Ethan Allen, fearful of an attempt from Governour Carleton to retake the place, has written to the Committee of Albany for a supply of five hundred men and provisions; the Committee, however, not perceiving themselves competent to determine on a matter of so much importance, requested the advice of our General Committee, who referred them, and immediately despatched an express, to the Congress now sitting in Philadelphia.

ETHAN ALLEN TO THE MERCHANTS OF MONTREAL.

St. John’s, May 18, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: I have the pleasure to acquaint you that Lakes George and Champlain, with the fortresses, artillery, &c., particularly the armed sloop of George the Third, with all water carriages of these Lakes, are now in possession of the Colonies. I expect the English Merchants, as well as all virtuous disposed gentlemen, will be in the interest of the Colonies. The advanced guard of the Army is now at St. John’s, and desire immediately to have a personal intercourse with you. Your immediate assistance as to provisions, ammunition, and spirituous liquors, is wanted and forthwith expected, not as a donation, for I am empowered by the Colonies to purchase the same; and I desire you would forthwith, and without further notice, prepare for the use of the Army those articles to the amount of five hundred Pounds, and deliver the same to me at St. John’s, or at least a part of it almost instantaneously, as the soldiers press on faster than provisions. I need not inform you that my directions from the Colonies are not to contend with, or any way injure or molest the Canadians or Indians; but, on the other hand, treat them with the greatest friendship and kindness. You will be pleased to communicate the same to them, and some of you immediately visit me at this place, while others are active in delivering the provisions.

I write in haste, and am, gentlemen, your obedient humble servant,

ETHAN ALLEN.

To Mr. James Morrison and the Merchants that are friendly to the cause of liberty in Montreal.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE CAMP AT CAMBRIDGE, DATED MAY 18, 1775.

We hear from Halifax that the people have at last shewn they have spirit. It seems the agents for procuring forage for the expected regiment of Dragoons had taken, without the consent of the owner, and were shipping for Boston, a great quantity of hay, on which the people set fire to, and wholly destroyed it. And when that work was finished, they attempted the like by the King’s Magazines, which they several times fired, but they were extinguished by the people from the ships-of-war lying there, who made a brisk fire on the people, and prevented them from effecting their design. The fugitives from Boston are gone for Halifax, but the people say no d—d Tories shall be allowed to breathe in their air, so that these devils can't find a resting place there, which was the only place on the Continent that they ever dared to hope they might stay in.

COLONEL STARK TO THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE CONGRESS.

Medford, May 18, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: About the twenty-ninth of April last, a Committee sent from Provincial Congress of the Province of New-Hampshire to the Provincial Congress of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, having discretionary instructions from said Congress, advised to raise a Regiment from the Province of New-Hampshire as soon as possible, under the Constitution and establishment of the Massachusetts-Bay, but to be deemed as part of the quota of men of the Province of New-Hampshire, and that New-Hampshire Congress would establish said measures. In consequence of which, a number of officers of the Province of New-Hampshire convened, and made choice of their field-officers for said Regiment, who have raised the same, fifty-four of whom are now present at Medford, exclusive of drummers and fifers, and the remainder are hourly expected; and as a great number of those already here (who expected, when they enlisted, to draw arms from the Provincial stocks) are destitute of the same, and cannot be furnished, (as no arms are to be procured here at present,) must inevitably return from whence they came, unless they are supplied from some quarter speedily. I humbly pray that you would maturely consider our defenceless situation, and adopt some measure or measures whereby they may be equipped. In confidence of your immediate compliance with the above request, I am, in the Country’s common cause, your most obedient and devoted humble servant,

JOHN STARK.

N. B. The gentleman who presents this to the Convention, can give you particular information as to our present situation.

ADDRESS OF THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE CONGRESS TO GOVERNOUR WENTWORTH.

May it please your Excellency :
Governour Gage, in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated 27th January, 1775, informed the British Ministry that your Excellency had applied to him for two Regiments of the British Troops, to be stationed at Portsmouth; and as it evidently appears, at this alarming period, that the British Troops are ministerial tools, sent to America to endeavour to enforce unconstitutional and tyrannical Acts of the British Parliament, by fire, sword, and famine, and as we humbly conceive it is your Excellency’s duty, in your political capacity, to guard and defend the lives, liberty, and properties of the inhabitants of this Province, your Excellency’s sending for Troops to destroy the lives, liberties, and properties you have solemnly engaged to defend and protect, conveys to our minds such shocking ideas, that we shall rejoice to find what is represented to be fact in said letter, to be farce. But as we have such information, duty to ourselves and constituents, obliges us humbly to desire your Excellency to give us such evidence as will enable us to know and inform our constituents what to expect.
We are, &c., &c.

CAROLINE COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

At a Committee held for the County of Caroline, on Friday, the nineteenth of May, 1775, the Committee having taken into their most serious consideration his Excellency Lord Dunmore’s Letter, dated the twenty-fourth of December last, to Lord Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Secretary of State for the American Department; also his Lordship’s Proclamation, and a Letter wrote by a certain Captain Montague to the Honourable Thomas Nelson, Esq., (which were severally published in the Gazettes,) think it their indispensable duty to remonstrate against the illiberal aspersions which are most injuriously thrown out against our constituents, as part of the community, and also to declare our abhorrence of the brutal disposition that dictated the menaces contained in the said Montague’s Letter: Therefore, Resolved,

1st. That his Lordship’s Letter, if founded on the information of others, fully evinces to us their unfriendly and inimical disposition towards this Country, and his wishes to perpetuate the unhappy dispute between Great Britain and America, which we so fervently and ardently desire to terminate on constitutional principles. We cannot forbear adverting to that part of his Lordship’s Letter, where he asserts that armed Companies in some Counties are formed, and sworn to enforce the order of the Committees directly in open defiance of the legal prerogative of the Crown. Such proceedings as these, we are apprehensive, never had existence, or we should have had as early intelligence of them as his Lordship.

2d. That that part of his Lordship’s Proclamation wherein he charges some persons with being disaffected to His Majesty’s Government, and endeavouring to effect a change in it, under the appearance of defending their liberties, contains an accusation totally groundless, and cannot be meetly applied to the people of this Colony, who ever were, and in future wish to be, distinguished for their loyalty to our most gracious Sovereign, whom we sincerely pray may ever enjoy his reign in peace, happiness, and glory. We think ourselves extremely ill-treated by his Lordship, while we are aiming to preserve that liberty and freedom which the God of nature originally gave, and our ancestors have