A draft of a Letter to his Excellency General Washington was read, and approved, and is in the words following, to wit:

SIR: The Committee of Safety of this Colony having been requested to apply to your Excellency to obtain a release of seven citizens, now detained on board the ships Phenix and Asia as prisoners, they are well informed an exchange may be effected, if your Excellency would be pleased to give the Committee the benefit of a number of your prisoners of equal rank. Should either of the ships depart with their prisoners on board, their respective families must labour under additional misfortunes. Some of them have been detained a long time. The Committee enclose a list of their names; and beg leave to assure you that they are, with the greatest esteem, your Excellency’s most humble servants.

To His Excellency General Washington.

The names of the Prisoners alluded to in the foregoing Letter are as follows, to wit:

William Mount, Master of a vessel; Robert Johnson, Mate; William Berwick, Pilot; Jacob Germaine, Pilot; Charles Galatian, William Dillon, Boatmen; William Bicker, Hatter;—Asia.

Die Mercurii, 4to ho. P. M., April 17, 1776.

The Committee met pursuant to adjournment.

Present: William Paulding, Esquire, Chairman.

FOR NEW-YORK.—Colonel McDougall, Mr. Van Zandt, Mr.Beekman, Mr. Randall, Mr. Rutgers, Mr. Sands, Mr. Denning.

FOR SUFFOLK.—Mr. Tredwell.

FOR DUTCHESS.—Mr. Everson.

FOR ORANGE.—Mr. Cuyper.

FOR WESTCHESTER.—Mr. Paulding.

FOR KING’S.—Mr. Van Brunt.

FOR RICHMOND.—Mr. Bancker.

Lieutenant William Scudder sent into the Committee of Safety an open Letter or Memorial, dated on the 15th instant, which was read and filed.

He thereby informs that he had received a Warrant to inlist men in the Continental service in this Colony, in the Company whereof Henry O'Hara is Captain; that he has inlisted, and has on billet, in New-Jersey, about thirtyfive men at his own expense; that Captain O'Hara went to Albany about seven weeks ago, to return in three weeks; since which he has not had any intelligence from him; that his men call daily for money, and will desert if he is not enabled to support them. He therefore prays the Committee to take some method for his relief.

To the said Letter was annexed a list of the names of forty-seven persons, Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, therein said to be under the care of the said William Scudder.

William Lightbourn, who was appointed Second Lieutenant in Captain John Wiley’s Company, in the First Regiment, having resigned his Warrant, (which was occasioned by the decease of his father,)

Ordered, That the said William Scudder be appointed, and is hereby appointed, Second Lieutenant in Captain Wyley’s Company, in the place of Mr. Lightbourn; that a Warrant issue to him accordingly, and that he apply to Colonel McDougall for further direction and assistance.

A Warrant was issued for Lieutenant Scudder.

Mr. Sands produced the following Letters, which were read, in order to support his request for an order on the Treasury for the sum of eleven hundred and fifty Pounds, to pay for the Sloop Sally and the Schooner Polly.

“St. Eustatia, March 2, 1776.

“SIR: I am sorry to relate to you the sad misfortune that I have met with on the high seas. On the 10th day of February, in the latitude 23° 9', longitude 63°, I met with the Portland ship-of-war, of fifty guns; in spite of my endeavours, she brought me to, and took all my people, and sent the sloop to Antigua, with two officers and five men. I had the good fortune to save part of my money, which I have lodged in the hands of Mr. Samuel Cousens. I expect to sail in six or seven days for New- York, in a fast-sailing sloop belonging to Amboy. I have enclosed a bill on Messieurs Curson & Seton, and I intend to bring a copy of the same myself.

“Sir, I still remain yours,

“WILKIE DODGE.”

A Letter from Matthew Van Alstyne to his brother Abraham Van Alstyne, of this City, Merchant, dated St. Eusta-tia, February 24th, 1776, of which the following is an extract:

“I am sorry to inform you of my misfortune of being taken by the Pomone frigate. I had been at Martinico and going to Guadaloupe. I was becalmed under the land when he took me.”

Also, another Letter from Captain Matthew Van Alstyne to Abraham Van Alstyne, dated St. Eustatia, February 4th, 1776.

“I am going to St. Christophers, to take charge of Captain Sanders’s brig, rather than come home, for the sea is full of all kinds of cruisers. There is not one vessel in ten that escapes, going or coming. On my arrival here I wrote up to my friends at St. Christophers, and related my misfortune of being taken.”

Ordered, That Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Esquire, as Treasurer of the Provincial Congress of this Colony, pay to Mr. Comfort Sands, six hundred and fifty Pounds, for the Sloop Sally, whereof Wilkie Dodge was late Master; and the further sum of five hundred Pounds for the Schooner Polly, Matthew Van Alstyne, Master, which was insured at that price, by Sands, on account of this Colony.

The Committee then proceeded to finish their Resolutions for encouraging the manufacture of Saltpetre in this Colony; and the following Resolutions, reported by Mr. Tredwell, were read, amended, approved of, and agreed to for that purpose, in the words following, to wit:

In Committee of Safety, New-York, April 17, 1776.

Whereas the Continental Congress, on the 23d of February last, did recommend it to the several Assemblies, Conventions, and Councils, or Committees of Safety and Committees of Correspondence and Inspection, in the United Colonies, to exert themselves in devising further ways and means for promoting and encouraging the manufacture of Saltpetre, and of introducing that manufacture into private families; and to the several Assemblies and Conventions in the United Colonies that they establish publick works in each and every County, in their respective Colonies, at the expense of such Colonies, for the manufacture of Saltpetre; and appoint Committees of their own Members immediately to set up such manufacture:

And whereas the Provincial Congress of this Colony have authorized the Committee of Safety to carry the above Resolutions of Congress into execution:

Therefore Resolved, That Committees be appointed, agreeable to the said Resolutions, to erect Works for manufacturing of Saltpetre in every considerable Town or Village in the several Counties of New- York, Albany, Suffolk, Ulster, Orange, Dutchess, Westchester, and King’s.

And that Isaac Stoutenburgh, Samuel Prince, and Evert Bancker, be a Committee for that purpose in the City and County of New-York;

That Henry Glen, Abraham Yates, Jun., and Leonard Gansevoort, be a Committee for the like purpose in the City and County of Albany;

That Thomas Tredwell, David Gelston, and Ezra L'Homedieu, be a Committee for the like purpose in the County of Suffolk;

That Dirck Wynkoop and Charles De Witt be a Committee for the like purpose in the County of Ulster;

That William Allison and John Herring be a Committee for the like purpose in the County of Orange;

That Peter Ten Broeck and Cornelius Humphries be a Committee for the like purpose in the County of Dutchess;

That Ebenezer Lockwood and Gilbert Drake be a Committee for the like purpose in the County of Westchester;

And that John Vanderbilt, Nicholas Covenhoven, and Rutger Van Brunt, be a Committee for the like purpose in in the County of King’s.

And the said Committees are hereby severally authorized and empowered, in behalf and on account of this Colony, to contract with proper persons for erecting said Works, and carrying on the said manufacture, under the superintendence and direction of the said Committees.