could induce the authorities at Washington to send
reinforcements to the assistance of the defenseless
settlers. The American troops were unprepared
to maintain their own position, and absolutely
unable to conquer and annex Canada, as the
government expected them to do. General Hull
found himself with some eight hundred men facing
more than fifteen hundred British regulars, and
threatened in the rear by a thousand Indians.

What President Madison or any of his officers
would have done, we cannot say. They appear
to have thought that it was General Hull's duty
to annihilate the British army, effectually dispose
of the Indians, and present Canada to the American
government.

General Hull, however, was a practical soldier.
He knew the fate that would await the women and
children in his territory, to say nothing of his
small army, if he risked a battle and was defeated,
as he surely would be; so he did what seemed to
him the only possible thing to save the people of
Michigan. He surrendered. Canada remained unannexed;
the white settlers of Michigan were not
delivered to the tender mercies of the Indians, and
General Hull paid the penalty of the independent
stand he had taken.

He probably foresaw that he must face a terrible

[[131]]

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v?