made by mistake, I can conceive to be very possible: they are to be rectified.

The baggage of General Wooster’s Regiment is upon a footing with all the other, and to be paid as those of the New-York Regiments, without any discrimination, for which I shall give order.

You have, Sir, by this time received the copy of my letter to the Committee of Albany. I enclose this to that respectable body, and beg them, after reading it, to deliver it to you.

I have found you, Sir, to say the least I can, incompetent to the charge that was conferred on you. I dare not give you a warrant for any more money; and you are, therefore, to observe the enclosed orders, which I expect you will not make the least delay in complying with, that the publick creditors may be immediately paid, and the service not suffer; and that I may in future have no complaints that the people remain unpaid, who have become the honest creditors of the publick.

I am, Sir, your humble servant,

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

To Mr. Elisha Phelps, Deputy Commissary.

[No. 4.]

Ticonderoga, November 7, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: I again presume to trouble you on the same disagreeable subject which occasioned my last, and therefore entreat you to read the enclosed letter, of which I beg you to order a copy to be made, as also of the order it encloses. This is a trouble I can only apologize for by want of time. Pray be so good as to cause Mr. Phelps’s letter to be delivered unsealed, and by a proper person, that has compared it with your copy; I wish the day may be noted.

I shall by this conveyance send orders to Mr. Livingston to pay off every person whom Mr. Phelps has employed, his clerks excepted, or from whom he has purchased any article for the publick service; but this cannot be done until he gets Mr. Phelps’s accounts, as he will not be able to know what money has been advanced. Mr. Phelps need not to be above two days in doing this with great accuracy.

Be pleased to let Mr. Livingston have a copy of the order to Mr. Phelps, and, if he should have occasion, a copy of the accounts which I have transmitted you in my last, and which is marked No. 5.

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

To the Committee of Albany.

GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS

[Read November 20, 1775.]

Lebanon, Connecticut, November 11, 1775.

SIR: I am desired by the General Assembly of this Colony to write to the Continental Congress, and state the matters relative to the prisoners here. Enclosed is the resolution of our Assembly, with the copies of the letters and papers therein desired to be transmitted.

Captain Delaplace and family are at Hartford; the soldiers taken with him at Ticonderoga and Crown Point are removed, and employed in several Towns near that. Ensign Morland, who belonged to that garrison, and afterwards sent here, was ordered into a good family in Windsor; he is unwilling to stay at the place of his destination. Governour Skene, with his son, are in a society belonging to Hartford. Major French, with his companions, are at present in that Town; the enclosures will show their circumstances and requests; also, the motion of Captain Delaplace. The situation and circumstances of Middletown render that an improper place for the officers. There is an Episcopal missionary at Simsbury; I have no objection to that place, if desirable to them; it is not much odds in its distance from Boston. There is one prisoner at Windham, who was taken with three negro men, two of which negroes were taken by Captain Wallace, of the Rose, man-of-war, from Governour Cooke, of Providence, on board his packet laden with rum, which was seized; the other from Mr. Collins, of Newport. This man and negroes were put on board a sloop taken by Captain Wallace at the time be cannonaded Stonington. The sloop by a gale of wind was driven into New-London harbour, and was retaken there; the negroes and sloop restored to the owners; the man, a small officer on board the ship, is retained. Major-General Schuyler hath lately sent hither the prisoners taken at La Prairie or thereabout; and, by his letter of the 27th of October, ult., informs me that he intendeth to order the officers and soldiers, with the women and children, in all near two hundred, taken at Chambly, into this Colony, under my direction. I have given orders to the Committee appointed to take care of, provide for, and inspect the prisoners sent into this Colony, to send to Great Barrington and Canaan, to stay them at the latter; that one or more of the Committee meet them immediately after the knowledge of their arrival, to make necessary provision, and give directions for their reception and entertainment in several Towns in the County of Litch-field. so as persons of the same family be not separated; that being the nearest part of the Colony to the place of their dwelling. At the same time that the United Colonies lament the necessity of taking up arms for the safety and defence of their rights and liberty, they may thankfully rejoice in the success of those arms, and in hope of future prosperity: I do therefore congratulate you on the success at Chambly, on the hope of a speedy reduction of St. John’s, of the security of the Province of Quebeck, in their own and our interest, and thereby of preventing the Indians taking up the hatchet against these Colonies.

Please, Sir, to lay the resolve of our Assembly, with the papers enclosed, before the honourable Congress, for their consideration and answer.

I have been informed that disturbances have happened at Westmoreland, on the Susquehannah River—some of the Connecticut people going to the west branch; whether prudently or not, it was done without direction of Government, and, I believe, without any from the Company. They were attacked by claimers under Mr. Penn, fired upon, their effects taken from them, and some imprisoned. This Colony have asserted their claim to those lands, the case is carried to England, and properly pursued there; and from a letter from our agents, lately received, there appears a probability that Commissioners will be appointed in this Country, to hear and determine the case, with liberty to either party to appeal. I lament that interested individuals, joined with the enemies of the rights of the Colonies, have at this time such an handle to cause division and mischief between these two Colonies on that head. It is far from our design to take any advantage in the case from the present unhappy difference with Great Britain. Our desire is that no advantage be taken on either side; but at a proper time, and before competent judges, to have the different claims to those lands litigated, settled, and determined; in the mean time, to have this lie dormant, until the other all important controversy is brought to a close. The wisdom of the Congress, I trust, will find means to put a stop to all altercations between this Colony and Mr. Penn, and the settlers under each, until a calm and peaceable day. The gun and bayonet are not the constitutional instruments to adjust and settle real claims; neither will insidious methods turn to account, for such as make them their pursuit.

I am, with great truth and regard, Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBULL.

Hon. John Hancock, Esq.

At a General Assembly of the Governour and Company of the Colony of Connecticut, holden at New-Haven, on the second Thursday of October, 1775:

Resolved by this Assembly, That his Honour the Governour be desired to write to the Continental Congress, and state the several matters relative to the prisoners of war who now are or hereafter shall be brought into this Colony, and request the direction of said Congress in what manner the officers and soldiers who are prisoners as aforesaid shall be provided for and supported, and how and in what manner the expense incurred thereby shall be defrayed; and that his Honour transmit therewith a copy of General Washington’s letters to the Committee of Inspection at Hartford, respecting Major French and his companions; also, said French’s request, contained in his billet to Mr. Paine; and Captain William Delaplace’s memorial, preferred to this Assembly.

A true copy of record, examined by,

GEORGE WYLLYS, Secretary.