There is not a soldier from York come over Lake George to stay, and I don’t think we shall have any before the middle of September or October, unless something is done more than a New-York Congress will do. If you and our Colony rely on them to fulfil the engagements of our Colony, I assure you, Sir, that they are determined never to do it. They have not a soldier on this side of Lake George, that I know of, except a few sailors. Several officers are arrived, and more expected; and why all the places of profit should be filled up with men in York Government, I don’t know, and our people be obliged to do all the drudgery. Commissaries’ places are profitable, and commanders on board of the vessels profitable. And why should they have all the places of profit? Is it because we have no man capable of any thing but drudgery? Sir, unless you or somebody sees to it, I don’t think we shall have one hundred and fifty men here by the middle of September or October from New-York Government. The advantage of their situation is such that it will make them rich. Are we to be wholly ruled by the Committee of New-York? Is it for their unfaithfulness in the common cause? Have they not been till very lately, a great part of them, as strong set against the common cause? Neither have I any reason to think that there is a thorough change in them. Why should Mr. Halsey be dismissed from the service to make way for a Yorker, when every man says he did well? Are our men fit for nothing but privates? If there is not a check put on them, you, Sir, will be put to it to raise men another year. They have a number of carpenters, and the building of batteaus, &c., goes on well; but upon a par, I suppose, it will take six of our men to replace as much money as one of them on a par, and one of our men will do as much as six of them.

I am informed that the Continental Congress are to give out commissions; if they do, unless it is well looked to, there will be a great number of officers, and but a few soldiers. Sir, you may rely upon it that the New-York Commissaries will not attempt to fulfil what the Colony of Connecticut have engaged; and unless they take some steps to do it themselves, I don’t see how they can answer it, to promise great things, and not to take suitable care to fulfil.

Sir, please to excuse me for my troubling you with this letter.

I am, Sir, your most obedient and humble servant, &c.

DAVID WELSH.

To Jonathan Trumbull, Esq., Governour of Connecticut, &c.

PROVIDENCE (RHODE-ISLAND) TOWN-MEETING.

At a Town-Meeting holden, by adjournment, in Providence, on the 5th day of August, A. D. 1775:

The Honourable NICHOLAS COOKE, Esq., Moderator.

Voted, That the Committee appointed to erect the Batteries at Sassafras and Fox Points, immediately proceed to build one Floating Battery, such as they shall think proper.

Voted, That the said Committee be, and they hereby are directed to consider the practicability and usefulness of building other Floating Batteries, as a further defence to this Town, and make their report thereon to the next meeting.

Voted, That the Engine-House, now standing by the Market-House, be removed to the Battery erected at Fox Point, for a Guard-House at that place.

Whereas, certain evil-minded persons, inhabitants of this Colony, and acquainted with the Creeks and Channels of the Narraganset-Bay, have made it their practice of late to assist our inveterate enemies by piloting their armed Vessels up the River from Newport towards this Town, with the known design of distressing the loyal and peaceable inhabitants of the Colony, and piratically seizing their property, &c.:

Wherefore it is Voted by this Meeting, That the Deputies for this Town be, and they are hereby instructed to use their influence to procure an act of the General Assembly, for inflicting the severest punishment upon such atrocious offenders, as a means of discouraging such villanous conduct in future; and that such act be made to extend to all such persons who may be guilty of such practice on any part of the coast.

Voted, That for the present Captain Samuel Warner be appointed to have the care of the Battery at Fox Point, and of all the Guns, Stores, &c., belonging to the same.

Voted, That his Honour the Deputy-Governour, Ambrose Page, Esq., Capt. Joseph Brown, and the Members of the Committee of Safety, in this Town, or the major part of them present, be a Committee to order when the Beacon shall be fired to alarm the country.

Voted, That the Committee appointed to erect the Beacon be requested to fire the same on Thursday the 7th day of this month, at the setting of the sun, and that they procure one thousand handbills to be printed, to advertise the country thereof, that proper observations may be made of the bearing of the Beacon from different parts of the country; and that they notify the country that the Beacon will not be fired at any time after the said 17th day of August, unless this Town or some part of the Colony should be attacked by our enemy, in which case the Beacon will be fired, and three cannon discharged to alarm the country that they may immediately repair to this Town duly equipped with arms, &c.

Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to Saturday next, at four o’clock, P. M.; at which time I attended, and waited near two hours, but no other person except the Town Sergeant and Captain John Updike appeared.

T. FOSTER, Town Clerk.

GENERAL SCHUYLER TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

[Read September 14, 1775.]

Ticonderogn, August 6, 1775.

SIR: Enclose you copy of a report made me by the master of the schooner on Lake Champlain, confirming the account that vessels of force are building at St. John’s.

The acounts of the persons employed in taking and garrisoning Crown Point and this place, are involved in such a cloud of confusion, that I shall find it very difficult to execute your orders on this head with precision. The Colony of Connecticut has paid some part of the money; so has the Massachusetts, and a small sum has been advanced by me. It will be necessary, therefore, that Congress shall order the accounts from those Colonies to be transmitted to me, (together with the returns of the men as made to them,) specifying who the people were that have received money; in which case I can take the receipts in full, charge the whole amount in my accounts, and give credit for what has been advanced by others. By the returns I have already received, I find that the same men are charged in two or three different accounts, so that none can be paid until the whole are returned, however necessitous they may be, and many of them are most truly so.

Two days after my arrival here, I gave such orders respecting the issuing of provisions, that I hoped an effectual stop would have been put to any further misapplication; in which I have been disappointed. In mentioning this, I do not mean to impeach the integrity of the men employed. I believe them honest and well meaning; but however willing they were to obey, they were so ignorant of forms, that it was not easy for them to get into a proper train, and therefore I ordered the Deputy Commissary-General to send up a person (whom I named and knew to be equal to the task) to give them such explicit directions and forms as that they will not hereafter labour under any difficulties to discharge their duty with propriety and regularity, and Mr. John N. Bleecker is now employed in that essential service.

Out of about five hundred men that are here, near a hundred are sick, and I have not any kind of hospital stores, although I had not forgot to order them immediately after my appointment. The little wine I had for my own table, I have delivered to the Regimental Surgeons. That being expended I can no longer bear the distress of the sick, and impelled by the feelings of humanity, I shall take the liberty immediately to order a physician from Albany (if one can be got there, as I believe there may) to join me with such stores as are indispensably necessary. If Congress should approve of this measure, they will please to signify what allowance of pay will be made. If not, I shall discharge the person whoever he be, paying him for the services he may have performed.