Soon after 8:00 p.m. on July 3, 1754, British forces crossed the meadow to discuss surrender terms offered by the French under Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers. The timing favored the British because about half of their 400 soldiers were sick, wounded, or dead, and surrounded by about 700 French and Indians, they had little chance of escape. During the next four hours, French and British officers negotiated the details of capitulation. At daybreak on July 4, the British marched from Fort Necessity between two facing ranks of French troops. The terms allowed them to carry out their arms, supplies, and wounded and return to their own country. Soon after the fort was vacated, the French burned Fort Necessity and left it in ruins. The surrender document signed by Captain James Mackay and Colonel George Washington was negotiated under difficult circumstances, largely through a Virginia officer of Dutch descent who spoke French. Washington later discovered that the document included an admission that he had assassinated de Villiers' brother at Jumonville Glen on May 28.