reduced to want, as there are annually shipped From Quebeck five hundred thousand bushels of wheat. I hope the exigency of the times, and my zeal in the service of my Country, will apologize for the liberty of giving my sentiments so freely on a subject which the honourable Congress are doubtless the best judges of, but which they in their hurry may not have paid that attention to the matter requires. I beg leave to add, that if no person appears who will undertake to carry the plan into execution, (if thought advisable,) I will, undertake, and, with the smiles of Heaven, answer for the success of it, provided I am supplied with men, &c., to carry it into execution without loss of time. I must beg leave to refer you to the bearer, Captain Oswald, for particulars, who is entrusted with an imperfect memorandum of such articles as are most wanted.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, gentlemen, your most devoted humble servant,

BENEDICT ARNOLD.

To the Honourable the Continental Congress, now sitting at Philadelphia.

P. S. The American Colonies in general are equally in danger from Canada, whether it remain in the hands of Britain, under the present form of its Government, or should be restored to the French, which many suspect is intended by the Ministry in England. But should Canada be placed under a free Government, agreeable to the English Constitution, like the other Colonies, we should forever after be secure from any danger that way, as it would ever remain an English Colony, even though by the treachery of the British Ministry it should be given up to France; so that this measure, though at first view it might seem like going beyond our own province to invade the rights of Great Britain, yet a due regard to our own defence, as well as the advantage of the inhabitants of that Country, makes it necessary.

B.A.

Memorandum.

Propose, in order to give satisfaction to the different Colonies, that Colonel Hinman’s Regiment, now on their march from Connecticut to Ticonderoga, should form part of the Army—say one thousand men; 500 do. to be sent from New-York, including one company of one hundred men of the train of artillery, properly equipped; 500 do. B. Arnold’s Regiment, including seamen and marines on board the vessels: (no Green Mountain Boys.) The men, as many as can be, to be supplied with bayonets, cartridge-boxes, and powder-horns: 2 able engineers: 2 good armourers and tools: 100 tents and markees: 1000 blankets, one Regiment being already provided: proper camp-equipage, kettles, cups, &c., for one thousand men: 4 brass field-pieces and carriages furnished: two 7 & 8-inch brass mortars, do.: shells and shot of every kind for do.: 2000 pounds of gunpowder: 300 shovels and spades: 200 hoes: 200 pickaxes: 200 narrow do.: 50 broad do.: 500 hatchets: 50 hand-saws, sorted: 10 crosscut do.: 10 whip do.: 5 reams of cartridge paper: 10 pieces of raven’s duck for sails: 50 pounds of sewing twine: needles, palms, &c.: match stuff, slow: 6 sets of house and ship carpenter’s tools: 6 sets of harness for horses: necessary provisions for two thousand men for two months.

COLONEL B. ARNOLD TO GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL.

Crown Point, June 13, 1775.

SIR: I have the pleasure to acquaint your Honour, that having lately sent one Hoit, and Indian interpreter, to Montreal to consult with some gentlemen of my acquaintance there, and with the Indians in Caughnawaga, to know their intentions in the present dispute, he has returned with the agreeable intelligence that the Indians are determined not to assist the King’s Troops against us, and have passed a law that the first of their tribe who takes up arms against us shall be punished with death. This advice is confirmed by five chief men of their tribe who are now here with their wives and children, and press very hard for our Army to march into Canada, as they are much disgusted with the Regular Troops.

Three Indians of the Stockbridge Nation whom I lately sent to Caughnawaga, with a belt of wampum and a speech, confirm the above, which my friend, a gentleman of probity in Montreal, writes me may be depended on, and that great numbers of the Canadians have expected us there for some time, and are impatient of our delay, being determined to join us whenever we appear with a sufficient force to support them. This I am confirmed in by many of the Canadians themselves, having just returned from an excursion down the lake, where I saw numbers of them, who offered to join us. Governour Carleton has been able by every artifice to raise no. more than twenty Canadians of the noblesse, who are in expectation of places of profit or honour. He is much disgusted with the merchants in Montreal, and has threatened them, if they will not defend the City in case of an attack, he will set fire to it, and retreat to Quebeck. He has in Canada only five hundred and fifty effective men of the King’s Troops, so that it would be a very easy matter to possess ourselves of the country if thought expedient.

I have, wrote very fully on the subject to the honourable Continental Congress, and sketched out a plan for taking possession of the country if thought advisable by them, which will not only deprive Great Britain of the lucrative branch of the fur-trade, but secure to us an inexhaustible granary, (as there is annually shipped at Quebeck, five hundred thousand bushels of wheat,) and may very possibly be a means of discouraging the British Ministry in their coercive measures, and restoring that peace and harmony between Great Britain and the American Colonies so essential to the well-being of both.

I am, very respectfully, your Honour’s most obedient humble servant,

BENEDICT ARNOLD.

To the Honourable Jonathan Trumbull, Governour of the Colony of Connecticut.

P. S. The plan of our expedition to Canada, your Honour will please not to disclose.

B. A.

JOSEPH PALMER TO THE MASSACHUSETTS COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

Cambridge, June 13, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: There is very great distress in this camp for want of tents or commodious barracks; I therefore humbly beg you will immediately take this important matter into serious consideration. Perhaps if a number of houses, contiguous to the parade, were hired of the owners by the Colony, and solely appropriated as barracks, the soldiery might be well accommodated; this, if recommended by Congress, it is probable might be effected. The least delay in this affair, it appears to me, will be attended with very bad consequences. I am, gentlemen, with the greatest respect, your most obedient humble servant,

JOSEPH PALMER, Quartermaster General.

To the Honourable Committee of Safety.

In Committee of Safety, Cambridge, June 13, 1775.

This Committee beg leave earnestly to recommend to the Honourable Congress, that the above representation from the Quartermaster General be taken into immediate consideration, especially as the Committee, from their own knowledge find the rooms too much crowded, and the healths and lives of the soldiers thereby greatly exposed; and if tents cannot be immediately furnished, that some barracks be forthwith erected.

BENJAMIN WHITE, Chairman.

N. B. It. is presumed some lives are already lost from their being thus crowded.

To the Honourable Provincial Congress now sitting in WATERTOWN: the Petition of LEMUEL TRESCOTT, of BOSTON, humbly sheweth:

That before he left Boston he bad, for a considerable time, assisted at Faneuil Hall in teaching a number of men the military art, and upon his arrival in the camp at Cambridge, he was, by some gentlemen of the Committee of Safety and Council of War, encouraged to raise a company out of those men, and to hope that a sufficient number of small-arms would be provided for them by the Colony, as, by the stipulation with General Gage, (which was consented to by the honourable Congress,) their own were lodged with the Selectmen of Boston; that he has now