a Magazine of Provisions in Westchester County; and, after some time spent therein, Congress were of opinion the Resolution agreed on the . . . . day of . . . .for that purpose, is imperfect, inadequate to the end, and that the method thereby proposed will create unnecessary expense.

Ordered, That Mr. Sands, Colonel Joseph Drake, and Mr. Thomas, be a Committee to reconsider the method of establishing a Magazine of Provisions, and to report thereon.

The Committee last above-mentioned, who had withdrawn for the purpose, speedily returned, and reported the following Resolution, which was unanimously agreed to, viz:

Resolved and Ordered, That the Deputies of Westchester County purchase, and deposite in different Stores in that County, twelve hundred barrels of good salted Pork, where-ever it is to be bought; and that the Deputies of Albany County purchase eighteen hundred and fifty bushels of good Peas, and send them to the Deputies of Westchester County, to be by them stored in the same manner.

A draft of a Letter to the Committee of Richmond County, on the subject of regulating and arranging their Militia, and occasioned by Mr. Bancker’s late motion for a supply of Gunpowder, was read and approved, and is in the words following, to wit:

In Provincial Congress, New-York, March 9, 1776.

GENTLMEN: Your Deputy (Mr. Bancker ) has applied to this Congress to spare, out of their present small stock, a little powder, to be sent to some prudent person or persons in your County, for the defence of the friends to liberty and their country there. The objection to the measure is, that the Militia of your County is not formed agreeable to the regulations of the Continental and this Provincial Congress.

We therefore request you, Gentlemen, to have your County divided into beats or districts, and take proper measures that the Militia of your County be formed as soon as possible, agreeable to the regulations above-mentioned; and the names of the Captains and Subalterns returned to this Congress without delay, that their commissions may be issued.

We are, respectfully, gentlemen, your very humble servants.

By order.

To the Chairman and Members of the Committee of Richmond County.

Ordered,That a copy thereof be engrossed, and signed by the President, and transmitted.

Die Sabhati, 4 ho. P. M., March 9, 1776.

The Congress met pursuant to adjournment.

Present: Brigadier-General Woodhull, President.

FOR NEW-YORK.—Mr. Scott, Mr. Prince, Captain Denning, Mr. Evert Bancker, Mr. Van Zandt, Mr. Sands, Mr. Randall.

FOR ALBANY.—General Ten Broeck, Mr. Abraham Yates, Mr. Gansevoort, Colonel William Nicoll, (on service.)

FOR SUFFOLK.—General Woodhull, Mr. Hobart, Mr. Gelston.

FOR DUTCHESS.—Colonel Ten Broeck, Major Schenck,Colonel M. Graham, Mr. G. Livingston, (on service.)

FOR KING’s.—Mr. Polhemus.

FOR ORANGE.—Colonel Hay, Colonel Allison.

FOR ULSTER.—Mr. Rhea, Mr. Lefever, Colonel Nicoll,(on service.)

FOR WESTCHESTER.—Colonel Gilbert Drake, Major Lock-wood, Mr. Thomas, Colonel Joseph Drake.

FOR RICHMOND.—Mr. Adrian Bancker.

FOR CHARLOTTE.—Colonel John Williams.

FOR CUMBERLAND.—Colonel William Williams.

FOR TRYON.—Mr. Moore.

The Committee appointed to consider of, and report on, the Memorial of Abraham Lott, Esq., Treasurer of this Colony, appointed by the General Assembly thereof, delivered in their Report, which was read; and the same being again read by paragraphs, and amended, was resolved on, and unanimously agreed to in the words following, to wit:

1st. Resolved and Ordered, That Abraham Lott, Esq., Treasurer, and the Loan Officers of this Colony, shall receive in payment of the principal and interest that shall, from time to time, become due on the moneys put out on loan by virtue of an Act of the Governour, Council, and Assembly of the Colony of New-York, passed the 16th of February, 1771, entitled “An act for emitting the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds in Bills of Credit,” to be put out on loan, and to appropriate the interest arising thereon to the payment of the debts of this Colony, and to such publick exigencies as the circumstances of this Colony may, from time to time, render necessary, as well the Bills of Credit heretofore issued, by virtue of any law of this Colony, as those issued by order of the Congress of the United Colonies and of the Provincial Congress of this Colony.

2dly. And whereas, by virtue of the aforesaid Act, the one-tenth part of the said sum will become due, and is to be paid unto the respective Loan Officers on the third Tuesday of April next; and whereas, by reason of the unhappy war brought on us by the iniquitous attempts by the British Parliament to reduce these Colonies to a state of slavery, it may be inconvenient for the good people of this Colony, who have the said moneys on loan, to pay the said one-tenth part of the same, according to the directions of the said Act:

Resolved and Ordered, That the payment of the said one-tenth part of the principal be, and it is hereby, suspended, until the third Tuesday of April, which will be in the year of our Lord 1777; upon which day the annual payments of the one-tenth part of the said principal sum of one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds shall commence, and continue from year to year, until the whole shall be paid, anything in the said Act to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding.

And whereas doubts may arise in the minds of the Loan Officers about the disposition of such principal moneys as may happen to be paid in:

It is hereby Ordered, That they put the same out on loan; and that, in doing thereof, they conform, in all respects, to the directions of the said Act.

3dly. And whereas the publick exigencies of the Colony are so great as to require that all the publick revenues of the same should be appropriated to defray its expenses; and whereas the General Assembly of the Colony have, by a prorogation made on the day appointed for their meeting, been prevented from proceeding to the despatch of the ordinary business thereof; it therefore becomes necessary for the Representatives of the people in Provincial Congress to attend to the proper application of the publick moneys now in the hands of the said Abraham Lott, Esq.:

Resolved and Ordered, therefore, That the said Abraham Lott be directed, and he is hereby directed, within thirty days from this day, to lay before this Congress or the Committee of Safety, on oath, an account of all the moneys that now are, and shall then be, in his hands as Treasurer of this Colony; particularly stating to what funds they belong; and whether any and what funds are appropriated to any, and what, uses; and every other matter which shall be necessary to constitute a complete state of the Treasury of this Colony.

Ordered, That Mr. Elias Nixen, the Port-Master, be, and he is permitted, to convey on board of the Ships Asia and Phenix, and Governour’s Ship, the following articles, viz:

[A Requisition of Hugh & Alexander Wallace, to send three boxes of Candles for the Governour, is the only one found.]

A Letter from Hendrick Garrison, of Richmond County, dated the 8th instant, was read and filed. He therein complains that, while attending before the Committee of said County as a witness, pursuant to summons, and while under examination, the said Committee permitted the defendants, Cornelius Martino, Richard Conner, and John Burbank, to insult and abuse said Garrison, and asking the advice and protection of Congress, he considering his situation unsafe as respects either his person or property.

A Letter from John Hall.

A Letter from Malcom Morrison, First Major to Colonel Jacobus Swartwout’s Regiment of Minute-men, in Dutchess County, resigning said appointment, and recommending Major Henry Ludenton to be promoted to supply the vacancy, was read and filed.

The Commission of said Malcom Morrison, enclosed in said Letter, was filed.