1814.]

BEAVER-DAMS   LUNDy's LANE.

517

lcr, demanding a surrender. After some parleying   -the British lieutenant magnifying the number of their troops, and pretending to conduct the negotiation in the name of Major De Hat-en,* not forgetting a few occasional suggestions touching the horrors of an Indian massacre   Colonel Bcerstler, having neither reserve to sustain, nor demonstration to favor him,t surrendered his detachment as prisoners of war. This battle occurred on the 24th of June, and was a brilliant, affair for young Brant, since it was fought by the Indians alone, not a single cartridge being expended by the regular troops of the enemy.t

After this achievement, young Brant participated in almost all the skirmishes that took place on the Niagara frontier while the American army occupied Fort George and the village of Niagara; and in the summer of 1S14 he was engaged in the memorable battles of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, and Fort Erie, while that post was invested by the British forces. In all these engagements his conduct was such as to command the admiration not only of his own people, but of the British officers    affording promise to all who marked his prowess, of becoming a very distinguished warrior.

At the close of the war, having attained the age of manhood, John Brant, and his youthful sister Elizabeth, the youngest of his father's family, returned to the head of Lake Ontario, and took up their residence in the " Brant House"   living in the English style, and dispensing the ancient hospitalities of their father. Lieutenant Francis Hall, of the British service, who travelled in the United States and Canada in 1S16, visited the Brant House, and saw the old lady Chieftainess at that place.

* Chrystie's History of the AVor in Canada. + General Armstrong's " Notices."

I Letter to the author from Colonel William .T. Kerr. This singular battle was the subject of much controversy at the time, and of not a little ridicule. The American accounts first published, stated that Bcerstler was attacked by five hundred regular troops and one hundred Indians Colonel Boerstler's own account of the affair dwells largely upon the great odds in numbers against him ; hut although the reader is left to infer that he fought long against regular troops as well as Indians, yet the fact is nowhere expres.-:ly stated. The Colonel maintained that it was an ill-advised expedition, detached in consequence of false information comm nicated by Major Cyrenius Chapin, commanding a detachment of volunteers. The Major, he averred, behaved like a consummate coward during the engagement. In regard to the battle itself, there is no doubt that the Colonel was out-gcneralled by Captain Kerr and young Brant, and having been kept at bay for several hours, was a' length induced to surrender by stratagem.