has applied for permission to quit the service; I referred him to your Honor, and he now waits your answer in a state of much anxiety and sickness. His resignation I apprehend will occasion no void or any loss to the service. I have therefore allowed him to go down, in order to support his spirits and comply with your Honor's pleasure, whatever that be. While Lt. Baker is absent, I would offer it to your Honor as expedient, he should make interest among the Tusks and Nottoways. His intimacy with these nations may be of service in engaging some assistance from them, and I think him very capable of the undertaking. He might also recruit, if your Honor approves of the proposal I have already offered.

The delay of the soldiers' clothes occasions unaccountable murmurs and complaints, and I am very much afraid we shall have few men left, if they arrive not in a week or two. Your Honor would be astonished to see the naked condition of the poor wretches. And how they possibly can subsist, much less work, in such severe weather, [is not easy to conceive.] Had we but blankets to give them, or any thing to defend them from the cold, they might perhaps be

easy.

I have formerly hinted to your Honor our necessity for a speedy supply of cash, and have advised with the Speaker likewise, that he might not be unprepared. I purpose to send down by the 10th of next month or sooner if I could be served. The men are quite impatient, and the want of small bills is very prejudicial to their peace. I should be glad your

Honor would advise per return of Jenkins how soon I may send down. I cannot supply your Honor with a return of our strength as yet, because our scattered disposition hinders a regular discharge of the adjutant's duty. I am, &c.

SIR,

TO JOHN ROBINSON.

WINCHESTER, 19 December, 1756.

You are no stranger, I presume, to the late resolutions of the Governor and Council, the consequence of which I meditate with great concern. We are or

dered to reinforce Fort Cumberland with one hundred men, and, to enable me to carry that number thither, all the stockade forts on the Branch are to be evacuated, and in course all the settlements abandoned, except what lie under the immediate protection of Captain Waggener's fort, the only place exempted in their resolve. Surely his Honor and the Council are not fully acquainted with the situation and circumstances of the unhappy frontiers, thus to expose so valuable a tract as the Branch, in order to support a fortification, in itself (considering our present feebleness) of very little importance to the inhabitants or the colony. The former order of Council would have endangered not only the loss of Fort Loudoun, the stores, and Winchester, but a general removal of the settlers of this vale, even to the Blue Ridge. This last hath the same object in view, vizt., Fort Cumberland, and, to maintain it, the best lands

in Virginia are laid open to the mercy of a cruel and inhuman enemy. These people have long struggled with the dangers of savage incursions, daily soliciting defence, and willing to keep their ground. To encourage them, all my little help has been administered, and they seemed satisfied with my intentions, resolving to continue while any probability of support remained. The disposition I had made of our small regiment gave general satisfaction to the settlements, and content began to appear everywhere. The necessary measures for provisions and stores were agreeably concerted, and every regulation established for the season. But the late command reverses, confuses, and incommodes every thing; to say nothing of the extraordinary expense of carriage, disappointments, losses, and alterations, which must fall heavy on the country. Whence it arises, or why, I am truly ignorant; but my strongest representations of matters relative to the peace of the frontiers are disregarded as idle and frivolous; my propositions and measures, as partial and selfish; and all my sincerest endeavours for the service of my country perverted to the worst purposes. My orders are dark, doubtful, and uncertain; to-day approved, to-morrow condemned. Left to act and proceed at hazard, accountable for the consequences, and blamed without the benefit of defence, if you can think my situation capable to excite the smallest degree of envy, or afford the least satisfaction, the truth is yet hid from you, and you entertain notions very different from the reality of the case. However, I am determined to

bear up under all these embarrassments some time longer, in hope of better regulation on the arrival of Lord Loudoun, to whom I look for the future fate of Virginia.

His Lordship, I think, has received impressions tending to prejudice, by false representations of facts, if I may judge from a paragraph of one of his letters to the Governor, and on which is founded the resolve to support Fort Cumberland at all events. The severity of the season, and nakedness of the soldiers, are matters of much compassion, and give rise to infinite complaints. Nor is it possible to obviate them, unless their clothing come in immediately. You would be surprised how the poor creatures live, much more how they can do duty. Had we but blankets, they might be appeased for a little time; and as we have not, I fear many will desert.

I advised you formerly of our necessity for cash, and would earnestly desire it soon. I think of sending down by the 10th of next month, or sooner if agreeable. Please to inform me, by Jenkins, what I may depend upon on that head, as our men are impatient, and with some reason, when without both money and clothes. I need not urge the comparative advantage of small bills; as you are truly sensible how disadvantageous large ones are in paying individuals and occasioning many other inconveniences. We shall have occasion for at least six thousand pounds to clear us to the 1st of January. The commissary wants above half that sum to furnish his stocks of provisions, &c; the other will be exhausted in pay

ing the troops. We ought always to have money in hand, as we are often reduced to many inconveniences on account of waiting for it, not to mention the expense and trouble.'

Mr. Kirkpatrick will have my accompts to lay before the Committee, and will shew how the money has been applied.

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES.
December, 1756.

DEAR SIR,

It gave me infinite concern to hear by several letters, that the Assembly are incensed against the Virginia Regiment; and think they have cause to accuse the officers of all inordinate vices; but more especially of drunkenness and profanity! How far any one individual may have subjected himself to such reflections, I will not pretend to determine, but this I am certain of; and can with the highest safety call my conscience, my God! and (what I suppose will still be a more demonstrable proof, at least in the

In reply to this letter Mr. Speaker Robinson wrote:

"I am truly concerned at the uneasiness you are under in your present situation, and the more so, as I am sensible you have too much reason for it. The resolution of defending Fort Cumberland, and evacuating the other forts, was taken before I knew or mistrusted any thing of the matter. I must confess I was not a little surprised at it, and took the liberty to expostulate with many of the Council upon it, who gave me in answer, that Lord Loudoun had insisted that Fort Cumberland should be preserved, and, as we had so few troops, it could not be done without breaking up the small forts, and taking the men from them.

"It was to no purpose to tell them that our frontiers would thereby be entirely exposed to our cruel and savage enemy, and that they could receive no protection from Fort Cumberland, as it was in another province, and so remote from any of our inhabitants;—and further, that the act of Assembly, which