[Footnote AK:  The N.W.  Company having raised a regiment composed of their own servants, and known as the voyageur corps, and having also instigated to war, and armed, the Indian tribes, over which they had influence, had brought on themselves this act of retaliation.  Mr. Johnston also had engaged actively in the war against the United States.]

The schooner was at the foot of the rapids; the Americans had run her down, but she grounded on a ledge of rocks, whence they could not dislodge her, and so they had burnt her to the water’s edge.

Le Saut de Ste. Marie, or as it is shortly called, Saut Ste. Marie, is a rapid at the outlet of Lake Superior, and may be five hundred or six hundred yards wide; its length may be estimated at three quarters of a mile, and the descent of the water at about twenty feet.  At the lower extremity the river widens to about a mile, and here there are a certain number of houses.  The north bank belongs to Great Britain; the southern to the United States.  It was on the American side that Mr. Johnston lived.  Before the war he was collector of the port for the American government.  On the same side resided a Mr. Nolin, with his family, consisting of three half-breed boys and as many girls, one of whom was passably pretty.  He was an old Indian trader, and his house and furniture showed signs of his former prosperity.  On the British side we found Mr. Charles Ermatinger, who had a pretty establishment:  he dwelt temporarily in a house that belonged to Nolin, but he was building another of stone, very elegant, and had just finished a grist mill.  He thought that the last would lead the inhabitants to sow more grain than they did.  These inhabitants are principally old Canadian boatmen, married to half-breed or Indian women.  The fish afford them subsistence during the greater part of the year, and provided they secure potatoes enough to carry them through the remainder, they are content.  It is to be regretted that these people are not more industrious, for the land is very fertile.

On the 1st of August, an express was sent to Michilimackinac (Mackinaw) to inform the commandant thereof what had happened at Saut Ste. Marie.  While expecting the return of the messenger, we put ourselves in a state of defence, in case that by chance the Americans should make another irruption.  The thing was not improbable, for according to some expressions which fell from one of their number who spoke French, their objects was to capture the furs of the Northwest Company, which were expected to arrive shortly from the interior.  We invited some Indians, who were camped on Pine Point, at some distance from the Saut, to help us in case of need; which they promised to do.  Meanwhile we had no provisions, as everything had been carried off by the American forces, and were obliged to subsist on such brook trout as we could take with hook and line, and on wild raspberries.