h in the ship "Dragon," accompanied by
Colonel Francis Nicholson, late lieutenant-governor of New York, who was
to take an important part in the enterprise. The squadron with the five
regiments was to follow without delay. The weather was bad, and the
"Dragon," beating for five weeks against headwinds, did not enter Boston
harbor till the evening of the twenty-eighth of April. Vetch, chafing
with impatience, for every moment was precious, sent off expresses that
same night to carry the Queen's letters to the governors of Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Dudley and his
council met the next morning, and to them Vetch delivered the royal
message, which was received, he says, "with the dutiful obedience
becoming good subjects, and all the marks of joy and thankfulness."[125]
Vetch, Nicholson, and the Massachusetts authorities quickly arranged
their plans. An embargo was laid on the shipping; provision was made for
raising men and supplies and providing transportation. When all was in
train, the two emissaries hired a sloop for New York, and touching by
the way at Rhode Island, found it in the throes of the annual election
of governor. Yet every warlike preparation was already made, and Vetch
and his companion sailed at once for New Haven to meet Saltonstall, the
newly elected governor of Connecticut. Here too, all was ready, and the
envoys, well pleased, continued their voyage to New York, which they
reached on the eighteenth of May. The governor, Lord Lovelace, had
lately died, and Colonel Ingoldsby, the lieutenant-governor, acted in
his place. The Assembly was in session, and being summoned to the
council-chamber, the members were addressed by Vetch and Nicholson with
excellent effect.

In accepting the plan of conquest, New York completely changed front.
She had thus far stood neutral, leaving her neighbors to defend
themselves, and carrying on an active trade with the French and their
red allies. Still, it was her interest that Canada should become
English, thus throwing open to her the trade of the Western tribes; and
the promises of aid from England made the prospects of the campaign so
flattering that she threw herself into the enterprise, though not
without voices of protest,--for while the frontier farmers and some
prominent citizens like Peter Schuyler thought that the time for action
had come, the Albany traders and their allies, who fattened on Canadian
beaver, were still for peace at any