Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. III
Brigadier Hunter wanting Certificates from the palatins themselves to prove that he had subsisted them pursuant to ye Queens orders & his acco'^ sent me a draft of a certificate giving me liberty w**iall to alter it if I saw occasion and wrote to several others of liis friends here to consult w"i me and to be assisting in the affair, I considered his draft as thurroughly as I could shewed the Gov'^ & some others those parts w^h I tliought most liable to objections & discoursing upon the capricious humours of those people I proposed some alterations in tlie draft of ye Certificate to make it go down the better, and a paragraph at the end to still their fears of entering thereby into an additional obligation to repay the King the money expended for their Subsistance how idlesoever this would have been were they reasonable men it was then thought pertinent enough, I s;iewed the Brigadeer's friends who vouchsafed to talk w*'^ me the alterations I liad made and receiving their approbation I gave it to one of them w'h my earnest request to proceed w"' the utmost laution and temper he took it and went to albany wth the Gov^" round about w^h place most of the palatins live, and wliere tjiey were to wait on his Ex^y to inform him what progres they liad made in the purchase of Some lands in the Indian Country by his leave but no sooner were these Gentlemen got together but they rejected what I had done declaring that unles y^ palatins Signed tlie Certificate Sent by the Brigadier w^ut alterations