induced to return to Amherstburg, that army will very soon dwindle to nothing.  Your artillery must be more numerous and effective than any the enemy can bring, and your store of ammunition will enable you to harass him continually, without leaving much to chance.

    I trust you will have destroyed every barrack and public
    building, and removed the pickets and other defences around
    the fort at Detroit.

You will have the goodness to state the expedients you possess to enable us to replace, as far as possible, the heavy loss we have sustained in the Detroit.  Should I hear of reinforcements coming up, you may rely upon receiving your due proportion.  Nothing new at Montreal on the 25th ult.  Lord Wellington has totally defeated Marmont, near Salamanca.  I consider the game nearly up in Spain.  May every possible success attend you.

[The preceding letter is transcribed from a rough copy in the general’s handwriting, and, not being dated, may not have been transmitted, as it was written only a day or two before his death.]

Major-General Brock to Sir George Prevost.

    October 12, 1812.

The vast number of troops which have been this day added to the strong force previously collected on the opposite side, convinces me, with other indications, that an attack is not far distant.  I have in consequence directed every exertion to be made to complete the militia to 2,000 men, but fear that I shall not be able to effect my object with willing, well-disposed characters.  Were it not for the numbers of Americans in our ranks, we might defy all their efforts against this part of the province.

[The above letter is also from a copy written hurriedly by Sir Isaac Brock only a few hours before his death, and it may not have been forwarded.]

* * * * *

A day or two prior to the battle of Queenstown, Major-General Brock wrote copious instructions for the guidance of the officers commanding at the different posts on the Niagara river, in the event of their being attacked, and he explained the probable points which he thought the enemy would select for accomplishing his descent.  He evidently entertained a high opinion of the discipline and prowess of the British soldier, as in these instructions he observed:  “If we weigh well the character of our enemy, we shall find him more disposed to brave the impediments of nature, when they afford him a probability of accomplishing his end by surprise, in preference to the certainty of encountering British troops ready formed for his reception.”  The original draft of these instructions in the general’s writing, contains scarcely an erasure or correction.