into execution in your Province; have, from the pressing and urgent necessity of the case, given orders that five hundred pounds of powder should be sent there, and that four companies of one hundred men each should march immediately for support and defence of the men there, and for the security and defence of the artillery and stores there, until they may be removed and secured agreeable to the resolve of the Continental Congress, or until relieved by your Province.

This Assembly acquiesce in the resolve of Congress, that puts the said fortresses under the direction of the Province of New-York; and in the steps they have now taken, would by no means be considered as invading the Province, or intermeddling with the service entrusted to the Province of New-York; but, as they first had the intelligence of their danger, and had Troops ready which might be spared for the present, they thought it their duty to provide against the present danger until you might be advised of their situation, and take such measures as your wisdom and prudence shall suggest for their safety and defence.

I am, in behalf of the General Assembly of Connecticut, with great truth and regard, gentlemen, your most obedient and humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBULL.

The Honourable Provincial Congress of New-York.

GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Hartford, May 29, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: Your favour of the 25th instant, May, came Safe per Mr. Brown. This Assembly have entered into the consideration of its contents, and have come into the following resolutions in consequence thereof:

That one thousand men, (including those four companies which were before sent forward,) under command of Colonel Benjamin Hinman, march as soon as possible to Ticonderoga and Crown Point, for the support and defence of those fortresses; and that they there continue till they are relieved by the Province of New-York, or are otherwise ordered by this Assembly. That Colonel Hinman take the command of our troops destined to those stations. That the troops be furnished with one pound of powder and three pounds of bullets to each soldier. That Colonel Hinman be ordered to keep up the strictest vigilance to prevent any hostile incursion from being made into the settlements of the Province of Quebeck; and that the Provincial Congresses of New-York and Massachusetts-Bay be advised of these measures, and the New-York Congress be requested to forward the necessary supplies for said troops, and such further supplies of ammunition as they shall judge necessary.

The above transactions will manifest the readiness with which this Assembly have complied with your desires. I am, with great truth and regard, in behalf of the Governour and Company of Connecticut, gentlemen, your most obedient humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBULL.

To the Provincial Congress of New-York.

BENEDICT ARNOLD TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Ticonderoga, May 29, 1775.

Memorandum of Men, &c., wanted for the ensuing summer, viz: 1200 men, including B. Arnold’s Regiment of 400 men: 100 men of the train of artillery: 10 caulkers: 25 ship-carpenters: 2 gun-smiths: 2 surgeons, and their mates: 20 men for ten teams: 20 masons and blacksmiths: 25 house-carpenters—the latter may doubtless be found among the privates who enlist, except the master workmen: 100 tents, with proper equipage: 600 hatchets: 100 narrow axes: 50 broad axes: 50 pickaxes: 200 spades: 200 wooden shovels, shod: 50 hoes: 100 camp kettles: 200 wooden canteens: arms, blankets, &c., for the men.

I observe the Committee of New-York intend forwarding a number of articles, for which reason I have omitted them.

Sundry necessaries for transporting the Cannon over Lake GEORGE, viz:

To be built on Lake George, 2 flat-bottom boats, forty feet long, twelve wide, and four deep, with strong knees, well timbered, and of four-inch oak plank—these may be built at Sparden’s, where there is timber and a saw mill handy: 1 flat-bottom boat, of same size and construction, to go between Ticonderoga and the Landing, or Lake Champlain: 4 gins, the triangles fifteen feet long—the wood may be procured here: 8 falls for the gins, of three and a half inch white rope, made of the best hemp: 1 coil two and a half inch rope, 1 coil two inch rope, 1 coil one and a half inch rope, 100 fathoms each: 4 pieces raven duck: 10 barrels pitch: 4 barrels tar: 500 pounds oakum: 40 pounds sewing twine: 10 dozen sail and roll rope needles: 1 dozen palms: 3 seines, thirty fathoms long, capped twelve feet and arms six feet deep, made of large twine, the meshes one and a half inches wide, which will probably supply the Army with fish, as they are very plenty and good: 1 barrel twenty penny nails: 1 barrel ten penny nails: 1 barrel four penny nails: 2 dozen nail hammers, with other necessary tools for the house and ship carpenters—iron may be supplied from Skenes-borough; steel will be wanted—4 pair strong wheels, wanted between Lakes George and Champlain, that will carry three tons weight: 4 pair strong wheels wanted at Fort George.

N. B. Common cart wheels will answer (if good) for most of the small cannon: there will probably be wanted at Fort George, 10 good teams of four yoke of oxen each, to bring up provisions, &c., and take such cannon and mortars to Albany as may be wanted by our Army at New-York or Cambridge: 8 yoke of good oxen will be wanted at Ticonderoga—these may probably be procured in the neighbourhood, of which Colonel Webb may inform himself.

BENEDICT ARNOLD,

Colonel and Commd’t at Ticonderoga, &c.

Secretary of State’s Office, Whitehall, May 30, 1775.

A report having been spread, and an account having been printed and published, of a skirmish between some of the people in the Province of Massachusetts-Bay and a detachment of his Majesty’s troops, it is proper to inform the publick, that no advices have as yet been received in the American Department of any such event.

There is reason to believe that there are despatches from General Gage on board the Sukey, Captain Brown, which, though she sailed four days before the vessel that brought the printed accounts, is not yet arrived.*

LETTER FROM ARTHUR LEE.

London, Tuesday, May 30, 1775.

As a doubt of the authenticity of the account from Salem, touching an engagement between the King’s Troops and the Provincials in the Massachusetts-Bay, may arise

* LONDON, June 1, 1775.—The publick are requested to attend one moment to the conduct of Ministry, and they will forever detest their duplicity. A massacre is attempted by the King’s mercenaries in America; the peaceable inhabitants of the Town of Concord are wantonly fired on, and many are inhumanly murdered. Ministry, unable to contest the proofs adduced in confirmation of this infamous transaction, caused the foregoing paragraph to be inserted in the Gazette.

To what does this shuffling State production amount? Is the American massacre less true because no accounts of it have been received at the Secretary’s Office? Is this a time to talk of departments, when human blood, when the blood of our brethren is poured out like water by a detachment of his Majesty’s troops? Are we to pay attention to trivial formalities, when the sword is drawn, and the hands of the King’s troops are uplifted to cut the throats of our brethren? Is this a time to talk of the routine of office? If the news received, of a detachment of his Majesty’s troops having glutted themselves with blood, if this news is untrue, why do Ministry not contradict it? And, if it be true, what have they to say? Shall we adopt their language, and call a bloody massacre a trifling skirmish? Or are we not to believe that either massacre or skirmish hath happened, because the American Department hath not as yet received those advices from General Gage which are on board the Sukey? The matter of fact is, that Ministry are so confounded at the arrival of the news, that it will require some time before they can furbish up their account of the matter. Bronzed as they are, and now all over besprinkled with the blood of our brethren, it still requires some time before facts can be falsified, or the truth wholly explained away. The Court Gazette may talk of advices on board the Sukey, (which will never arrive,) but there are better advices which have arrived, wherein it is incontestably proved that the King’s troops have pillaged the houses, set fire to the stores, and slaughtered the inhabitants of the Town of Concord. That a detachment of his Majesty’s regular troops, after a commission of these crimes, should be forced to run away and shelter under the guns of a man-of-war, was rather an unfortunate circumstance. If a wish remains to be accomplished, it is, that in case a similar massacre should be attempted, an English man-of-war may not be disgraced by affording protection to a banditti who are enlisted into his Majesty’s service for other purposes than that of butchering his subjects.