boats and batteaux that could be collected, added
to those of the fleet, lay covering the sands, ready
to receive their destined burdens. At length
the embarkation was completed, and the signal having
been given, the several divisions of boats moved off
in the order prescribed to them. Never did a
more picturesque scene present itself to the human
eye, than during the half hour occupied in the transit
of this little army. The sun was just rising gloriously
and unclouded, as the first division of boats pushed
from the shore, and every object within the British
and American line of operation, tended to the production
of an effect, that was little in unison with the anticipated
issue of the whole. Not a breeze ruffled the
fair face of the placid Detroit, through which the
heavily laden boats now made their slow, but certain
way, and a spectator who, in utter ignorance of events,
might hare been suddenly placed on the Canadian hank,
would have been led to imagine, that a fete, not a
battle, was intended. Immediately above the village
of Sandwich, and in full view of the American Fort,
lay the English flotilla at anchor, their white sails
half clewed up, their masts decked with gay pendants,
and their taffrails with, ensigns that lay drooping
over their sterns into the water, as if too indolent
to bear up against the coming sultriness of the day.
Below these, glittering in bright scarlet, that glowed
not unpleasingly on the silvery stream, the sun’s
rays dancing on their polished muskets and accoutrements,
glided like gay actors in an approaching pageant,
the columns destined for the assault, while further
down, and distributed far and wide over the expanse
of water, were to be seen a multitude of canoes, filled
with Indian warriors, whose war costume could not,
in the distance, be distinguished from that of the
dance; the whole contributing, with the air of quietude
on both shores, and absence of all opposition on the
American especially, to inspire feelings of joyousness
and pleasure, rather than the melancholy consequent
on a knowledge of the final destination of the whole.
Nor would the incessant thunder of the cannon in the
distance, have in any way diminished this impression;
for as the volumes of smoke, vomited from the opposing
batteries, met and wreathed themselves together in
the centre of the stream, leaving at intervals the
gay colours of England and America, brightly displayed
to the view, the impression, to a spectator, would
have been that of one who witnesses the exchange of
military honors between two brave and friendly powers,
preparing the one to confer, the other to receive
all the becoming courtesies of a chivalrous hospitality.
If any thing were wanting to complete the illusion,
the sound of the early mass bell, summoning to the
worship of that God whom no pageantry of man may dispossess
of homage, would amply crown and heighten the effect
of the whole, while the chaunting of the hymn of adoration,
would appear a part of the worship of the Deity, and
of the pageantry itself.