either to eat or drink, nor any conveniency to write a line other than to sit down upon a stump and put a piece of paper upon my knee.  As for Mr. Weld [another chaplain], he is easy and silent whatever treatment he meets with, and I suppose they thought to find me the same easy and ductile person; but may the wide yawning earth devour me first!  The state of the camp is just such as one at home would guess it to be,—­nothing but a hurry and confusion of vice and wickedness, with a stygian atmosphere to breathe in."[420] The vice and wickedness of which he complains appear to have consisted in a frequent infraction of the standing order against “Curseing and Swareing,” as well as of that which required attendance on daily prayers, and enjoined “the people to appear in a decent manner, clean and shaved,” at the two Sunday sermons.[421]

[Footnote 420:  The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archives, LVI. no. 142.  The same volume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of Massachusetts, in which he speaks of the forlorn condition in which Chaplain Weld reached the camp.  Of Chaplain Crawford, he says that he came decently clothed, but without bed or blanket, till he, Frye, lent them to him, and got Captain Learned to take him into his tent.  Chaplains usually had a separate tent, or shared that of the colonel.]

[Footnote 421:  Letter and Order Books of Winslow.]

At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to the committees of the several provinces:  “It looks as if it won’t be long before we are fit for a remove,”—­that is, for an advance on Ticonderoga.  On the twelfth Loudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth regiment and some of Bradstreet’s boatmen to reinforce Oswego.[422] They had been ready for a month; but confusion and misunderstanding arising from the change of command had prevented their departure.[423] Yet the utmost anxiety had prevailed for the safety of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth Surgeon Thomas Williams wrote:  “Whether Oswego is yet ours is uncertain.  Would hope it is, as the reverse would be such a terrible shock as the country never felt, and may be a sad omen of what is coming upon poor sinful New England.  Indeed we can’t expect anything but to be severely chastened till we are humbled for our pride and haughtiness."[424]

[Footnote 422:  Loudon (to Fox?), 19 Aug. 1756.]

[Footnote 423:  Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated.  Shirley to Loudon, 4 Sept. 1756.  Shirley to Fox, 16 Sept. 1756.]

[Footnote 424:  Thomas Williams to Colonel Israel Williams, 28 Aug. 1756.]