that since my plan was approved of, I thought myself the person who should direct all. The polite answer I got on that head, i have not forgot, though it made me resolve an imposition of silence on myself, till the state of affairs would naturally dispose matters to flow in their proper channels. How far you are judges of work, I know not, as I am not acquainted with your extent of experience; but I often heard you complain of the freezing out of the masonry. I beg leave to inform you, that on a single brick wall, of nine inches thick, a frost may take out three inches on each side, but it cannot take out quite so much of our wall; because, as the thickness increases, the effect of the frost decreases, and cannot be more than two inches at most on the outside of our works, which must be pointed over again in the spring, and this new pointing I mentioned before ten stones were laid in the wall. All men, who ever were necessitated to work late in thick work, will, from experience, vouch the truth of my assertion.

To your second and third, relating to the block-house, I did not exaggerate my number of carpenters. I still stand to my promise, and can do it. I do not remember any expostulation, except shrugging up shoulders can be called so, for that always was the answer to my many times repeated plaints in regard of hewing and re-hewing of the timber; and whenever that kind of expostulation happened, I used to recollect your original polite answer of “we are not grown so old to allow you to direct the work.” With regard to a road, you made your landing in a wrong place before I came here; and when I used to be angry at so many hands working on roads, at unseasonable times and unnecessary places, I always got my labour for my pains. And how shortly is it ago since I got the ill-will of one of you, for barely telling the labourers that there was no necessity to remove a certain stone laying near a road which was then making? My proposal of oxen was as soon as they became necessary; and I then said buying was preferable to hiring, unless people would bring forage along with them. You might have bought them; but instead of that, you countermanded some that were bought, as you did of getting of timber, even now, before one-fifth of the timber is got that is mentioned in my estimate. What you mean by an elegant outside appearance, I cannot conceive. My calculation of the necessary iron-work is just, except, indeed, the rings and staples outside of the ports, which I never thought of, nor would have had them there, had you not ordered some one to put them there. About the inside lined with so much nicety and expense, the extra cost of this is no more than one day and a half, easy work, for a carpenter, (about fourteen shillings, ) for it must be lined, let who will live in it; and as it is generally the residence of an officer, as this is now for me, I thought passing the jack-plane over one side of the lining was the least that could be done. What would you have said had I lined the roof, divided the lower room with panel partitions, and put up a panel ceiling, to remove and put up at pleasure; for most block-houses are so, and the meanest are partitioned. It seems your idea of a temporary work is, that it ought to last six months, to build a new one again.

As to treenails, I ordered two thousand of oak, when locust was not to be had. I do not know what ruined your credit; but the badness of that, among the country people, prevents your getting any thing regularly. I planned, gentlemen, but remember you ordered even that; though you could not so well direct that case, as you could when you spoiled my plan of the barracks.

What you mean by a waste of timber, I am utterly at a loss for. My order, of eighteen feet long, was right; and had I ordered them the just length, they might have come three inches too short, and then, indeed, it would have been waste; but had they been three inches too long, the sawing off of three inches would lake as long time as sawing off two, three, and ten feet, which I wanted elsewhere.

The day I got your epistle, I looked around the works for waste timber. I saw none but chips; and I confess I was struck with the thought, what a pity it was nature gave our carpenters so much trouble. The truth is, gentlemen, you have no business with any calculations of the kind. You are to judge afterwards. You have before now seen what your no trifling extraordinary expense of timber goes to. The mention you make of the pieces being unwieldy, is curious. I cannot see what odds it made to the men, to have them sawed at the landing or at the mill. They would have been eleven feet in either case; and excepting some trifling iron-work, that was not finished, I was right in my judgment about the 10th of November, for that day I lived in it, and I received your letter there. By what necessity do you introduce the order for mounting twelve guns? Have I ever opposed it; and are we not on the point of having twenty?

To the fourth, I must tell you, that Mr. White, the master carpenter, being an acquaintance of Mr. Bayard, was indulged with a liberty to make evening visits to you; and this gave rise to a distinction, insomuch that Mr. Adams has been told to let Mr. White go on with such and such particular work; he, Adams, need not trouble himself about it. This produced two master carpenters, and Adams justly complained of the matter, because White at first treated him as his superior, but at length became his equal. Yet still I think, as I did then, country carpenters are preferable; and what makes the use of them impolitick, is a conception beyond my ideas.

Fifthly. My calculation of the oxen’s work is evident. I can show your teamster how himself and one man may load his cart; but as every country clown knows how, it is below me, even while I am the paltry being that is not allowed to direct his own plan; for as the helping of the oxen is the finest skulking birth our labourers can find, I do not know whether I would be safe in destroying it, while I have no command. But, gentlemen, your wheels are too low; and when a new pair was bespoke, I pleaded long to have them timber wheels. But no. They must be common cart wheels; and now they are come, they are common cart wheels indeed. As to the six men employed to steady the stone, I only tried the oxen twice on the walls, and found the fear of the animals made it unsafe. I desisted, therefore, and men only have done it. You will please to remember that that machine was no cart, and with it I have brought stones of two ton weight to the wall, very different from a piece of timber of ten or even eight feet long. It was my invention; but any body might have thought of that, as well as of Columbus’s egg. If my calculation of forage is below the mark, please to know that it is far above what the people of the country allow to their cattle.

Sixthly. Labourers may be had under the regulations I mentioned. I can get five hundred if need be.

In your seventh, you catch at my word “superficial,” as drowning people do at straws. I will tell you something, perhaps, to you, extraordinary. What I call a superficial view, was such as most other surveyors would call a perfect survey. I am, from long experience, enabled to take more exact surveys of places, with a piece of paper and pencil, than perhaps ninety-nine besides me can, with all the circumstantial apparatus generally used. It is true, I forgot the iron for the barracks; but have you mended that mistake, by using nearly as much on one block-house as I intended to use for the whole work ? Glass is a trifle; three hundred and eighteen panes cost about six pounds twelve shillings and six pence. Transport of stores surely includes freight for boards and shingles; and work to be made on the spot, by the blacksmith, surely showed that I was aware more iron would be required than I could think of in short, I am more and more convinced that my estimate is right, the price of the article of lime only excepted, which I calculated at Philadelphia or New-England prices, little dreaming that it cost above twice as much in New-York.

To your eighth, I insist on it, you must have miners here. And as to the labourers mauling the stone, need I tell you, gentlemen, that I have often been out of all humour to see them work in stone that would not split, as I knew how to get them to the wall, of any size. But here again my authority failed me.

To the beginning of your ninth: I have, perhaps, gone a little below the dignity of my office. This proceeded, chiefly, because I found that many of our gentry took the advantage of drawing their provisions, when they intended to decamp the very next morning. But what I mentioned about tools in this article is what you ought to have answered. Here I spoke in my proper sphere; but this you waived, to proceed to a matter which, had I not been convinced of the integrity of your transcriber, I could never

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