On the thirteenth of March, a letter was received from General Washington, expressing to " the Com- "' manding Officer of the American Forces, New " York," 2 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" [he, General Washington,] " 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, which resulted in the adoption of the following Resolution, not necessarily as a substitute for the other, nor probably regarded as such a substitute, in practise :
"Ordered, 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 he take with him, from Netv- " York, a sworn Inspector and Repacker of Pork, to " inspect and re-pack the same ; and that he purchase " and store, at the cheapest rate in his power, Flour " sufficient for the use of five thousand men for a " month." 3
Notwithstanding the adroitness of Colonel Gilbert Drake, in concentrating within his own person the sole authority to purchase all the Pork and all the Flour which were considered necessary, when the lastnamed Resolution was adopted by the Provincial Congress, his associates in the Deputation from Westchester-county were already in the field, bargaining for barrelled Pork, under the provisions of the former Resolution; entering into competition