"In these measures he[60] was most opportunely aided by the fortunate surrender of Fort Michilimakinack, which, giving spirit and confidence to the Indian tribes in its neighbourhood, part of whom assisted in its capture, determined them to advance upon the rear and flanks of the American army, as soon as they heard that it had entered the province." FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 58: This order strikes us as an unmilitary interference on the part of Sir George Prevost with Major-General Brock's authority, Captain Roberts being under the immediate command of the latter general.] [Footnote 59: See Captain Roberts' Dispatch, Appendix A, Sec. 1, No. 2.] [Footnote 60: Major-General Brock.] CHAPTER XI. Whilst Major-General Brock impatiently lingered on the Niagara frontier, so as to give time to the legislature to assemble at York, he dispatched Colonel Proctor, of the 41st regiment, with such reinforcements as could be spared, to assume the command at Amherstburg. General Hull, after crossing to Sandwich, remained for some time inactive, under pretext of making preparations for the reduction of Amherstburg, or Malden, as the Americans called it, which lay but eighteen miles below him, and was not in a condition to withstand a regular siege. During the delay, three detachments of his army were on three successive days beaten back by a small number of the 41st regiment and a few Indians. Michilimakinack had fallen since the invasion, and the Indians from that quarter were flocking to the British standard. Our naval force being superior on the lake, Colonel Proctor pushed over to Brownstown, an American village, about 25 miles from Detroit, and nearly opposite to Amherstburg, a small detachment of the 41st regiment, and some Indians under the celebrated Tecumseh, who, with 70 of the latter, awaited in ambush near that village a party of 200 Americans, under Major Van Home, on their march[61] from Detroit to the River Raisin, (40 miles south of Detroit,) to meet a detachment of volunteers from Ohio, with a convoy of provisions for Hull's army. The Indians, firing suddenly, killed 20, including 5 officers, and wounded about the same number of the Americans, who hastily retreated, and were pursued seven miles by the warriors alone, not a British soldier being engaged. In this affair, General Hull's dispatches and the correspondence of his troops fell into the hands of Tecumseh, and it was partly the desponding nature of their contents which afterwards induced Major-General Brock to attempt the capture of the American army. Foiled in the reduction of Fort Amherstburg; disappointed in his hope of a general insurrection of the Canadians; and, "above all, dismayed at the report of General Brock's resolution to advance against him,"[62] Hull's schemes of conquest vanished; and he who, less than a month before, had landed in Canada boastful of his strength and with threats of extermination, now saw no