1898.] PIAYS — THE SIEGE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 145 



To Major James Burd, Esquire. 



Philadelphia, August 9, 1757. 



S/r : — We have just now reed, an Express from York informing 

 that Governor De Lancy has marched with an Escort to be shortly 

 follow' d by the whole Militia of that Government and a Demand 

 made of a thousand from the Jerseys to the relief of Fort William 

 Henry which is now invested by two thousand five Hundred french 

 regulars four thousand five hundred Canadians and two thousand 

 Indians with a Train of 36 Cannon and Five mortars against all 

 which damn'd execrable Combination tis Impossible for that For- 

 tress to hold out and the next news that arrives we expect will 

 confirm their mastery of it. I need tell you no more than that I 

 am Sir Yours etc. 



T. Lloyd. 

 Endorsed as " Rec'd loth Sept. 1757." 



It can be readily understood that this accompanying Journal of 

 the capture of Fort William Henry and the subsequent massacre 

 its garrison had a deep personal interest to Col. Burd, which suffices 

 to account for its having been copied and sent to him. Fortunately 

 he was a man of methodical habits and appears to have made a cus- 

 tom of filing and keeping all papers coming into his possession. 

 Hence this copy has been preserved, while the original is unpub- 

 lished and unknown, and has probably been lost or destroyed. 



The French records give full data concerning the capture of Fort 

 William Henry, but accounts written by observers on the English 

 side are very few and, with the exception of Col. Frye's Journal,^ 

 most meagre. The accompanying Journal by an unknown writer who 

 was evidently an officer within the fort has considerable historical 

 value in not only confirming Col. Frye's account, but also in 

 furnishing some additional details to complete the picture of the 

 bravery of Col. Monro, of the incapacity of the British commander 

 at Fort Edward, and of the treacherous apathy of the French in the 

 face of the savage cruelties committed by their Indian allies on their 

 capitulated foe. 



1 TAe Port Folio, May, 1819, p. 356. 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXVII. 157. .T. PRINTED JUNE 15, 189S. 



