The Dublin Council advised Essex to attack O'Neill's confederates in the east, around the Pale, where the rebels were reckoned at 3,000 plus 800 mercenaries sent from Ulster. Essex seems to have taken that advice, ordering 5,000 troops into garrisons along the border of the Pale. To counter the White Knight he reinforced Cork on the south coast, and more troops were ordered into Munster for Sir Thomas Norris (acting president of that province) and into Kilkenny for the Earl of Ormond. In the west the army of the President of Connacht, Sir Conyers Clifford, was increased to 3,000. Conditions on the ground had set Essex in opposition to the Council in London: he put the threat from the north on hold and chose, instead, to head south and subdue Ireland in a roundabout tour - through the Pale into Munster, and heading back to Dublin through south Leinster.