[Footnote 78: "The negligence and dilatoriness of our governors at home,[85] and the little-minded quarrels of the regulars and irregular forces,[86] have reduced our affairs in that part of the world (America) to a most deplorable state. Oswego, of ten times more importance even than Minorca, is so annihilated that we can not learn the particulars."--Walpole's _Letters to Sir H. Mann_, Nov. 4, 1756.]
[Footnote 79: "The massacre at Oswego happily proves a romance. Part of the two regiments[87] that were made prisoners there are actually arrived at Plymouth, the provisions at Quebec being too scanty to admit additional numbers."--Walpole's _Letters to Sir H. Mann_, Nov. 13, 1756.]
[Footnote 80: Wood Creek was one of the streams that formed a nearly uninterrupted water communication between Albany, in New York, and the mouth of the River Onondaga, where Oswego was situated.]
[Footnote 81: Crown Point, or Fort Frederic, and Ticonderoga, which had been lately fortified.]
[Footnote 82: Abercromby writes from Fort Edward, 30th of September, 1756; "Upon intelligence of the enemy's whole force being collected at Crown Point, in order to make an attempt on this fort or that of Fort William Henry, I arrived here the 26th with the Highlanders: to-morrow I shall have three regiments.... Our works here are far from being finished. However, though the fort is not finished we are throwing up lines, and shall be able to repel the enemy's force.--8th of Oct. Lord Loudon is now here: he has left Webb to take care of Otway's at Albany. General Winslow (he was at Fort William Henry) holds daily correspondence."]
[Footnote 83: Every where. "I see it with concern, considering who was Newcastle's associate" (he alludes to his friend Fox); "but this was the year of the worst administration that I have seen in England, for now Newcastle's incapacity[88] was left to its full play."--Walpole's _Memoirs_, vol. ii., p. 54.
"In the course of this unfortunate year, 1756, we were stripped of Minorca and Oswego (the East India Company, by the loss of Calcutta, received a blow which would have shaken an establishment of less strength to its foundation), we apprehended an invasion of Great Britain itself, our councils were torn to pieces by factions, and our military fame was every where in contempt."--_Annual Register._