ion to lake Ontario had not been commenced; and no
preparations had been made for that against fort Du Quesne. The
colonies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, far from
contemplating offensive operations, had been unable to defend
themselves; and their frontiers were exposed to all the horrors of
Indian warfare.

The expedition up the Kennebec was also abandoned. Thus, no one
enterprise contemplated at the opening of the campaign, was carried
into execution.[155]

[Footnote 155: Minot. Belknap. Entic.]

{1757}

About the middle of January, the governors of the northern provinces
were convened in a military council at Boston. The earl of Loudoun
opened his propositions to them with a speech in which he attributed
all the disasters that had been sustained, to the colonies; and in
which he proposed that New England should raise four thousand men for
the ensuing campaign. Requisitions proportionably large were also made
on New York and New Jersey.

[Sidenote: Campaign of 1757.]

The ill success which had, thus far, attended the combined arms of
Great Britain and her colonies, did not discourage them. Their
exertions to bring a powerful force into the field were repeated; and
the winter was employed in preparations for the ensuing campaign. The
requisitions of lord Loudoun were complied with; and he found himself,
in the spring, at the head of a respectable army. Some important
enterprise against Canada, when the armament expected from Europe
should arrive, was eagerly anticipated; and the most sanguine hopes of
success were again entertained.

[Sidenote: Admiral Holbourne arrives.]

[Sidenote: Is joined by Lord Loudoun.]

In the beginning of July, Admiral Holbourne reached Halifax with a
powerful squadron, and reinforcement of five thousand British troops
commanded by George Viscount Howe, and, on the 6th of the same month,
the earl of Loudoun sailed from New York with six thousand regulars. A
junction of these formidable armaments was effected without
opposition, and the Loudoun colonists looked forward with confidence
for a decisive blow which would shake the power of France in America.

[Sidenote: The expedition against Louisbourg relinquished.]

The plan of this campaign varied from that which had been adopted in
the preceding years. The vast and complex movements heretofore
proposed, were no longer contemplated, and offensive operations were
to be confined to a single object. Leaving the posts