When we have thus vindicated our Right & established our Dominion on the Lake, the Regiment may then be employed in the reduction of the Fort at the Crown Point, wherein, if there be need, we may I believe have assistance from the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, who have settlements not far from thence, and who claim the lands adjoining to it, & one of them even that whereon the Fort is built.

PAPERS RELATING TO OSWEGO.

If this or something else (of which I own I can think of nothing so effectual) be not soon done to

put a stop to the French Encroachments farewell to the English Colonies and to that most valuable

Trade of the Nation. If it ever be thought advisable to attempt again to take Canada, the dispossessing the French of their mastery on the Lake & of the Fort at the Crown point, will greatly facilitate the Enterprize, but before we begin that work I presume to think

we ought to take Cape Breton, a Place well fortifyed,

& from whence the French can annoy our Fishery at Newfoundland, & guard their own navigation to & from Canada. That place is such a Thorn in the sides of the New England people, that it is very probable a large body of men may be raised there to assist in any such design, and if proper officers are sent from England in the summer to exercise them, they may by the ensuing spring be well disciplined, as all their youth are expert in the use of fire arms, from the unrestrained liberty