Colonel Baynes reported in September that about half of the 8th, or King's Regiment, three hundred men, were at Côteau du Lac and the Isle aux Noix. These two places were the keys of Lower Canada, the former commanding the navigation of the St. Lawrence at its entrance into Lake Francis, the latter, in the Richelieu River, being the barrier of Lower Canada from the Champlain frontier. In the conflict of the eighteenth century these places had been much thought of by French engineers. They were, after the conquest, fortified by General Haldimand. Colonel Baynes was confident, he wrote, that the British could bring as many men into the field as the Americans, and of superior stuff, as the militia had improved so much in discipline, and therefore in spirit and confidence. Montreal, he thought, could turn out two thousand volunteer militia very tolerably drilled. A naval success on the Atlantic on August 19th, when H.M.S. _Guerrière_ was taken by the _Constitution_, had gone far to console the Americans for their discomfiture at Detroit, and they were hopefully preparing for another invasion, in this instance on the Niagara frontier, where Major-General Van Rensselaer[1] had assembled an army of over six {285} thousand men, with headquarters at the village of Lewiston, opposite Queenston. [Sidenote: Dearborn's command] At Plattsburg there were about five thousand troops, half of them regulars under the immediate command of Major-General Dearborn, who wrote on September 26th to General Van Rensselaer: "At all events we must calculate on possessing Upper Canada before the winter sets in." Ex-President Jefferson wrote: "I fear that Hull's surrender has been more than the mere loss of a year to us. Perhaps, however, the patriotic efforts from Kentucky and Ohio by recalling the British force to its upper posts, may yet give time to Dearborn to strike a blow below. Effective possession of the river from Montreal to Chaudiere, which is practicable, would give us the upper country at our leisure." So spoke the generals and politicians. In the meantime, courteous messages were passing from Major-General Van Rensselaer to Major-General Brock as to the disposition of the prisoners of war, and of the women and children who had accompanied them from Detroit. General Brock writes to the American general: "With much regret I have perceived very heavy firing from both sides of the river. I am, however, given to understand that on all occasions it commenced on your side, and from the circumstance of the flag of truce which I did myself the honour to send over yesterday, having been repeatedly fired on while in the act of crossing {286} the river, I am inclined to give full credit to the correctness of the information. You may rest assured on my repeating my most positive orders against the continuance of a practice which can only be injurious to individuals, without promoting the object which both our nations may have in view."