and Mr. Taylour with such as the Honble. Board shall join, be a Committee to take the foregoing Message from His Excellency under Consideration, together with the Extracts from Governour Wentworths and Governour Fitch's Letters, and report thereon; and that the Committee be directed to sit forthwith;-In Council; Read and Concur'd, and John Otis, Thomas Hutchinson, Eleazer Porter and William Brattle Esqr. are joined in the Affair.1

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL COURT ACTION ON WILLIAM SHIRLEY'S MESSAGE OF JUNE 62

At a Great and General Court or Assembly for his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1 See Action of General Court, following.

2 Mass. Arch., Records of General Court, 20.

On the receipt of these resolutions by the New York Assembly the following action was taken in July (Doct. Hist. N. Y. 2, 389):

Resolved, that in case the Army destined for Crown Point shall stand in need of Reinforcements, This House will provide ways. and means for Supplying the Quota of this Colony of such Reinforcements, and Ordered, That Capt. Walton and Capt. Winne wait on his Honour the Lieutenant Governor and desire that he will be pleased to acquaint Major General Johnson that on this Colony's having furnished and Supplyed the Sum of nine hundred and forty four pounds towards the Train of Artillery for the Expedition to Crown Point, over and above the sum of Two thousand pounds the proper Quota of this Colony and the sum of One thousand pounds advanced on the security of Part of the provisions allowed by the Colony of Pensilvania, His Excellency Govr. Shirley has engaged to furnish and Supply the sum of £1652, New York Currency or thereabouts for the said Train over and above the sum of £3500 Lawfull money already provided by the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay for that Service which Sums Compleat the whole Estimate of the Train of Artillery, and that Major General Johnson is to Apply to his Excellency Govr. Shirley for the aforesaid Sum of one thousand six hundred and fifty two pounds. By order of the General Assembly

ABRM. LOTT, junr. Clk. The action of the assembly of Massachusetts on June 12 and June 13 is of equal interest in this connection. Notes of this action

begun and held at Boston upon Wednesday the 28th day of May 1755, being convened by His Majesty's Writts.

The Committee appointed to take under consideration his Excellency's Message to both Houses of the 6th Instant, have so far attended the Service as to consider the Extract from Major General Johnson's Letter, referr'd to in his Excellency's said Message, and report as their humble Opinion.

That a Sum not exceeding Six hundred Pounds be granted

were inclosed by Shirley in his letter of June 20 to Robinson, post, p. 195. The original papers are in Records of the General Court, 20, 482-484, and are as follows:

June 12. "A Memorial of the Committee of War for the Expedition to Crown Point, shewing that they have not been able to purchase any Gun Powder, nor have any Prospect of doing it soon (all at the Markett having been bought up for the Expedition to Nova Scotia,) and New Hampshire and Connecticut Governments depending in a great Measure upon this Province to be furnished here; Therefore, Praying that the Memorialists may be allowed to take One hundred Barrells out of the publick Magazines. . . . In the House of Representatives; Read and Voted that his Excellency the Captain General be desired to give Orders that Two hundred Barrells of Powder be delivered out of the Magazines of this Province to the Committee of War in order to their being transported to Albany for the use of the Forces employed on the Expedition to Crown Point.

"In Council; Read and Concur'd; . . . Consented to by the Governour."

"In the House of Representatives; June 13, 1755: The House taking into Serious Consideration his Excellency's Message of this Day, to both Houses passed the following Vote; Viz. Resolved that Three hundred of the 1500 Men raised by this Province for the Expedition to Crown Point, be allowed if they voluntarily enlist, to proceed with the Forces destined to Niagara, Provided the Enlistment of the other Twelve hundred Men, to be raised by this Province be compleated, Provided also that the said Three hundred Men be transported and subsisted without any Expense to this Province, and shall be dismissed at the End of Eight Months from their Enlistment; Provided also that the full number of Three Thousand seven hundred, agreed upon to be raised by the several Governments appear upon the Muster at Albany for the Expedition to Crown Point, and are ordered to that service.

In Council; Read and Concur'd; . . . Consented to by the Governour."

and allowed to be paid out of the Treasury of this Province, for the Service of the Expedition against Crown Point, to be applied towards engaging the Indians of the Six Nations, and supporting them and their Families during the Continuance of the said Expedition; and that the Treasurer be directed to reserve the aforesaid Sum to be always ready to answer any Draughts that may be made on him by Major General Johnson, for the purpose aforesaid, Provided that the said. Major General be accountable therefor, and that he draw on the Treasurer for so much only of the whole Charge, as shall be in Proportion to the Number of Troops in the Pay of this Province, compared with the whole Forces of the several Colonies concerned in the Expedition.

That for every Company of Indians, consisting of One hundred Men there be allowed Wages to a Captain at the Rate of Nine Pounds Sterling per Month; To a Lieutenant at the Rate of Six Pounds Sterling per Month, and, to an Ensign at the Rate of Four Pounds Sterling per Month; their Pay to commence at the Time when they shall receive their Commissions.

That the Wages of the General or Commander in Chief of the Forces in the aforesaid Expedition be at the Rate of Twenty five Pounds Sterling per Month, to commence at the Date of his Commission.

That this Province do pay towards the Wages of the General and also towards the Wages of the Officers over the Indian Forces in the same Proportion as is before proposed in this Report it should pay towards the Charge of securing and supporting the said Indians.

Which is humbly submitted,

Per Order

JOHN ОTIS.

In Council, June 7, 1755, Read and sent down, In the House of Represves, June 7. 1755. Read and Ordered that this Report be accepted.

Sent up for Concurrence

T. HUBBARD Spkr.

In Council, June 7. 1755, Read and Concur'd.

Consented to

THOS CLARKE Depty. Secry.

W. SHIRLEY.

WILLIAM JOHNSON TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY

[Extracts]1

June 19, 1755.

With your Excellency's favour of the 9th Inst. I received a Specification of the Sundrys which your Province have provided and are providing. Herewith I send you a list of those things which are yet wanting or of which there is not a sufficient quantity in the said specification relating to the Artillery, and which I must earnestly recommend to your Excellency may be furnished without loss of time. The Report of the Committee of both Houses, in which they have concurred, and your Excellency consented, I have read and considered and beg leave to observe thereupon,

That the £600 therein mentioned for the Indian Service, is not specified to be Sterling or what Currency. I make no doubt it is the former and that the word Sterling is an omission. In this you will make me positive.

To establish the Indians into Companys of 100 men each with Captains, Lieutenants and Ensigns, is impossible, that sort of regularity cannot be obtained amongst those People their officers must be Interpreters and take care of them in all respects, besides doing their Duty as officers. Ensigns will be needless. You may depend I will employ no more officers than what are absolutely necessary for the service. Herein I expect the Governments will confide in me and they shall have no just cause for reproach.

The Pay set down for me, their Proportion of which your Province is to be answerable for, I submit to, but surely your Government doth not intend or suppose these Wages (as they term it) is to supply me with Equipage, with necessarys, charge of servants and the various other Expences which the Command will subject me to. I am far from intending or desiring a support for a vain or useless Ostentation, but 1 Original, Johnson Manuscripts, 2, 24; printed: Doct. Hist. of New York (Quarto), 2, 386.

they will I presume think it necessary that I sustain the honour conferred upon me with a Decent Dignity; the troops will naturally expect to see it, the officers to feel it, neither my policy nor my spirit will allow me to disgrace the Character I am placed in. The Province of New Jersey have agreed to give Collo. Peter Schuyler who commands but 500 men £300. Currency for his Table &ca. Is not a Secretary, are not Aid de Camps necessary about me, is there to be no Establishment for them; must they be always of my Table?

I supposed these matters would naturally occur to the Gentlemen of your Legislature, and I thought it would with more propriety come from them then be proposed by me. Perhaps thro hurry it may have been omitted in the Report you send me for the Wages allowed me are I suppose considered only as a compensation for my Time and Fatigue. Tho I make no objection on that head, yet I must on this occasion say, that no pay which even a lavish Generosity might have given me would be adequate to the loss and prejudice I shall sustain in my own private affairs, and if publick spirit had not prevailed with me above all other motives, I should have declined the honour which was offered me. I have already declared to you Sir and permit me to repeat it, that I disavow the least Intentions or desire of increasing my private fortune by this Command. I laid it to account in the best light, that I should be a considerable looser. I am contented to be so as far as I can prudently bear. I am fully sensible and Gratefull for the honour done me, I am ambitious, and if the Plan agreed upon at Alexandria is put into Effect, I hope with the Divine assistance to do honour to my Country, and Contribute to her future Tranquility.

Your Excellency must pardon me for giving you so much interruption on this subject, but I thought myself obliged to be thus explicit.

If the Indians should agree to assist us in our enterprizes, they will throw themselves immediately upon me for their maintainance, which will be daily a very great Expence. If