During this state of apprehensive inactivity, the small-pox broke out in Albany. This enemy was more dreaded by the provincials than Montcalm himself. So great was the alarm, that it was found necessary to garrison the posts in that quarter, entirely with British troops, and to discharge all the provincials except a regiment raised in New York. Thus terminated for a second time, in defeat and utter disappointment, the sanguine hopes which the colonists had formed of a brilliant and successful campaign. After all their expensive and laborious preparations, not an effort had been made to drive the invaders of the country even from their out-post at Ticonderoga. The expedition to lake Ontario had not been commenced; and no preparations had been made for that against fort Du Quesne. The colonies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, far from contemplating offensive operations, had been unable to defend themselves; and their frontiers were exposed to all the horrors of Indian warfare. The expedition up the Kennebec was also abandoned. Thus, no one enterprise contemplated at the opening of the campaign, was carried into execution.[155] [Footnote 155: Minot. Belknap. Entic.] {1757} About the middle of January, the governors of the northern provinces were convened in a military council at Boston. The earl of Loudoun opened his propositions to them with a speech in which he attributed all the disasters that had been sustained, to the colonies; and in which he proposed that New England should raise four thousand men for the ensuing campaign. Requisitions proportionably large were also made on New York and New Jersey. [Sidenote: Campaign of 1757.] The ill success which had, thus far, attended the combined arms of Great Britain and her colonies, did not discourage them. Their exertions to bring a powerful force into the field were repeated; and the winter was employed in preparations for the ensuing campaign. The requisitions of lord Loudoun were complied with; and he found himself, in the spring, at the head of a respectable army. Some important enterprise against Canada, when the armament expected from Europe should arrive, was eagerly anticipated; and the most sanguine hopes of success were again entertained. [Sidenote: Admiral Holbourne arrives.] [Sidenote: Is joined by Lord Loudoun.] In the beginning of July, Admiral Holbourne reached Halifax with a powerful squadron, and reinforcement of five thousand British troops commanded by George Viscount Howe, and, on the 6th of the same month, the earl of Loudoun sailed from New York with six thousand regulars. A junction of these formidable armaments was effected without opposition, and the Loudoun colonists looked forward with confidence for a decisive blow which would shake the power of France in America. [Sidenote: The expedition against Louisbourg relinquished.]