pay them with our cannon The first to do it will be Broke, In the gallant ship, the Shannon.