by this judicious flight. Every man was at his post; and,
while a silence so profound was preserved, that the noise
of a falling pin might have been heard upon her decks,
every thing was in readiness to repel an attack of their
enemies, should the vessel, in her course, come accidentally
in collision with their pigmy fleets. When morning broke,
and no sign of their treacherous foes was visible, the
vessel was again anchored, and the majority of the crew
suffered to retire to their hammocks, while the few whose
turn of duty it chanced to be, kept a vigilant look-out,
that, on the slightest appearance of alarm, their slumbering
comrades might again be aroused to energy and action.

Severe and harassing as had been the duty on board this
vessel for many months,--at one moment exposed to the
assaults of the savages, at another assailed by the
hurricanes that are so prevalent and so dangerous on the
American lakes,--the situation of the crew was even less
enviable than that of the garrison itself. What chiefly
contributed to their disquietude, was the dreadful
consciousness that, however their present efforts might
secure a temporary safety, the period of their fall was
only protracted. A few months more must bring with them
all the severity of the winter of those climes, and then,
blocked up in a sea of ice,--exposed to all the rigour
of cold,--all the miseries of hunger,--what effectual
resistance could they oppose to the numerous bands of
Indians who, availing themselves of the defenceless
position of their enemies, would rush from every quarter
to their destruction.