bills of indictment have been found against us. And the Sheriff and Magistrates of the said County, producing His Majesty's process or writs unto us, we confess the legal service thereof on us severally. And do voluntarily and most cheerfully surrender ourselves to the humanity of the honourable the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, in regard to our possessions, and to the lenity of the laws of said Province in regard to our crimes, and will appear, agreeably to our recognizances, at Easton court next term. And we do, each for himself, solemnly and voluntarily declare and promise that we will, in future, pay due obedience unto, and be governed by, the laws of Pennsylvania in every respect. We also disclaim all title to our present possessions, in pursuance of any claim or pretended right we, or any of us, may formerly have had under the Susquehannah or Delaware Companies, in Connecticut. And we covenant and promise to yield up our said possessions to the said Proprietaries, or their agents, at any time they may please to demand the same; and we do severally empower James Biddle, Esq., Attorney, or any other Attorney in the Province of Pennsylvania aforesaid, to appear for us and to receive a declaration in ejectment as of any term after this date, and to confess judgment thereon, with full powers to release all errors in the said judgment. We likewise promise that we severally will avoid all future quarrels with our neighbours, and unite and muster with Captain Van Eltan's company, and, if necessary, are willing to march where our assistance may be required for the defence of American liberty, in the common cause; and cheerfully, hereafter, obey all and every the resolutions and orders of the Continental Congress, the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, or the Committee of Safety, of all whom we severally and humbly crave forgiveness for past offences; and in testimony of our sincere intentions to behave becomingly in future, we have hereunto set our hands and seals, this eighth day of December, 1775.

LOSSES FROM HOSTILITIES BY THE MINISTERIAL TROOPS.

New-York, December 13, 1775.

Whereas the Continental Congress, by their Resolve of the 18th of October last, did order and direct, "That a well-authenticated account of the hostilities committed by the Ministerial troops and navy in America since March last," should "be collected, with proper evidence of the truth of the facts related;" and also, "the number and value of the buildings destroyed by them," with "the number and value of the vessels, inward and outward bound, which have been seized by them since that period, as near as the value can be ascertained;" also, "the stock taken from different parts of the Continent:" And whereas the Committee appointed by them to collect the same, have transmitted a copy of the foregoing Resolve to the Provincial Congress in this City, requesting their assistance in obtaining the same; which letter, with the foregoing Resolve, being, by order of the Provincial Congress aforesaid, delivered to the Chairman of the General Committee for this City and County, "requiring them to ascertain, in the best manner possible, the damages sustained by people of this City and County, with all necessary particulars thereof, and with proofs to support the same, and to transmit them to the Provincial Congress with all convenient speed:" And whereas the General Committee aforesaid have appointed Cornelius P. Low, Oliver Templeton, and Daniel Phonics, to be a sub-Committee for that purpose: All persons in this City and County who have sustained any loss or damage by the Ministerial army or navy in America since March last, are hereby requested to prepare and deliver to them an accurate estimate of the same, with the examinations of witnesses and other papers and documents, officially authenticated; as also, clear, distinct, and circumstantial details of the hostile and destructive acts by them done, or captures or seizures made, that the same may be laid before the Provincial Congress without delay.

EDWARD JONES TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

New-York, December 13, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: I make bold to lay my grievances before you, in hoes you will see me righted. I have been this five months a Corporal in Captain Ledyard's company, and have received no more than 53s. 4d. a month. I have been lately informed by one or two Corporals that came down from St. John's that they received 58s. 8d. per month. Now, gentlemen, as I have been always ready and willing to do any thing for the good of my country, I hope your Honours will be so kind as to grant me my full pay, which will be forever acknowledged by your much obliged, very humble servant,

EDWARD JONES.

To the Provincial Congress in New York.

COMMISSIONERS FOR FORTIFICATIONS TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Fort-Constitution, December 7, 1775.

SIR: Yours of the 3d instant, covering extracts of a letter from Lord Stirling, dated the same day, by which we find six companies, of ninety men each, are ordered up to this post, besides those already here. As to the orders to have sufficient barracks completed for one thousand men, we beg leave to observe, that it is not in our power to get done; the additional one (from the first plan) is not this day completed with filling in, but other ways fit and finished for troops, Captain Grenell's and Captain Halbert's companies being, with part of Captain Ledyard's, quartered in them. The first barrack, a single story, four rooms, twenty men in a room, is occupied by our artificers and labourers. We have ordered, eight days ago, another barrack of eighty feet by twenty, two stories high, with a garret, to be framed at New-Windsor; but the badness of the weather up here, by what we can learn, has prevented the person employed from getting the timber together to begin to frame. We shall hurry him, and may be able to get it raised and covered, but the stacks of chimneys and filling in much doubt if it can be done, as we have neither brick nor lime for it, and if we had, unless more favourable weather than for this fortnight past, could not much work at, as our mortar is continually freezing in the mortar-house. We beg leave to mention our frequent desire to know what number of men would be wanted to remain this winter at this post, as a government to us; in particular, in ours to Mr. John Berrien of the 15th ultimo, your not then nor since making a House, he could not give us a direct answer.

We could not take the artificers from the works of defence had materials (and we directions) for more barracks been on the spot. Artificers and labourers must have covering, and fire to go to. While they continue they take up the room of the first barrack; when they be dismissed, the two barracks now built will contain three hundred men.

We would also beg leave to refer the honourable Provincial Congress to ours of the 10th ultimo, in which we informed them what barracks we had then, to which we have never been honoured with an answer. Our mentioning these things is from a distress we are in on finding so many men ordered up to this post, when we never expected any more than three hundred to winter here, and, hearing nothing to induce us to think otherwise, provided, as well as circumstances and time permitted, for only that number.

As to procuring fire-wood, we are very ready to do it; but it must be bought and brought by water here. We think this comes more properly under the direction of the Commissary to the troops to he quartered here. We have been down in the sloop Liberty, examining the river as low as Slaughter's Landing, and find the depth of water, from there to this post, greatly to exceed the information we have had. We also took a view of Pooploop's Hill, and found its situation the best by much for any defensive works in the Highlands. A little to the north of the house, on the hill, is a place where a battery of heavy cannon would obstruct any enemies coming up, as it commands the river down and up, the length of point-blank