I had reckoned on setting down the details of many small adventures which befell Alec and myself during such time as the townspeople of Presque Isle were in a fever of fear, believing the British would make a descent upon them while our fleet was much the same as useless; but the pages are counting up so fast that many things must be omitted, else I shall have come to an end of my paper before the real story has been begun.
Therefore it is that I may do no more than explain the condition of affairs in the settlement while our vessels lay at their moorings inside the bar, useless, because lacking men, and the British frittered away their time reconnoitring until, fortunately, we were in fair condition to meet them.
After we two—meaning Alec and I—had brought for the second time information of what was being done on the North Foreland, and General Porter sent word from Black Rock that the enemy’s squadron was about to make a descent upon us, there was neither man, woman, nor lad in the town who did not feel certain the attack must be made within a very few days at the longest, yet it was destined that we should have ample opportunity to make all necessary arrangements for defence.
Strange as it may seem, we were not molested for a space of three weeks, and to this day no person, save the British commander himself, has been able to decide why the king’s forces did not destroy our little fleet, which afterward worked so much mischief.
As I have said, we expected momentarily to see the English squadron, and knew full well that it could not be successfully opposed by us; but yet we did not fold our hands in idleness.
The guard-boats at the entrance of the bay, just inside the bar, were redoubled, and orders given that three musket-shots should be fired when the enemy hove in sight.
The ship-carpenters were set at work building a blockhouse on the bluff east of Cascade Creek, to protect the shipyard, and such of the citizens as had not fled in terror were detailed to put up a redoubt on the heights commanding the bar, the same to be called Fort Wayne.
Captain Perry sent messengers to Major-General Mead, at Meadville, asking that he order a body of militia to our aid with the least possible delay, and received from him the cheering intelligence that all men who could be spared should be set in motion at once.
The brigs and the schooners were moored near the shipyard, for no attempt at taking them over the bar was to be made until we had a sufficient number of sailors to man them; but the gunboats were fully armed, and anchored off Hospital Point, because, owing to their light draught, they could leave the bay at almost any time.
Alec and I, with many another lad, were ordered to labor at Fort Wayne; but it was understood that in case of an attack we should repair on board one of the gunboats without delay, and we knew that while the force of defenders was so small there would be no protest made, either by Captain Perry or my father, against our doing whatever might be possible in event of an engagement.