Summons he returned the following verbal answer, as appears by affidavit:

“On the 17th day of May, 1775, personally came William Savin before me the subscriber, one of his Lordship’s Justices of the Peace for the County aforesaid, and made oath on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, that he served Mr. Gordon with a copy of the within Summons in time for him to have observed it; and that he told him (this deponent) that he would not meet, and if the Committee wanted him they must come to his plantation, but not inside his yard gate; that he asked why they did not come themselves, or send some of their head men; that upon his (this deponent) saying he believed unless he did not comply with their request, they would all come, he, Mr. Gordon, said he was ready to receive them; that his plantation was large enough to hold them all, but they must not come inside his yard gate, or there would be lives lost. Mr. Gordon said he had said, and does still say, that they are a parcel of damned scoundrels of the Committee, and that if they have any thing to say to him, they must come to him, for he was at their defiance.”

Sworn before

DAVID SMITH.

Whereupon the Committee entered into the following Resolve, viz:

Whereas Charles Gordon, Attorney-at-Law in Cecil County, hath treated this Committee with great contempt and insolence; and the general tenour of his conduct for a long time hath been such, as in our opinions declares him to be an enemy to the common cause of liberty for which we are contending; and whereas he hath this day been duly summoned to appear before this Committee and answer unto the above charge, to which Summons he returned an impertinent and insolent answer, even menacing this Committee with destruction if they attempt to proceed any farther against him: It is, therefore,

Resolved, That he lie under the imputation of being an enemy to this Country, and as such we will have no dealings or communication with him, nor permit him to transact any business with us, or for us, either in a publick or private capacity, which shall be commenced after the date hereof, until he appears before this Committee and satisfies them with respect to the above charge; and we do earnestly recommend it to all the good people of this County to observe the same line of conduct.

Resolved, That the above be published.

JAMES VEAZEY, JUNIOR, Chairman.
JOHN VEAZEY, 3d, Clerk pro tem.

Philadelphia, May 20, 1775.

On Wednesday evening last, May 17, arrived here John Brown, Esquire, from Ticonderoga, express to the General Congress, from whom we learn, that on the beginning of this instant, a company of about fifty men from Connecticut and the western part of Massachusetts, and joined by upwards of one hundred from Bennington, in New-York Government, and the adjacent Towns, proceeded to the eastern side of Lake Champlain, and on the night before the 11th current, crossed the Lake with eighty-five men, (not being able to obtain craft to transport the rest) and about daybreak invested the Fort, whose gate, contrary to expectation, they found shut, but the wicker open, through which, with the Indian war-whoop, all that could, entered one by one, others scaling the wall on both sides of the gate, and instantly secured and disarmed the sentries, and pressed into the parade, where they formed the hollow square; but immediately quitting that order, they rushed into the several barracks on three sides of the Fort, and seized on the garrison, consisting of two officers and upwards of forty privates,* whom they brought out, disarmed, put under guard, and have since sent prisoners to Hartford, in Connecticut. All this was performed in about ten minutes, without the loss of a life, or a drop of blood on our side, and but very little on that of the King’s Troops.

In the Fort were found about thirty barrels of flour, a few barrels of pork, seventy odd chests of leaden ball, computed at three hundred tons, about ten barrels of powder, in bad condition, near two hundred pieces of ordnance, of all sizes, from eighteen-pounders downwards, at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, which last place, being held only by a Corporal and eight men, falls of course into our hands.

By this sudden expedition, planned by some principal persons in the four neighbouring Colonies, that important pass is now in the hands of the Americans, where we trust the wisdom of the Grand Continental Congress will take effectual measures to secure it, as it may be depended on that Administration means to form an army in Canada, composed of British Regulars, French, and Indians, to attack the Colonies on that side.

Mr. Brown brought intercepted letters from Lieutenant Malcolm Fraser, to his friends in New-England, from which appear, that General Carleton has almost unlimited powers, civil and military, and has issued orders for raising a Canadian Regiment, in which, Mr. Fraser observes, the officers find difficulty, as the common people are by no means fond of the service. He likewise remarks, that all the King’s European subjects are disaffected at the partial preference given to the late converts to loyalty, as he phrases it, to their utter exclusion from all confidence, or even common civility. Matters are indeed in such a situation, that many, if not most of the merchants, talk of leaving the Province.

Mr. Brown also relates, that two regular officers of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment, now in Canada, applied to two Indians, one a head warriour of the Caughnawaga tribe, to go out with them on a hunt to the south and east of the Rivers St. Lawrence and Sorrel, and pressing the Indians farther and farther on said course, they at length arrived at Cohass, where the Indians say they were stopped and interrogated by the inhabitants, to whom they pretended they were only on a hunt, which the inhabitants (as the Indians told Mr. Brown ) replied must be false, as no hunters used silver (bright) barrelled guns. However, the Cohass people dismissed them all; and when they returned into the woods, the Indian warriour insisted on knowing what their real intention was, and they told him that it was to reconnoitre the woods to find a passage for an army to march to the assistance of the King’s friends in Boston. The Indian asked where they would get the army? They answered, in Canada, and that the Indians in the upper Castles would join them. The Chief, on this, expressed resentment, that he, being one of the head men of the Caughnawaga tribe, should never have been consulted in the affair. But Mr. Brown presumed the aversion of this honest fellow and his friends to their schemes, was the reason of their being kept from their knowledge.

The conductors of this grand expedition are to be Monsieur St. Luke le Corne, the villain who let loose the Indians on the prisoners at Fort William Henry, and one of his associates.

Watertown, May 18, 1775.

Yesterday Colonel Easton arrived at the Provincial Congress in Watertown from Ticonderoga, and brings the glorious news of the taking of that place by the American forces without the loss of a man; of which interesting event we have collected the following particulars, viz:

Last Tuesday se’night about two hundred and forty men from Connecticut and this Province, under Colonels Allen and Easton, arrived at the Lake near Ticonderoga; eighty of them crossed it, and came to the Fort about the dawn of day. The sentry was much surprised at seeing such a body of men, and snapped his piece at them; our men, however, immediately rushed forward, seized and confined the sentry, pushed through the covered way, and all got safe upon the parade, while the garrison were sleeping in their beds. They immediately formed a hollow square, and gave three huzzas, which brought out the garrison; an inconsiderable skirmish with cutlasses or bayonets ensued, in which a small number of the enemy received some wounds. The commanding officer soon came forth; Colonel Easton clapped him upon the shoulder, told him he was his prisoner, and demanded, in the name of America, an instant surrender of the Fort, with all its contents, to the American forces. The officer was in great confusion, and expressed himself to this effect: damn you, what—what does all this mean? Colonel Easton again told him that he and his garrison were prisoners. The officer said that he hoped he should be treated with honour. Colonel

* A party of the Twenty-Sixth, commanded by Captain Delaplace.