raise the hull as much as possible. But, luckily for
Perry, his opponent, Captain Barclay of the Royal Navy,
an energetic and capable young officer of thirty-two,
was called upon to face worse troubles still. Barclay
was, indeed, the first to get afloat. But he had to give
up the blockade of Presqu'isle, and so let Perry out,
because he had the rawest of crews, the scantiest of
equipment, and nothing left to eat. Then, when he ran
back to Amherstburg, he found Procter also facing a state
of semi-starvation, while thousands of Indian families
were clamouring for food. Thus there was no other choice
but either to fight or starve; for there was not the
slightest chance of replenishing stores unless the line
of the lake was clear.

So Barclay sailed out with his six little British vessels,
armed by the odds and ends of whatever ordnance could be
spared from Amherstburg and manned by almost any crews
but sailors. Even the flagship _Detroit_ had only ten
real seamen, all told. Ammunition was likewise very
scarce, and so defective that the guns had to be fired
by the flash of a pistol. Perry also had a makeshift
flotilla, partly manned by drafts from Harrison's army.
But, on the whole, the odds in his favour were fairly
shown by the number of vessels in the respective flotillas,
nine American against the British six.

Barclay had only thirty miles to make in a direct
south-easterly line from Amherstburg to reach Perry at
Put-in Bay in the Bass Islands, where, on the morning of