efforts, I am to present his Excellency’s most respectful compliments.

I have the honour to be, your most obedient servant,

J. REED.

To the Hon. Samuel Tucker, Esq., President, &c.

COLONEL REED TO NEW-YORK CONVENTION.

Head-Quarters, New-York, June 28, 1776.

SIR: By his Excellency’s directions, I enclose you a copy of a letter he received this morning. The importance of the intelligence, and the critical situation of affairs, will doubtless suggest to your honourable body the necessity of paying immediate attention to those matters contained in his letter of yesterday; and if any further measures can be taken to forward the Militia expected for the defence of this post, that they be immediately procured. To gentlemen so zealous in the publick cause, and well apprized of all circumstances, arguments are unnecessary.

I am, sir, most respectfully, your obedient and very humble servant,

J. REED.

To the Hon. Nathaniel Woodhull, Esq., President, &c.

An humble Petition to the Honourable Provincial Congress.

GENTLEMEN: As I have this day received a copy of my mittimus to this Jail, I come now to supplicate your Honours with this prayer, that your Honours would give me leave to ascend into your presence, that I may be inquired of, and that I may have a right understanding of the crime alleged against me, as I suppose there is a suspicion of my being unfriendly to my country; but as for the. evidences brought against me, I have never heard, and what the crime is I know not; but I was taken in the South Bay of Long-Island by the Riflemen, and brought to the Provost guard, and from thence to this Jail, and have been confined ever since. And now gentlemen may it be your pleasures to grant me the favour of a hearing And as my son was taken with me in my vessel, and a passenger named Ebenezer Scribner, we all beg that your Honours would be pleased to give all of us the favour of ascending into your honourable presence, to be inquired of. As I myself am very poorly, and the passenger is under the Doctor’s hands now, and as we are in a very unhealthy place, we rest very uneasy, but still subscribe ourselves your humble petitioners.

With submission, your most humble servants,

NATHAN GUYER,
LAZARU GUYER,
EBENEZER SCRIBNER.

In New City-Hall, New-York, June 28, 1776.

THOMAS ROCHE TO NEW-YORK CONGRES

New-York, June 28, 1776.

HONOURED GENTLEMEN: Hope your Honours will be kind enough to see that your petitioner will not starve for want of victuals; and being ignorant of the crime laid to his charge, begs of your Honours either to discharge him from his confinement or to find him some provision; and in so doing you will lay him under the utmost obligation and duty to serve.

THOMAS ROCHE.

To the Members of the Congress.

To the Honourable the Provincial Congress of the Colony of NEW-YORK:

The Petition of CHARLES MORSE, of the City of NEW-YORK, Conveyancer and Scrivener, showeth :

That since the commencement of hostilities by the British forces in the American Colonies, your petitioner’s business hath been so greatly reduced as not to afford a competent livelihood for himself and family, and now is entirely stopped: Your petitioner therefore, and inasmuch as he has always been a staunch Whig and a sincere friend to the cause of American liberty, humbly prays that your Honours will be pleased to appoint him a Commissary or a Clerk, or any other station under your Honours, as to you shall seem meet; and your petitioner will ever pray, &c.

CHARLES MORSE.

ALBANY (NEW-YORK) COMMITTEE.

Albany Committee-Chamber, June 28, 1776.

Pursuant to a resolve of the last general meeting, the polls of the several elections held in the respective Districts in this County for Deputies to represent this City and County in Provincial Congress, with full power to form a new Government, and the names of the several voters, and the Deputies they had voted for, being carefully counted, a majority of votes appeared for Abraham Yates, Jan., Robert Yates, Robert Van Rensselaer, Abraham Ten Broeck, Christopher Yates, Peter R. Livingston, John James Bleecker, Jacob Cuyler, Leonard Gansevoort, John Ten Broeck, Matthew Adgate, and John Taylor. This Committee do thereupon declare the said persons to be duly elected; and that they, or any three of them, represent this City and County in Provincial Congress, for the purposes mentioned in the resolves of said Congress.

A true copy from the Minutes:

MATTHEW VISSCHER, Secretary.

GOVERNOUR TBUMBULL TO GENERAL SCHUYLER.

Lebanon, June 28, 1776.

DEAR SIR: Yours of the 17th instant, enclosing copies of the doings of the Commissioners for transacting Indian affairs, and my son’s, of the 21st, by your leave, enclosing General Sullivan’s letter, and several of Colonel Arnold’s, are received. The contents of the letters from the Generals, though melancholy, ought, however, to be received with that steadiness and fortitude which becomes the soldier and the Christian, who believes that Heaven will never forsake the cause that is just. I firmly believe our cause is righteous, and that we shall be protected from ruin, though we may be severely rebuked and corrected. The liberty taken by the honourable Commissioners is acceptable, and their requisition will be cheerfully attended to; but apprehend that the inlistments already made from the small remains of Indian tribes in this Colony will render it difficult to raise a company of those people. You will have further accounts from me of what can be done in that respect as soon as can, on inquiry, be satisfied what number may be raised. The two battalions raising here for your department are ordered to be equipped, mustered, and marched, with all possible despatch, and no time will be lost in this preparation. I shall, agreeable to your request, order their march on the most direct road to Bennington, and so on to Skenesborough, and give notice in season that you may take measures accordingly. Their baggage will also be sent agreeable to your instructions. But few of the troops raised in this Colony have had the small-pox, which tends to retard the inlistments. I wish to have proper precautions taken to preserve the Army from the infection, and the New-England troops from the danger thereof; and that notice may be given me of the measures used for this end.

Yours to the Presidents of the Conventions in the Massachusetts and New-Hampshire were forwarded as desired.

I am, with great truth and regard, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBOLL.

To Major-General Schuyler.

P. S. Have just received intelligence that propitious Heaven hath revealed a most hellish plot to assassinate our General and destroy the magazine of ammunition at New-York. Such wickedness will never be suffered to go unpunished.

CAPTAIN BIDDLE TO COMMODORE HOPKINS.

New-London, June 28, 1776.

SIR: I arrived here the 26th of June, in company with Captain Hacker, in the Fly, who sailed for New-York with a fair wind yesterday morning. There are several vessels here outward bound. Captain Kennedy, who commands one of them, showed me a paper signed by one of the Committee of Congress, directed to the commanders of Continental or Provincial vessels of war, desiring they would assist them in getting clear of the land; and another to the same purpose, signed by General Putnam. As soon as a favourable opportunity offers, I propose going out ahead of them, and to give them a signal to return in case I see-danger. Captain Jones has, according to your orders, gone

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