The militia had hardly more than gotten out of the town before an hundred disciplined sailors and marines, well officered and under command of Captain Jesse D. Elliott, marched in, and immediately signals were set in token that those on shore desired to communicate with the commander of the fleet.
It can well be fancied that we were overjoyed by the arrival of this sadly needed reënforcement, and the squadron came to anchor just off the bar to receive the newcomers.
The men and officers already on the Niagara were distributed among the other vessels, and the brig was put under command of Captain Elliott, who took on board with him the force he had brought in.
Commodore Perry now had under his command nearly four hundred men, and the moment had come when he believed it his duty to report as being ready to coöperate with General Harrison, even though by so doing he would be leaving Presque Isle at the mercy of the enemy.
“I’m allowin’ Barclay won’t have a chance to do much mischief in this section of the country,” old Silas said, when a dozen or more in the watch to which we two lads belonged were discussing the news that had been whispered around, no one knowing how it had leaked out of the cabin. “Our commodore ain’t countin’ on givin’ the Britishers any very great amount of spare time, an’ that famous squadron of theirs will have to move mighty lively in order to steer clear of a row.”
To me it seemed almost wicked, this going away from Presque Isle when it appeared as if the town was in greatest danger; but Alec argued that in war there can be no discrimination, and that, as in all things, “the greatest good to the largest number” is the rule to be observed.
It made little difference, however, what I might have thought of this new order of affairs. The command was given that the fleet make sail for Put-in-Bay, and the town wherein was my mother must be left with no other protection than could be afforded by the armed citizens.
If Captain Elliott had arrived twelve hours earlier, or if General Mead had delayed an equal length of time before disbanding the militia, the situation of affairs might have been far different, and my heart would have been less heavy on that morning when we set sail in regular battle order to begin active operations against our country’s enemies.
During such time as we were at sea nothing in the way of a British craft was sighted, and now is the moment when I may set down certain matters regarding the traitor Alec and I had captured.
Until this morning when we left the entrance of Presque Isle bay, some of us never to return, I had believed Nathaniel Hubbard was confined on board the Caledonia; but as we made sail I heard one of the sailors complaining that he was deprived of what might be a last glimpse of home in order to “feed a villanous traitor.”