They started early the next morning, and, before noon, arrived at Fort William Henry, where James at once reported, to Colonel Monro, what he had learned of the strength of the French force gathering at Crown Point.

“Thank you, Captain Walsham,” the commandant said.  “I am greatly indebted to you, for having brought us certain news of what is coming.  I will write off at once, and ask for reinforcements.  This is a serious expedition, and the colonies will have to make a great effort, and a speedy one, if they are going to save the fort, for, from what we hear of Montcalm, he is not likely to let the grass grow under his feet.  I shall report the services you have rendered.”

As soon as Colonel Monro received the report James had brought him, he sent to General Webb, who, with two thousand six hundred men, chiefly provincials, was at Fort Edward, fourteen miles away.  On the 25th of July that general visited Fort William Henry, and, after remaining there four days, returned to Fort Edward, whence he wrote to the governor of New York, telling him the French were coming, and urging him to send forward the militia at once, saying that he was determined to march himself, with all his troops, to the fort.  Instead of doing so, three days later he sent up a detachment of two hundred regulars under Lieutenant Colonel Young, and eight hundred Massachusetts men under Colonel Frye.  This raised the force at Fort William Henry to two thousand two hundred men, and reduced that of Webb to sixteen hundred.

Had Webb been a brave and determined man, he would have left a few hundred men, only, to hold Fort Edward, and marched with the rest to assist Monro, when, on the morning of the 3d of August, he received a letter from him, saying that the French were in sight on the lake.  But, as he was neither brave nor determined, he remained at Fort Edward, sending off message after message to New York, for help which could not possibly arrive in time.

Already, the garrison of Fort William Henry had suffered one reverse.  Three hundred provincials, chiefly New Jersey men, under Colonel Parker, had been sent out to reconnoitre the French outposts.  The scouts, under James Walsham, were of the party.  They were to proceed in boats down the lake.

“I don’t like this business, no way, captain,” Nat said, as the company took their place in the boats.  “This ain’t neither one thing or the other.  If Monro wants to find out about the enemy, Jonathan and I kin do it.  If he wants to fight the enemy, this lot ain’t enough; besides, these New Jersey men know no more about the forest than so many children.  You mark my words, this is going to be a bad business.  Why, they can see all these boats halfway down the lake, and, with all these redskins about, they will ambush us as soon as we try to land.

“Look here, captain; you know that I ain’t no coward.  I don’t think no one can say that of me.  I am ready to fight when there is a chance of fighting, but I don’t see no good in getting myself killed off, when there ain’t no good in it.  So what I says is this:  don’t you be in a hurry, captain, with these boats of ours.”