actually captured them.  Considering the circumstances attending this hostile act, it is but too evident it was intended to provoke retaliation:  these boats fired upon and taken within musket shot of our own fort; their balls falling on our shore, was expected to have raised the indignation of the most phlegmatic; fortunately, the commandant was not in the way, as otherwise it is difficult to say what would have happened.  A representation of this affair has been made at Washington, and, for an act certainly opposed to existing treaties, we have been referred for justice to the ordinary course of the law!  If our subjects cannot command impunity from capture under the guns of our own forts, it were better to demolish them at once rather than witness and suffer such indignity.  By the treaties which have expired, the navigation of the waters that divide the two countries is regulated and stipulated to be still in force, although every other part should cease to be obligatory.

I get on here pretty well, but this place loses at this season the undoubted advantage it possesses over Quebec in winter.  Great additions are making to the fortifications at Quebec, and, when completed, the Americans will, if I mistake not, think it prudent not to trouble the place, for they can have no chance of making any impression upon it during the short period which the severity of the climate only permits an enemy to lay before it.  I erected, as I believe I told you before, a famous battery, which the public voice named after me; but Sir James, thinking very properly that any thing so very pre-eminent should be distinguished by the most exalted appellation, has called it the King’s Battery, the greatest compliment, I conceive, that he could pay to my judgment.[22] Not a desertion has been attempted by any of the 49th for the last ten months, with the exception indeed of Hogan, Savery’s former servant.  He served Glegg in the same capacity, who took him with him to the Falls of Niagara, where a fair damsel persuaded him to this act of madness, for the fellow cannot possibly gain his bread by labour, as he has half killed himself with excessive drinking; and we know he cannot live upon love alone.  The weather has been exceedingly hot the last week, the thermometer fluctuating from 94 degrees to 100 degrees in the shade.  The embargo has proved a famous harvest to some merchants here.  It is certainly the most ridiculous measure imaginable, and was evidently adopted with the view of pleasing France; but no half measure can satisfy Napoleon, and this colony has been raised by it to a degree of importance that ensures its future prosperity.

Brigadier Brock to his Brothers.

    QUEBEC, September 5, 1808.