In 1758, Pitt began despatching expeditions around the world to seize French colonies. In 1758, they captured Senegal and Gambia in West Africa and Louisbourg in North America. He planned to intensify this the next year by despatching large expeditions to the West Indies and Canada. To do so, Pitt stripped the British Isles of troops and ships, which caused Newcastle to worry that they were ill-defended. His fears increased when the British received intelligence of French plans to launch an invasion of Britain. Pitt was determined to press ahead with that year's plans but agreed to lessen the scale of colonial expeditions for 1760 since he expected that 1759 would provide a knockout blow to the French war effort.