alleging it will be necessary to have the names entered in the office; therefore the sooner you engage them and send their names here, the sooner the warrants will be filled up and sent you. I am endeavouring to persuade the Committee to order the guns at Providence for your ship, as she is much more forward than any, but am not certain of success. If I do not succeed in this plan, shall endeavour to get the first that are made here; but how to get them from this place to you is a difficulty that I do not know at present how to surmount; however, shall continue to do everything in my power that you may be furnished with guns, the want of which I am fully sensible will be the sole cause of the detention of the ship.

You say you find the Committee at Providence have liberty to appoint Lieutenants, &c. I do not know from whence they got their liberty, —I am sure it was not from the Marine Committee, nor from anybody deriving authority from Congress. I can further say, and with the utmost certainty, that there is not one officer appointed for either of those ships, except the Captains.

The Government of Philadelphia are all afloat, but they are in a fair way to get things all right. The post is just going off, so cannot add, save that I am, with respect, yours,

WILLIAM WHIPPLE.

QUEEN’S COUNTY COMMITTEE TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

SIR: The under-mentioned is a true copy from the Minutes taken on the 20th of May last:

At a meeting of the inhabitants of Flushing, held at the house of James Bowling, in Flushing, this 20th day of May, 1776, was unanimously chosen Nathaniel Tom, Captain, and Jeffery Hicks, Second Lieutenant, to serve as officers in the Militia of Flushing, under the inspection of Thomas Thorne and Edmund Pinfold, two of the members of this Committee.

A true copy from the Minutes.

By order of the Committee:

To Mr. Robert Benson, Secretary of the Provincial Convention.

EZEKIEL HAWLEY TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Salem, June 22, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: As civil and religious privileges all lie at stake, we that are friends, then, desire to lend a lifting hand in trying to preserve them. The Tories grow more and more disaffected, and are daily going off to Long-Island —four men last week from my neighbourhood; several more from other parts; Captain Theal and his son John, soldier, and Stephen Delancey. Some of them laid under five hundred pounds bonds, and also under the solemnity of an oath; but they regard not anything the Committee does with them, so long as they have their liberty. It is supposed numbers are concealed on Long-Island. Please to take it into your wise consideration, whether or not it will not be best to send and purge Long-Island. And as I wrote to you a little back, by Mr. Chapman, one of the members of Salem Committee, to know what we should do with those that forfeit their bonds, and how we should get pay for the last, (as there are since many more,) we should be glad of an answer.

By order of the Committee:

EZEKIEL HAWLEY, Chairman.

To the Honourable the Provincial Congress of New-York.

COLONEL JAMES CLINTON TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY: I have just now received your letter by express with the warrant therein enclosed, which I will endeavour to execute with the greatest care, expedition, and exactness, that I possibly can. After it is done I will bring him and his papers to this fort, where I shall keep him prisoner till I receive your Excellency’s further directions. I wrote to your Excellency yesterday by Colonel Livingston, who brought down the necessary returns from both forts; you may see by them what a situation my regiment is in for want of arms, and I do not know at present any way to supply them, unless we can be furnished from New-York. I will do my endeavour to get as many arms as I can. I was down at Fort Montgomery yesterday, where I think the work goes on as well as can be expected. I mentioned in the letter I wrote before, that I kept two of the Commissioners, one at each fort; and if we had an Engineer, I think, for several reasons, they would be useful.

I am your Excellency’s most obedient, humble servant,

JAMES CLINTON, Colonel.

To His Excellency General Washington.

CORNWALL, ORANGE COUNTY, NEW-YORK, COMMITTEE.

In Committee for the Precinct of Cornwall, in Orange County, at Blooming Grove, June 22, 1776:

James Haff being brought before this Committee, by a warrant from the Chairman, on suspicion of his being combined in a plot against the liberties of America, upon examination, confessed, after some hesitation, that there was a plot on foot for a number of men to join the Ministerial Army as soon as they should arrive at New-York, and that he was sworn to secrecy in the matter by John Clark; and that Richard Collingwood, he supposed, was sworn likewise, and also Thomas Coyne and Hugh Murray; and that John Clark told him (the said James Haff) that every man that joined the Ministerial Army should immediately thereupon enter into full pay, and receive five guineas bounty, and be entitled to two hundred acres of land; and that those who were friends to the Ministerial Army and stayed at home, should, after they were sworn, be entitled to half-pay and save their estates. And further, that the guns at the fortifications in the Highlands would be spiked up by some of the troops stationed there as soon as they should be informed that the King’s troops had arrived, and that it was expected a party of them would endeavour to push up the river and land at Verplanck’s Point.

The form of the oath that said Haff was sworn to was as follows, viz: That he should keep his own secrets and the secrets of his fellows, and not take up arms against the King.

ELIHU MARVIN, Chairman.

A true copy from the Minutes.

GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Hartford, June 22, 1776.

SIR: I have received your favour of the 20th instant. The resolve of Congress for augmenting the Army at New-York and Canada induced me forthwith to send warrants for convening the General Assembly. Yesterday the session was finished. The requisition for the quota of men to be furnished by this Colony is fully complied with. The men are raising, and to march soon. Have given my orders agreeable to your request.

I am, most respectfully, your Excellency’s obedient humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBULL.

To His Excellency General Washington.

MESHECH WEARE TO MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY.

Exeter, June 22, 1776.

SIR: We presume you are not unacquainted with our designs of putting this Colony in the best posture of defence we are able; but before matters were grown so ripe to press the measure, we were unluckily deprived of the chief of our cannon by one of our enemy’s ships, and, as we thought, were carried to Boston.

In consequence of a resolve of the honourable the Continental Congress for the restoration of them, if to be found there, we despatched our Quartermaster for that purpose, and to request General Ward for their delivery. But his journey was ineffectual, as, after viewing the cannon at or near Boston, none were to be found that we could claim; and being informed you have a large quantity at Boston, induces us to request, with all earnestness, of your General