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.