Other matters now engaged the Council.  Braddock, in accordance with his instructions, asked the governors to urge upon their several assemblies the establishment of a general fund for the service of the campaign; but the governors were all of opinion that the assemblies would refuse,—­each being resolved to keep the control of its money in its own hands; and all present, with one voice, advised that the colonies should be compelled by Act of Parliament to contribute in due proportion to the support of the war.  Braddock next asked if, in the judgment of the Council, it would not be well to send Colonel Johnson with full powers to treat with the Five Nations, who had been driven to the verge of an outbreak by the misconduct of the Dutch Indian commissioners at Albany.  The measure was cordially approved, as was also another suggestion of the General, that vessels should be built at Oswego to command Lake Ontario.  The Council then dissolved.

Shirley hastened back to New England, burdened with the preparation for three expeditions and the command of one of them.  Johnson, who had been in the camp, though not in the Council, went back to Albany, provided with a commission as sole superintendent of Indian affairs, and charged, besides, with the enterprise against Crown Point; while an express was despatched to Monckton at Halifax, with orders to set at once to his work of capturing Beausejour.[199]

[Footnote 199:  Minutes of a Council held at the Camp at Alexandria, in Virginia, April 14, 1755.  Instructions to Major-General Braddock, 25 Nov. 1754.  Secret Instructions to Major-General Braddock, same date.  Napier to Braddock, written by Order of the Duke of Cumberland, 25 Nov. 1754, in Precis des Faits, Pieces justificatives, 168.  Orme, Journal of Braddock’s Expedition.  Instructions to Governor Shirley.  Correspondence of Shirley.  Correspondence of Braddock (Public Record Office). Johnson Papers.  Dinwiddie Papers.  Pennsylvania Archives, II.]

In regard to Braddock’s part of the campaign, there had been a serious error.  If, instead of landing in Virginia and moving on Fort Duquesne by the long and circuitous route of Wills Creek, the two regiments had disembarked at Philadelphia and marched westward, the way would have been shortened, and would have lain through one of the richest and most populous districts on the continent, filled with supplies of every kind.  In Virginia, on the other hand, and in the adjoining province of Maryland, wagons, horses, and forage were scarce.  The enemies of the Administration ascribed this blunder to the influence of the Quaker merchant, John Hanbury, whom the Duke of Newcastle had consulted as a person familiar with American affairs.  Hanbury, who was a prominent stockholder in the Ohio Company, and who traded largely in Virginia, saw it for his interest that the troops should pass that way; and is said to have brought the Duke to this opinion.[200] A writer of the time thinks that if they had landed in Pennsylvania, forty thousand pounds would have been saved in money, and six weeks in time.[201]