In a Week or 10 days I am in hopes the Six Nations will be down with me as also Deputies from those living upon the Susquahanna with a Belt of Wampum.
When I have finished my Conferrencel will acquaint your Honour with the result, but till then I cannot with any certainty judge what turn they will take, I hope and flatter myself it will be in our favour, and that a Party may actually engage themselves to assist us.
Cap^ Mathews came hither from Albany this Morning, his Company was regularly mustered last Wensday & his Men n"".tered in the Block-houses, he tells me he applied to M' DePeyster for Provisions for them, but he told him, tho a great deal had been sent him from New York, he had no Orders for Issuing any. Cap* Mathews is now obliged to support them at his own Expence, w^h ig very difficult for him to procure as well as to pay for. There are no Blanketts, Cloathing &« for them nor any Commissaries to give them Satisfaction on these Points. How very fatal this may be to the Service, by disgusting the Men already there & spreading amongst those who are to come, and how nece-ssary it is to fulfil these public Engagements with Promptitude & Exactness, past Experience will testifie & the nature of the Case so fully evinces, that I will not trouble Your Honour with any of my Reflections thereon. One thing I must beg leave to say with regard to our Military Preparations in general, that if we are dilatory & remiss, the Consequences will probably be irretrievably fatal. I am