Towards the end of August, (1813,) the American squadron, under Commodore Perry, became too powerful for the British, under Captain Barclay, who now remained at Amherstburg to await the equipment of the Detroit, recently launched. The British forces in the neighbourhood falling short of various supplies, for which they depended chiefly upon the fleet, Captain Barclay had no other alternative than to risk a general engagement. With this purpose he sailed on the 9th of September, with his small squadron wretchedly manned, and the next day encountered the enemy. For some time the fate of the battle poised in favor of the British, as the principal American ship, the Lawrence, struck her colours; but a sudden breeze turned the scale against them, and the whole of their squadron was compelled to surrender, after a desperate engagement of upwards of three hours. Captain Barclay was dangerously wounded; Captain Finnis, of the Queen Charlotte, killed; and every commander and officer second in command was either killed or wounded. Major-General Proctor's army was deprived, by this disastrous defeat, of every prospect of obtaining its necessary supplies through Lake Erie, and a speedy retreat towards the head of Lake Ontario became inevitable. Stung with grief and indignation, Tecumseh at first refused to agree to the measure, and in a council of war held at Amherstburg on the 18th of September, he thus delivered his sentiments against it: Father, listen to your children! You have them now all before you. The war before this, our British father gave the hatchet to his red children, when our old chiefs were alive. They are now dead. In that war our father was thrown on his back by the Americans, and our father took them by the hand without our knowledge; and we are afraid that our father will do so again at this time. The summer before last, when I came forward with my red brethren, and was ready to take up the hatchet in favor of our British father, we were told not to be in a hurry,--that he had not yet determined to fight the Americans. Listen! When war was declared, our father stood up and gave us the tomahawk, and told us that he was then ready to strike the Americans; that he wanted our assistance; and that he would certainly get us hack our lands, which the Americans had taken from us. Listen! You told us, at that time, to bring forward our families to this place, and we did so; and you promised to take care of them, and that they should want for nothing, while the men would go and fight the enemy; that we need not trouble ourselves about the enemy's garrisons; that we knew nothing about them, and that our father would attend to that part of the contest. You also told your red children that you would take good care of your garrison here, which made our hearts glad.