Lieutenant-Colonel Mott is still here. I am but a very indifferent judge of the engineering business; but from what I can discover, he appears to me as well qualified as any gentleman that can be got, who is not regularly bred to the business. I am sure he is active, and has the service much at heart; and I could wish, if his appointment is to be confirmed, that his commission might be transmitted to me.

It is more than probable before I can receive your answer to this letter, I shall have a sufficiency of boats to transport what troops I am likely to have to St. John’s, if I should be ordered there, for (after deducting what will be absolutely necessary to garrison these places, and bring a supply of provisions,) I shall at most have only twelve hundred men; in that case I wish to be informed what I am to do with the carpenters that are here, for although I think it necessary to build more boats, yet I ought to know whether Congress means that I should build a naval force superiour to that of the enemy. If so, I must keep them, and beg some more good builders. The boats I have found on the lake are so bad, that the labour we have bestowed upon them is in a great measure lost.

As the commander of the sloop had left here, of which I was advised on my arrival at Albany, I wrote to the New-York Provincial Congress to send me up a man, which they have accordingly done, and I am just now informed that Congress has appointed another; if so, I beg the direction of Congress how I am to dispose of Captain Smith, the present commander.

I am, Sir, most respectfully, your obedient humble servant,

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

To the Honourable John Hancock, President, &c., &c.

Crown Point, Sunday, July 30, Anno 1775.

Weighed anchor and proceeded down the Lake Champlain. At 4 P. M. saw a boat under sail; brought her to by the fire of a gun, which proved to be Esquire Gilliland’s boat. On board of the boat I found a man that came from St. John’s, with a pass to pass and repass up and down the lake, from Major Preston, Commander-in-Chief at St. John’s; and by Mr. Gilliland’s information, found there was another man on shore that had a pass from General Carleton, and by an express was sent to St. John’s as a cooper in His Majesty’s service. By examining them asunder, I found their stories to disagree so much, that I sent them to your Honour to examine. John Shatford says there is but eight or ten guns at St. John’s; the other says seventy or eighty; the former says they are hauled by his own door. Esquire Gilliland desired me to take particular care of the latter, viz: John Duguid, as he said he was not sure but he was a tory. I kept him on board all night. At 7 A. M. I sent them to Crown Point, under guard of three men. Immediately weighed anchor, and proceeded towards the Isle of Mott.

July 31.—Sailed down the lake some distance; meeting with heavy squalls to the northward, returned, and came to an anchor under Schuyler’s Island for safety.

August 1.—Weighed anchor, and proceeded down the lake; nothing remarkable.

August 2.—Went on shore with the boat with the Lieutenant of Marines, to make discoveries.

August 3.—At 8 A. M. weighed the anchor from the southwest end, and proceeded to the northwest end to the Frenchman’s house, with the Lieutenant of Marines and Sergeant, to make discoveries; and there met with Captain Baker, who went down to Vandelowe’s, the Frenchman’s, where his two men were taken prisoners on his last cruise. They inform him there are two schooners will be ready to sail from St. John’s in ten days from this date, mounting sixteen carriage-guns each, besides swivels; they are fifty-two feet keel, by good information from the French and Indians who came on board us, and desired us to fortify at a place where the channel is very narrow and runs close into the shore, where no vessel can pass without passing through said channel. By receiving said information, with the advice of Captain Baker, thought it proper to return with all speed to your Honour to report; having a fine gale of wind, I immediately weighed anchor, and proceeded towards Crown Point, and arrived there the 4th of August, at 4 o’clock, P. M., 1775, on board the Schooner Liberty.

JAMES STEWART, Commanding Schooner.

GENERAL SCHUYLER TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Ticonderoga, August 6, 1775.

I thank you, my dear General, for your very kind and polite letter of the 28th ultimo, which I just had the honour to receive.

Immediately on my arrival here, I issued such orders respecting the provisions and stores, (which I found had been most scandalously embezzled or misapplied,) as I hoped would effectually have brought matters into a right train; but it is the misfortune of the people here, that they do not know how to obey, although they should be willing. I have therefore directed the Deputy Commissary-General to send up a person (whom I named and knew to be equal to the business) to examine the Commissaries at the several posts on the communication, and to give them such directions as will, I hope, introduce regularity in future. Mr. John N. Bleecker is now employed in that essential business.

With respect to the returns of the Army, you will see by the last letter I had the honour to write to you, that I have had no success in getting them properly made, although I have drawn and given them forms, which I thought so clear that no possibility of mistaking them remained.

I foresaw, my dear Sir, that you would have an Herculean labour, in order to introduce that proper spirit of discipline and subordination which is the very soul of an army, and I felt for you with the utmost sensibility, as I well knew the variety of difficulties you would have to encounter, and which must necessarily be extremely painful and disgusting to you, accustomed to order and regularity. I can easily conceive that my difficulties are only a faint semblance of yours. Yes, my General, I will strive to copy your bright example, and patiently and steadily persevere in that line which only can promise the wished for reformation.

Since my last I have had a verbal confirmation, by one of my scouts, of the intelligence contained in the affidavits which I sent you. I am prepared, with the utmost diligence, to obey my orders, and move against the enemy, unless your Excellency or Congress should direct otherwise. In the course of a few days I expect to receive the ultimate determination. Whatever it may be, I shall try to execute it in such a manner as will best promote the just cause in which we are engaged.

Not a man from this Colony has yet joined me, except those I returned to you, and who are raised and paid by the Committee of Albany; nor have I yet received those necessary supplies which I begged the New-York Provincial Congress to send me as long ago as the third of last month, and which the Continental Congress had desired them to do.

The troops here are destitute of tents. They are crowded in vile barracks, which, with the natural inattention of the soldiery to cleanliness, has already been productive of disease, and numbers are daily rendered unfit for duty.

I am, so unfortunate as not to have one carriage for field artillery, so that if I am ordered to attack St. John’s, and am able to get down the Sorrel River, I shall labour under vast difficulty to bring up the cannon through a very swampy country. They will be few, indeed, as I shall have less than a ton of powder when the troops are completed, to twenty-four rounds a man.

Congress has appointed Commissioners for Indian affairs. As one of them, I have ordered messengers to be sent into their country to invite them to a conference at Albany. I have also requested the Caughnawagas of Canada to meet me at this place.

The whole family of the late Sir William Johnson have held a line of conduct that evinces the most inimical sentiments in them to the American cause. Sir John Johnson has had four hundred men, partly Scotch Highlanders, in arms, to protect a scoundrel Sheriff who had repeatedly insulted the good inhabitants of that country, which at length they retaliated. The inhabitants have, however, drove off the Sheriff, and made the Knight promise he would interfere no farther. I should not have hesitated one moment to have secured him and his adherents, had I not been apprehensive of evil consequences from the Indians. I therefore thought it most prudent to advise Congress of the whole matter.