This was the situation when Fauquier landed, and it gave him reason to hope that Fort Duquesne would be in English hands early in the autumn. When long delays made this unlikely, he summoned the Assembly to ask for more funds. But now he was confronted with a perplexing problem. It had long been the practice for the House of Burgesses to make their Speaker the Treasurer of the colony. Dinwiddie, probably because of a grudge against John Robinson, who held these two offices, had recommended their separation. The Board of Trade approved and directed Fauquier to see that this was done.[4] But the Governor held back. He was not long in finding that Robinson was the most popular man in Virginia, the idol of the people whether rich or poor. Had he insisted that someone else be made Treasurer, the Burgesses would not have voted a penny for the expedition. Fearing that the Board's instruction might be whispered around and come to Robinson's ear, he decided to take him into his confidence and place the whole matter before him. The Speaker was much gratified. "I am told by those who know his character that I have attached him to me in the strongest manner by the openness of my behavior," Fauquier wrote the Board.[5] So the supply bill went through with a rush. But the Board must have realized that their authority in the colony had sunk to a new low when the Governor not only ignored their orders, but thought it necessary to apologize for them in order to curry favor with the Speaker of the House. In the meanwhile, things were going well in the war. Under the able leadership of Pitt, Great Britain had poured men and money into the colonies, and replaced the incompetent Loudoun with the able General Jeffrey Amherst. A blow of great importance for Virginia was struck when a small force captured Fort Frontenac at the outlet of Lake Ontario. This cut the French line of communication with the west and made Fort Duquesne untenable. So this key position fell without firing a shot. As Forbes' army approached, the garrison blew up the fort, and taking to their canoes fell down the Ohio. Fauquier congratulated himself for his part in this success. He had kept the Burgesses in good humor; he had obtained the funds needed to keep the Virginia troops in the field. If he had been lax in defending the King's prerogative, surely the end justified the means. So he was not a little piqued when he received a reprimand from the Board of Trade. The trouble stemmed from the fact that tobacco provided a very poor standard of value. When the crop was bountiful its purchasing power fell, if the summer were dry and the leaves withered in the field, it doubled or tripled. In the first case debts and taxes could be paid at a low value, in the other the value might be so great as to threaten widespread injustice and suffering.