shall take with them; and are, with respect, your Honours’ most obedient, humble servant,

JONATHAN GLOVER, Chairman.

To the Honourable Council for the Colony of the Massachusetts-Bay.

ROBERT COOK TO COLONEL KNOX.

Grafton, April 9, 1776.

WORTHY SIR: I am at great difficulty about the teams and their loading at present, and last night likewise in shifting them, the which I did with three of them, and the three fresh teams that I got then are already tired, and say that they cannot go any farther than Sutton, which is six miles from hence, and there I expect to find them all to-morrow morning, and all of them wanting to have their teams shifted; and you may depend that they cannot go farther, for I have had a survey of all their cattle, by all the Selectmen of this town, and their Representative; and they say they cannot go on, their cattle are so much galled and lame. I am informed by the Selectmen that there are many teams in this town, but they cannot get any of them to go forward with a load, not even so far as Sutton; and in the whole town can get but one team, and he is gone forward; and there are three now remaining; and how to get them any farther I know not, without a special order from you or the General Court, to impress any of them that can be found, and the order to continue in force until they arrive at N orwich. The bearer hereof is one of the teamsters, who I thought proper to despatch, and he will inform you of more particulars.

Waiting your answer, I remain, sir, with impatience, your very humble servant,

ROBERT COOK.

To Henry Knox, Esq., Colonel of Artillery, or to Ezckiel Cheever, Esq., Commissary of Artillery, at Cambridge.

P. S. I hope you will satisfy this man for coming to you, which he desires.

ADDRESS OF THE MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD OF GLASGOW AND AYR.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty’s faithful subjects, the Ministers and Elders of the Provincial Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, beg leave to approach your Throne, professing, in the sincerest manner, our warm affection and inviolable loyalty to your Majesty, and our gratitude to Heaven for the liberty, peace, and happiness we and our people enjoy under your Government.

Blessed, as British subjects, with a Constitution the admiration of neighbouring States, which has been in several respects improved under your reign; protected by wise and equal laws in the enjoyment, not only of our civil rights, but our religious blessings; we would be unworthy of these high privileges, if we were not thankful for them to the God of Heaven, and did not also feel a constant gratitude to your Majesty, whom we consider as his Minister, raised up for our good, as the protector, guardian, and father of a great people.

Penetrated as we are with these sentiments, it has been matter of much grief to us that the spirit of Rebellion has been prevailing, and still continues to prevail in your American Colonies; and that the gentle measures pursued by your Majesty and your Parliament to suppress it, have hitherto been attended with so little success.

We are grieved that any of your subjects should be so infatuated as to deprive themselves of the real liberty, protection, and happiness they have long enjoyed under constitutional authority, and subject themselves to all the miseries of a democratical tyranny. We regret that they should receive any encouragement from the spirit of faction at home, and be flattered with ideas of liberty, which appear to us inconsistent with subjection to law, and subversive of all regular Government.

We have long seen with pleasure how averse your Majesty has been to draw the sword, and arm the nation even in support of law and legal authority, which have been insulted and trampled upon in your American Dominions. These insults you have borne with a patience and lenity unexampled in any former reign. We can easily enter into the distress which your benevolent and compassionate heart must feel for the miseries which these deluded men have drawn upon themselves, and still more for the lives of your brave subjects which may be sacrificed before peace and order can be re-established.

We should judge ourselves wanting in duty to your Majesty, and in justice to the people under our care, did we not embrace the present opportunity of assuring your Majesty of their fidelity and affection to your Majesty’s person and Government, their zealous attachment to our happy Constitution, and abhorrence of the present Rebellion. To inculcate on the people of our respective congregations the principles and duties of Christianity, a reverence for the laws of their country, and an affectionate attachment to the best of Sovereigns, ever has been, and we trust ever shall be, our sincere and active endeavour.

We implore the Supreme Disposer of all events, that he would, in his great mercy, shorten these dire calamities; that he would direct your councils, favour your schemes in the course of his Providence, and crown with success your generous designs for restoring and establishing liberty, harmony, and happiness, in every part of your extensive Empire.

May it please your Majesty, your Majesty’s most faithful, most obedient, and most loyal subjects, the Ministers and Elders met in this Provincial Synod of Glasgow and Ayr.

Signed in our name, in our presence, and at our appointment,

JAMES BAILLIE, Moderator.

Glasgow, April 10, 1776.

JOHN STEVENSON TO MARYLAND COUNCIL OF SAFETY.

Copper-Mine, April 10, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: When you met at Baltimore last March, I presented you with a memorial, informing you that eighteen hands at my mine were idle for want of gunpowder; and that the Baltimore Committee had taken two hundred pounds out of the publick magazine, which I had purchased last fall, and which has greatly impeded the carrying on my works at the Copper-Mine. You were then pleased to take my case into consideration, and grant me some relief. However, since that, I had procured one hundred pounds of powder, at a very great expense and charge, in Philadelphia, which, coming down in the packet, with sundry other things for the Committee, they likewise seized, and will not deliver up. What 1 have to request of the honourable the Council of Safety is, either to order my last hundred pounds of powder to bo returned me, or, if the publick safety requires it should not be given up, to order me money to replace the same quantity. I have purchased very good powder, manufactured in the country, at ten shillings per pound, and can be supplied with a sufficient quantity, to carry on my works at that price, and not under. The powder I have experienced to be of as good quality as any imported from Europe; therefore I flatter myself you will take it into your consideration either to order me the powder or money.

Your compliance will very much oblige, gentlemen, your most humble servant,

JOHN STEVENSON.

To the Honourable the Council of Safety of Maryland.

WILLIAM LUX TO DANIEL OF ST. THOMAS JENIFER.

Baltimore, April 10, 1776.

DEAR SIR: I have just received your favour of the 6th, and am much pleased that our Committee are able to justify their conduct to your satisfaction. I believe they all mean to do right; but it is quite necessary to keep them within bounds, because their zeal will sometimes outstrip their prudence. I intend coming down the last of the week, or the beginning of the next, with the account of the Defence, and will then bring the schooner’s accounts, so far as I am concerned.

Mr. Hollingsworth has not got any clover-seed; the flaxseed, oil, and lead, you shall have by the very first conveyance. I am afraid hackles cannot be got; but I will try. I must beg you to send by Mr. Chase eight hundred pounds. Mr. Alexander has never come down, and I must pay off all the ship’s accounts before I come down.

I hear the Convention is adjourned; if so, I wish to know. We have got three of the eighteen-pounders down;