It may be of interest to note that the captured ships were valued at $225,000. Of this, Perry and Elliott got $7,140 each, while $5,000 was voted by Congress to Perry in addition. The captains of gun-boats and other officers got $2,295 each; midshipmen, $811 each; petty officers, $447, and the men before the mast, $209 each.

At the end of the open-water season the ships of the squadron rendezvoused at Erie, and eventually, after the war, the Lawrence, the Detroit, and the Queen Charlotte were sunk in Little Bay in the east end of Presqu’ Isle at Erie, as worthless. The Niagara followed to the same Davy-Jones locker. Then the Queen Charlotte and Detroit were bought and raised, and used for a time as merchantmen. The end of the Detroit came at last when some hotel-keepers at Niagara Falls bought her, put a live bear and some other animals on her, to make a show for gaping fools, and sent her over the falls.

The guns from the fleet when last fired served a historical purpose. When the Erie Canal was opened they were stretched along its route at such intervals that the report of one, if fired, could be heard at the next. And so, when the first boat was ready to make its triumphant passage of the great waterway, these guns were fired one after another to telegraph the news ahead, and so it happened that in just two hours from the time when she left Buffalo it was known in New York that she had started.

Said Washington Irving in writing of Perry’s victory soon after the event:

“In future times, when the shores of Erie shall hum with busy population; when towns and cities shall brighten where now extend the dark and tangled forests; when ports shall spread their arms, and lofty barks shall ride where now the canoe is fastened to the stake; when the present age shall have grown into venerable antiquity, and the mists of fable begin to gather around its history, then will the inhabitants look back to this battle as one of the romantic achievements of the days of yore. It will stand first on the page of their local legends, and in the marvellous tales of the borders.”

CHAPTER XV
THE WAR ON LAKE ONTARIO

THE CAPTURE OF YORK (TORONTO) BY THE AMERICANS—A VICTORY AT THE MOUTH OF THE NIAGARA RIVER—BRITISH ACCOUNT OF THE ATTACK ON SACKETT’S HARBOR—TALES OF THE PRUDENCE OF SIR JAMES YEO AND COMMODORE CHAUNCEY—THE AMERICANS DID SOMEWHAT BETTER THAN THE BRITISH, BUT MISSED A GREAT OPPORTUNITY—SMALL AFFAIRS ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN DURING THE SUMMER OF 1813.

While Perry was laboring at Erie to get his squadron ready, the Americans on Lake Ontario, as has been intimated in what was said about the capture of Fort George, were by no means idle. Plans were laid for an assault on Toronto—then called York—to be followed by the attack on Fort George at the mouth of Niagara River, and after that, Kingston, the British naval station across from Sackett’s Harbor, was to be assaulted. A force of 8,300 men was collected for this purpose at Sackett’s Harbor in the spring of 1813, of whom 1,300 were sailors from the squadron of Commodore Chauncey. The soldiers were under General Dearborn, assisted by General Zebulon M. Pike. On April 22, 1813, 1,700 soldiers were embarked on the fourteen ships under Chauncey, the flag-ship being the Madison, commanded by Lieutenant Elliott, who was afterward to go to aid Perry.

Map of