They were three miles from the lake, when their scouts brought in a prisoner who told them that a column of English troops was approaching.  Dieskau’s preparations were quickly made.  While the regulars halted on the road, the Canadians and Indians moved to the front, where most of them hid in the forest along the slopes of West Mountain, and the rest lay close among the thickets on the other side.  Thus, when the English advanced to attack the regulars in front, they would find themselves caught in a double ambush.  No sight or sound betrayed the snare; but behind every bush crouched a Canadian or a savage, with gun cocked and ears intent, listening for the tramp of the approaching column.

The wagoners who escaped the evening before had reached the camp about midnight, and reported that there was a war-party on the road near Fort Lyman.  Johnson had at this time twenty-two hundred effective men, besides his three hundred Indians.[308] He called a council of war in the morning, and a resolution was taken which can only be explained by a complete misconception as to the force of the French.  It was determined to send out two detachments of five hundred men each, one towards Fort Lyman, and the other towards South Bay, the object being, according to Johnson “to catch the enemy in their retreat."[309] Hendrick, chief of the Mohawks, a brave and sagacious warrior, expressed his dissent after a fashion of his own.  He picked up a stick and broke it; then he picked up several sticks, and showed that together they could not be broken.  The hint was taken, and the two detachments were joined in one.  Still the old savage shook his head.  “If they are to be killed,” he said, “they are too many; if they are to fight, they are too few.”  Nevertheless, he resolved to share their fortunes; and mounting on a gun-carriage, he harangued his warriors with a voice so animated and gestures so expressive, that the New England officers listened in admiration, though they understood not a word.  One difficulty remained.  He was too old and fat to go afoot; but Johnson lent him a horse, which he bestrode, and trotted to the head of the column, followed by two hundred of his warriors as fast as they could grease, paint, and befeather themselves.

[Footnote 308:  Wraxall to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 10 Sept. 1755.  Wraxall was Johnson’s aide-de-camp and secretary.  The Second Letter to a Friend says twenty-one hundred whites and two hundred or three hundred Indians.  Blodget, who was also on the spot, sets the whites at two thousand.]

[Footnote 309:  Letter to the Governors of the several Colonies, 9 Sept. 1755.]

Captain Elisha Hawley was in his tent, finishing a letter which he had just written to his brother Joseph; and these were the last words:  “I am this minute agoing out in company with five hundred men to see if we can intercept ’em in their retreat, or find their canoes in the Drowned Lands; and therefore must conclude this letter.”  He closed and directed it; and in an hour received his death-wound.