On the thirteenth of March, a letter was received from General Washington, expressing to " the Com- " manding Officer of the American F'orces, New "York,"'' the suspicions of the Commander-in-chief that the Royal Army which was then enclosed in Boston would soon be transferred to New York, and appealing to the Provincial Congress for its best efforts "to " prevent their forming a lodgment before" [Ac, Gcnertil WdfifiiiKjfon,] "can come or send to your assist- "ance."

The intelligence thus communicated to the Provincial Congress, for General Lord Stirling immediately submitted the letter to that body, led to another revision of the Resolution authorizing the establishment of a Military Magazine in Westchester-county, already referred to, wiiich resulted in the ado|)tion of the following Resolution, nut necessarily as a substitute for the other, nor probably regarded as such a substitute, in j)ractise :

" Ordkred, That Colonel Gilbert Drake repair " immediately to Westchester-county and purchase "twelve hundred barrels of the best Pork, and " have the same safely stored, agreeable to the " Resolves of this Congress, of the ninth day of "March instant; that betake with him, from New- " York, a sworn Inspector and Repacker of Pork, to " inspect and re-pack the same ; and that he i)urchase " and store, at the cheapest rate in his power, Flour " sufiicient for the use of five thousand nu^ii for a " month."

Notwithstanding the adroitness of Colonel Gilbert Drake, in concentrating within his own ])erson the sole authority to purchase all the Pork and all the Flour which were considered necessary, when the lastnamed Resolution wa.s ado])teil by the Provincial Congress, his associates in the De|)Utation from Westchester-county were already in the field, bargaining for barrelled Pork, under the provisions of the former Resolution ; entering into comi)etition