His Excellency is pleased to lay before this Board the fol-
lowing Letter

Camp at Oswego September 9^th 1755
Sir

As it may be acceptable to your Honour to know the Situ-
ation of the Service, which is under my immediate Care I
transmit you the following Account of it

The last Division of the forces under my Command were
twenty Six days upon their March from Schenectady to this
Place, where they did not arrive untill the 2^d Instant: The
Troops was so much reduced by desertion and Sickness, and
Absence of Detachments upon Parties & Command, that by a
field Return, which I Ordered to be taken Yesterday it ap-
pears, that the numbr of men, in the three Regiments & In-
dependant Company fit for duty upon the Spot don't amount
1400, out of which We are oblig'd to keep 100 at work upon a
new fort, and if the Body of the forces moves from this
Place, must leave 300 at least for the Defence of it so that
not looo Men will remain for other Service, and of these
Sixty must be employed as Matrosses and a Number as Pio-
neers: To this I am to Add that We have Suffered Greatly
by Desertion of Battoe men, after being impressed and even
proceeding' part of the way with us; by which means we are
in want of Provisions for any Service that will require ten
days in the Execution

However if I am not disappointed of- Supplies of Provi-
sions which I hourly expect; I am encouraged, upon the In-
telligence I have gained since my arrival here, that with our
Naval Force, and the assistance of the Indians, whom I have
picked up in my Passage thro the Country of the five Nations,
and the Albany men, whom I hired to go with me, as a Scout-
ing Party of Guards (both which may Amount to 140 Men)
I say I am encouraged, Sir, to hope that we may proceed
upon Action in a very few days, and that a foundation will be
laid this year for such a Campaigne the next, as I flatter my
self (provided the Colonies shall then exert a proper Spirit)
may Secure all points in dispute between us and the French