The most remote piece of water on this frontier worthy of notice is Lake Superior, a body of fresh water unequalled by any upon the face of the globe.  Lake Superior is of a triangular form; in length 381, in breadth 161, and in circumference about 1,150 miles.  Among its islands is one nearly two-thirds as large as Jamaica.  Out of Lake Superior a very rapid current flows, over immense masses of rock, along a channel of 27 miles in length, called St. Mary’s River, into Lake Huron, at the head of which is the British island of St. Joseph, containing a small garrison.  This isolated post is distant about 350 miles by water from Amherstburg, which contained the nearest British garrison.

Lake Huron is in length, from west to east, 218 miles; in breadth, 180; and in circumference, through its numerous curvatures, 812 miles.  Except the island of St. Joseph, and one or two trading establishments belonging to the north-west company, the shores of this lake were in a state of nature, or inhabited only by Indians.  When the Americans were allowed to obtain the dominion of Lake Erie, which they did in 1813, it was determined at the close of the following year to create a naval force on Lake Huron in the ensuing season, (1815,) as possessing much greater security for the construction of vessels than Lake Erie, where the enemy could at any time destroy them, in the same manner as their vessels ought to have been previously destroyed by the British.  Lake Michigan, which belongs wholly to the United States, is connected with Lake Huron at its western angle by a short and wide strait, in the centre of which is the island of Michilimakinack, belonging to the United States.  This island is about 9 miles in circumference, and, like St. Joseph, its neighbour, it possessed a small fort and garrison.  Lake Huron flows through the river St. Clair, which is in length about 60 miles, into Lake St. Clair, a small circular lake 30 miles in diameter.  The beautiful river Thames, in Upper Canada, opens into Lake St. Clair, and it was along the banks of this river that Major-General Proctor retreated in 1813.  From Lake St. Clair, the stream, through the Detroit, navigable for vessels not drawing more than fourteen feet water, pursues a course of nearly 40 miles into Lake Erie.

Upon the western side of the Detroit is situate the American town of that name.  About 5 miles below Detroit, upon the opposite side of the strait, is the British village of Sandwich, then containing scarcely fifty houses; and 18 miles lower, and within four of the termination of the strait, is the British village of Amherstburg, then containing about one hundred houses, and a fort where a small garrison was maintained, and where the principal vessels for the service of Lake Erie were constructed.  The American village of Brownstown stands nearly opposite to Amherstburg, which is distant from Quebec by the nearest route by water 815 miles, from Fort Erie about 250 miles, and from York 315 miles.