On October 9th the brig _Detroit_ (late United States brig _Adams_), and the North-West Company's brig _Caledonia_ (one hundred tons), having arrived at Fort Erie the preceding day from Detroit, were boarded and carried off at dawn by Lieutenant Elliott of the American navy with a hundred seamen and soldiers in two large boats. This officer was stationed at the time at Black Rock, superintending the equipment of some schooners purchased for service on Lake Erie. Had it not been for the defensive measures forced on General Brock by the commander-in-chief, these schooners would probably have been destroyed. The two British vessels contained forty prisoners, some cannon and small arms captured at Detroit, and also a valuable lot of furs in the _Caledonia_ belonging to the South-West Company. The Americans who attacked the two brigs far out-numbered the crews and militia on board, who amounted {290} in all to sixty-eight men. After the capture Lieutenant Elliott ran the _Caledonia_ close under the batteries at Black Rock, but on account of the heavy fire from Fort Erie he was compelled to abandon the _Detroit_ at Squaw Island. Here she was boarded by a subaltern detachment from Fort Erie, which had come to the rescue. Unfortunately their efforts were unavailing, and the Americans set her on fire. [Sidenote: The capture] General Brock's letter relating to the disaster is dated Fort George, October 11th, 1812: "I had scarcely closed my despatch to your Excellency, of the 9th, when I was suddenly called away to Fort Erie, in consequence of a bold, and I regret to say, successful attack by the enemy on His Majesty's ship _Detroit_ and the private brig _Caledonia_, which had both arrived the preceding day from Amherstburg. It appears by every account I have been able to collect, that a little before day a number of boats, full of men, dropped down with the current unobserved, boarded both vessels at the same moment, and cutting their cables were proceeding with them to the American shore, when Major Ormsby who witnessed the transaction, directed the batteries to open upon them, and soon compelled the enemy to abandon the _Detroit_, which grounded about the centre of Squaw Island, a little more than a mile below Black Rock. She was then boarded by a party of the 49th Regiment, but as no anchor remained, and being otherwise unprovided {291} with every means by which she could be hauled off, the officers, throwing her guns overboard, after sustaining a smart fire of musketry, decided to quit her. A private, who is accused of getting drunk, and a prisoner of war, who was unable from his wounds to escape, with about twenty prisoners brought by the _Detroit_ from Amherstburg, remained, however, behind; these it became necessary to remove before the vessel could be destroyed, and Cornet Pell, major of the Provincial Cavalry, offered his services. Being unfortunately wounded as he was