MY DEAR SIR GEORGE,--I have the mortification of reporting to you that York is in the possession of the enemy, it having on the 27th inst. been attacked by a force too powerful to resist with success. Sixteen vessels of various descriptions full of men, including their new ship the Madison, formed their flotilla. The Grenadiers of the King's suffered first in the action with the enemy (in which Captain W. Neale was killed), and afterwards severely, in connection with other corps, by the accidental explosion of a battery magazine, which at the same time disabled the battery. _I caused our grand magazine to be blown up...._
I am, my dear Sir George, your very faithfully devoted servant, R. H. SHEAFFE.
Another letter from General Sheaffe, dated Kingston, May 5th, when he had become more composed in mind than he seems to have been during his inglorious if not disgraceful flight, gives a more coherent account and many further details. I cite it in full, from the original MS. now in the Department of Archives at Ottawa, as kindly copied and certified for me by Mr. L. P. Sylvain of the Library of Parliament:
I did myself the honour of writing to Your Excellency on my route from York to communicate the mortifying intelligence that the Enemy had obtained possession of that place on the 27^th of April, and I shall now enter into a fuller detail, than I was enabled to do at the date of that letter.