Captain Wells spoke first.
"To my mind, these orders are not positive, and leave much to your discretion.

Who brought the message, and when ?" "A Wyandot named Winnemeg.

He reached here on the ninth." "I have heard the name, and believe him worthy of confidence.

Did you advise with him ?" "Ay! Though he had no oral message from General Hull, he counselled immediate evacuation.

I also felt such action to be wise; but things were in such condition within the Fort,--so large a number of helpless women and children to be provided for, and so heavy a proportion of the garrison on the sick-list,--that I found it impossible to act promptly.
The Indians gathered so rapidly without, and assumed so hostile a manner, that I thought it suicidal to attempt a march through the wilderness, encumbered as we should be, without some positive understanding with their chiefs." "I can easily comprehend all this, and that you have sought to act for the best," was Wells's comment; "but I fail to realize how you hoped to appease those same Indians by the wanton destruction last night of the liquor thrown into the river.