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The retirement of the British from the vicinity of Fort George gave General McClure a free hand for the practice of the only species of warfare in which he was competent to shine---that of marauding and plundering.
American soldiers were quartered on the inhabitants of Newark and the farm houses in its vicinity were systematically robbed by McClure's troops. This general had offered the friendship and protection of his government to the people of the Province, but these fine sounding words proved to be without meaning. Friendship and protection were only for those who would renounce their allegiance and cooperate with him in the work of making Upper Canada an American state. All others who preferred to remain British subjects were to be dragooned into submission.
Bands of American banditti scoured the country, pillaging and destroying the houses of the inhabitants, and carrying off the principal of them to the American side of the Niagara River where they were incarcerated in filthy dungeons.
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