gathered. New Jersey and Pennsylvania refused, indeed, to send
any soldiers; but New York and the other colonies concerned did
their full share. By the early summer Colonel Francis Nicholson,
with some fifteen hundred men, lay fully equipped in camp on Wood
Creek near Lake Champlain, ready to descend on Montreal as soon
as news came of the arrival of the British fleet at Boston for
the attack on Quebec. On the shores of Boston harbor lay another
colonial army, large for the time--the levies from New England
which were to sail to Quebec. Officers had come out from England
to drill these hardy men, and as soldiers they were giving a good
account of themselves. They watched, fasted, and prayed, and
watched again for the fleet from England. Summer came and then
autumn and still the fleet did not arrive. Far away, in the
crowded camp on Wood Creek, pestilence broke out and as time wore
on this army slowly melted away either by death or withdrawal. At
last, on October 11, 1709, word came from the British ministry,
dated the 27th of July, two months after the promised fleet was
to arrive at Boston, that it had been sent instead to Portugal.

In spite of this disappointment the resolution endured to conquer
Canada. New York joined New England in sending deputations to
London to ask again for help. Four Mohawk chiefs went with Peter
Schuyler from New York and were the wonder of the day in London.
It is something to have a plan talked about. Malplaquet, the last
of Marlborough's great victories, had been won in the autumn of
1709 and the thought of a new enterprise was popular. Nicholson,
who had been sent from Boston, urged that the first step should
be to take Port Royal. What the colonies required for this
expedition was the aid of four frigates and five hundred soldiers
who should reach Boston by March.