The cannon sent by Colonel Knox arrived yesterday; and although the Indians have deferred the treaty to the middle of this month, yet I have thought it advisable to take post at Fort Stanwix, and all the stores are moving from here to-day, and will, I hope, leave Schenectady on Wednesday morning. The Commissioners of Indian Affairs have prepared a message to the Six Nations, giving the reasons why we take post at Fort Stanwix. This will, however, not be sent until everything is so far advanced that there may be no danger in communicating to them my intentions.

Should the enemy advance, and we be under the necessity of calling forth the Militia nearest to us, we shall be at a loss for ball and buckshot. I wish, therefore, to have twenty-five rounds apiece for ten thousand men sent up the soonest possible, if it can anywhere be procured, with a proportionate quantity of cartridge-paper, and two tons of oakum.

If any cutlasses, stinkpots, and hand-grenades can be got, I beg they may also be sent for the use of our armed vessels.

One hundred thousand of the dollars brought up by General Gates are ordered to the Army; better than half of the other are already expended, nor will any be left in two or three days.

Mr. Duane informed me, and gave me leave to make use of his name, that the five hundred thousand voted by Congress the 22d of May for this department, were actually charged, and he fears that they may have met with some accident on the way up.

I have ordered the silver to be kept in chests, except about three thousand pounds, which we borrowed here, and must now be repaid.

Four o’clock, P. M.—I am this moment favoured with your Excellency’s letter of the 27th ultimo, enclosing copy of a resolution of Congress of the 24th. I have immediately an opportunity of forwarding copies thereof to Governour Trumbull and Mr. Edwards; the latter has already received one month’s advance wages for the Stockbridge Company, and which, I suppose, is by this time paid to them, as he informed me that they were to be here on Wednesday or Thursday next. I am afraid it will give great umbrage if they are immediately discharged; but as the order is positive, I dare not presume to defer complying with it. I shall, however, request Mr. Edwards to do it in a manner that will give the least offence.

I wish Colonel Francis and Colonel Wolcott were immediately ordered up to attend the conference at the German Flats on the 15th instant, as I propose going to Crown Point to-morrow, having, upon further consultation with General Gates and General Arnold since writing the foregoing, determined upon it; and this journey may detain me so long as to prevent my attendance, in which case there will be only two Commissioners present.

I am, dear General, most respectfully, your obedient humble servant,

PH. SCHUYLER.

To His Excellency General Washington.

Isle-aux-Noix, June 24, 1776.

DEAR GENERAL: Before this comes to hand, you will have received mine by General Arnold, acquainting you with our retreat to this place. Your favour of the 17th instant, enclosing his Excellency’s letter, came to hand this evening.

I am much obliged for the powers you have been pleased to delegate to me, of which I shall make a proper use against the persons you mention, provided their crime turns out as I apprehend; they are now under trial, and I trust the result will be known to-morrow. This cowardly affair, together with the want of discipline, and that infernal disorder the small-pox, has ruined our Army. Believe me, dear General, that when I ordered the sick people from hence to Crown Point, many regiments were obliged to apply for men to be drafted from other regiments to row them away, they not having well men enough for that purpose. Those that remain here, owing to their fatigue and want of fresh provisions, are daily dropping off, like the Israelites before the destroying angel. The officers, to a man, are daily calling aloud to go on to Crown Point, to fortify there, and recruit the Army. I am, for my own part, now convinced that this step must be taken, or the Army will be lost, not by the enemy, but by sickness.

I have this day viewed Windmill Point and Point-au-Fer, and think that garrisons at either or both those places would be useless, the former being a low sunken piece of ground, and the river so wide that cannon cannot command it. The latter is three miles from this point, and there the river is still wider. So if garrisons were at these places, the enemy might pass, either by water or land, without regarding them. I had four boats in company with me on my return, two of which dropped astern, and the people went on shore. I heard a firing about two or three miles astern, but could not guess what it was. I have since learned that the people were attacked by the Indians, and their batteaus taken. I cannot give full credence to this at present, as I think the firing must have been further off. However, as the batteaus have not yet arrived, I have sent a party after them, and shall soon know the truth of this report.

This afternoon, before my return, a party of officers and men, who had carelessly ventured to a French house, about half a mile below this Island, without their arms, were attacked by a party of Indians and two Canadians, who killed and took seven officers and four or five privates. We find these fellows have lined our shores to watch our batteaus. I shall take care to guard them well, and am now sending off a strong party of Riflemen to scourge the rascals for their insolence. Colonel Wayne, with a party, followed those who attacked and killed the officers, but could not overtake them. He recovered the batteaus and five dead bodies, scalped and mangled in a shocking manner. I shall give you the particulars as soon as it can be done with certainty.

Dear General, believe me to be, with much respect and esteem, your most obedient servant,

JOHN SULLIVAN.

To the Hon. Major-General Schuyler.

Albany, June 30, 1776.

In a conversation with General Gates, in the presence of Walter Livingston, Esq., General Gates observed that Mr. Lewis had intimated to him, as what he had from Colonel Trumbull, that he might as well return to New-York, as General Gates could not provide for him agreeable to expectation, because the Army having quitted Canada, it was now under the command of General Schuyler. General Gates declared that Colonel Campbell being ordered to Congress to settle his accounts, he should appoint Mr. Lewis as Deputy Quartermaster-General. General Schuyler answered, that if Colonel Campbell quitted the department, he should willingly appoint any person General Gates thought proper; that the Army being now out of Canada, he conceived that it was under his command, and he could suffer no appointment to be made by General Gates. General Gates conceived the contrary; upon which General Schuyler observed that he meant to be clear and explicit on a point of such importance, and declared that he conceived the Army to be altogether under his command when on this side of Canada, subject, however, to the control of General Washington; that, in his absence, General Gates commanded the Army in the same manner as General Sullivan did now, and only as eldest officer, who acknowledged that General Schuyler’s commands were binding on him, which he instanced in General Sullivan’s last letter, and pointedly observed that if he was with the Army, (which he always would be, when his health or other indispensable publick business did not call him from it,) and ordered it to remove from one place to another, he should expect to be obeyed; that, upon any sudden emergency, the officer with, and commanding the Army, had a right to exercise his judgment, and take measures accordingly, for which he was, however, obnoxious to the censure or praise of the commander of the department; that if Congress meant that General Gates should command the Army in this department, and would resolve so, that he should most readily acquiesce, but that they could not after that imagine he would remain in it; that they had certainly a right to make what arrangements they thought proper; that he was a creature of theirs, and they had a right to move him wherever they pleased, but they could not put him under the command of a younger officer, nor oblige him to be a suicide, and stab his own honour; that he frankly confessed General Gates’s superior military qualifications; that he would always advise with him and his other brother Generals;