Set out for Hartford, where I arrived the same day. Saw Christopher Leffingwell, who inquired of me about the situation of the people at Boston. When I had given him an account, he asked me how they could be relieved and where I thought we could get artillery and stores. I told him I knew not unless we went and took possession of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, which I thought might be done by surprise with a small number of men. Mr. Leffingwell left me and in a short time came to me again, and brought with him Samuel H. Parsons and Silas Deane, Esqrs. When he asked me if I would undertake in such an expedition as we had talked of before, I told him I would. They told me they wished I had been there one day sooner; that they had been on such a plan; and that they had sent off Messrs. Noah Phelps and Bernard Romans, whom they had supplied with £300 in cash from the treasury, and ordered them to draw for more if they should need; that said Phelps and Romans had gone by the way of Salisbury, where they would make a stop. They expected a small number of men would join them, and if I would go after them they would give me an order or letter to them to join with them and to have my voice with them in conducting the affair and in laying out the money; and also that I might take five or six men with me. On which I took with me Mr. Jeremiah Halsey, Mr. Epaphras Bull, Mr. Wm. Nichols, Mr. Elijah Babcock, and John Bigelow joined me; and Saturday, the 29th of April, in the afternoon, we set out on said expedition. Mr. Babcock tired his horse. We got another horse of Esq. Humphrey in Norfolk, and that day arrived at Salisbury; tarried all night, and the next day, having augmented our company to the number of sixteen in the whole, we concluded it was not best to add any more, as we meant to keep our business a secret and ride through the country unarmed till we came to the New Settlements on the Grants. We arrived at Mr. Dewey's in Sheffield, and there we sent off Mr. Jer. Halsey and Capt. John Stevens to go to Albany, in order to discover the temper of the people in that place, and to return and inform us as soon as possible.