the favour of their countrymen as to this Committee shall seem meet.

Which Petition was attended with a certificate of Benjamin Sands, Chairman of the Committee of Cow-Neck and Great-Neck, purporting that the Petitioners, since they were advertised by the Provincial Congress, had expressed their sorrow for their past conduct, and that they were led on by wicked and designing men, and that they have signed the General Association and promised obedience to all orders of Congress.

Upon due consideration of the premises, and well knowing that the late Resolves of the Congress against the delinquents of Queen's County, were intended to convince them of their demerits, and bring them to a just sense of their duty to the publick, it is

Ordered, That the said Petitioners be restored to the state and condition in which they were before the passing of these Resolves, during their respective future good behaviour.

The Committee then resumed the consideration of the Resolves of Congress relating to the Fortifications at the Highlands, and thereupon agreed upon Instructions to the Commissioners in the words following, to wit:

Instructions to the Commissioners for the Fortifications on HUDSON'SRIVER.

In consequence of a Resolve of the Continental Congress, of the 5th instant, that no further fortifications ought to be erected at Martelaer's Rock, on Hudson's River, and that a point of land at Pooplopen's Kill, on the said river, ought without delay to be effectually fortified, it is

Ordered, 1st. That the timber designed for the additional Barracks at Martelaer's Rock, and not yet erected, be removed by the first opportunity to Pooplopen's Kill, there to be applied to use pursuant to some future order.

2d. That the timber now lying at Martelaer's Rock, destined for the line now under construction, be not removed or applied to any use till further order, and for that purpose.

3d. As this Committee is informed that the line for the intended Battery on Martelaer's Rock, is very near being finished, and as, perhaps, it may be completed with a base of fifteen feet thick, without much additional expense, that the Commissioners do immediately return a very particular and minute state and condition of the said line, describing its length and its thickness at the base, whether it be filled up to the height to which it is now raised, and all the materials of which it consists, with a computation of the extraordinary expense that may attend the extension of its base to the thickness of fifteen feet, and all other circumstances relating to the same that may tend to enable this Committee to judge whether it would be best to recommend to the Continental Congress the completing of the said line.

4th. That Colonel Isaac Nicoll, of the Minute-Men in Orange County, who is nominated to the command of the Fortification on Hudson's River, be received and obeyed in that command till the arrival of a proper Continental officer, or till further order, pursuant to a commission given to him by this Committee for that purpose.

5th. As this Committee is informed that the Powder lately sent to Martelaer's Rock cannot be, as yet, placed in the Magazine, on account of its dampness, that the Commissioners, in conjunction with Colonel Nicoll, take effectual means, by tightening the roof and keeping constant fires, and otherwise, as in their discretion shall seem fit, to fit it, without delay, for the reception of the Powder; and, in the mean time, that the Powder be kept with all due care from waste and damage.

Die Mercurii, January 17, 1776.

The Committee met pursuant to adjournment.

Present: Pierre Van Cortlandt, Esq., Chairman, Mr., Scott, Colonel McDougall, Colonel Brasher, Mr. Tredwell, Mr. Brewster, Mr. Clarke. Mr. Sands a very short time.

Mr. Curtenius delivered in a state of his Accounts, and also, a separate memorandum of moneys due from him or the publick accounts, whereby it appears that a balance of three thousand six hundred and fifty-eight Pounds three Shillings and nine Pence is due to him.

Ordered, That Peter T. Curtenius, as Commissary of this Congress, purchase, on Continental account, three thousand bushels of Salt, and forward the same to Walter Livingston, Esq., or his order, at Albany, with all convenient speed.

Ordered, That the said Commissary examine the Arms now at the gunsmiths, preparing for Lord Stirling's troops, and take care that they are good and properly finished, and that he direct the gunsmiths in this city not to sell any Arms to any person who resides out of this Colony, until the further order of the Provincial Congress or of this Committee.

Ordered, further, That the said Commissary purchase seventy Blankets for Soldiers, on the best terms which he can procure them.

Mr. Curtenius requested, by marks in Day-Book, and by every other proper method, to distinguish between Continental and Provincial charges, so as to keep them in separate accounts.

Ordered, That Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Esq., as Treasurer of the Congress of this Colony, advance to Peter T. Curtenius, as Commissary of the Congress of this Colony, the sum of six thousand Pounds, to enable him to comply with the orders given to him by the Provincial Congress and this Committee; that the said Treasurer pay this Order out of the Provincial Money of this Colony, and take Mr. Curtenius's receipt for the same.

Ordered, That Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Esq., as Treasurer of the Congress of this Colony, advance to Colonel Alexander McDougall the sum of five hundred Pounds, on account, for the subsistence of his Regiment; that the said Treasurer pay this Order out of the Provincial Money of this Colony, and take Colonel McDougall's receipt for the same.

This Committee being fully convinced that it is their indispensable duty to endeavour to encourage and procure the making of Saltpetre in this Colony, in order to supply the means of its defence, and that the manufacture of that article will ultimately tend to the great advantage of the Colony, conceive they cannot better discharge their duty on that matter, at present, than by having a small collection of the most plain and easy experiments for the manufacture of Saltpetre published; and Mr. Tredwell, one of the members, having collected copies of the said experiments, a draft of an Introduction or Preface to the same was read and approved of, and is in the words following, to wit:

In Committee of Safety during the recess of Congress,

January 17, 1776.

The wicked practices of a corrupt Administration, and their hostile attempts to compel an obedience to several Acts of the British Parliament, evidently subversive of all the rights and privileges which as God's rational creatures; we are entitled to, and have, as Englishmen, inherited by the laws of our country, have constrained the inhabitants of those Colonies to take up arms for the defence of their lives, liberties, and property. The Ministry, flattering themselves that so young a country, unused to manufactures of every kind, will not be able to procure the means of defence within itself, have made, and will undoubtedly continue to make it a principal object of their attention, to preclude us from foreign supplies of military stores. This Committee would, therefore, conceive themselves most; culpably deficient in discharge of their important trust as guardians of the publick security, should they not do all in their power to promote the manufacture of those articles. Without these, the greatest unanimity, virtue, and fortitude, can afford us little prospect of success in the present; interesting struggle. To that end, this Committee have thought it necessary to publish the following Essays upon the Manufacture of Saltpetre and Gunpowder, not doubting that a due consideration of the danger of resting the liberties and future happiness of this large and growing country upon foreign supplies, which will be extremely precarious, and at all events very expensive, will induce the inhabitants of this Colony to do every thing in their power to supply the Continent with those necessary ar-