Excellency will see how this Agrees with your Intelligence from Fort Frontenac and I hope the Forces under Col. Dunbar expected here every day may be of Service at Least to Secure the Communication twixt this and Oswego at all

events,

I have the Honour to be with the greatest Respect,

The following Particulars relating to the Situation of Affairs in America are taken from private Letters and from the Boston News Papers of the 14, 15, and 18. of August, brought by a Vessel which arrived yesterday from Boston, viz.

That Advice had been received at Annapolis in Maryland, that Colo. Dunbar with the Remainder of the two Regiments under his Command was to march from Fort Cumberland on the 29th of July for Ray's Town in Pensylvania.

That it appeared from the Accounts given by a Man, who was taken Prisoner upon the Frontiers of Pensylvania, and carried to Fort du Quesne, from whence he escaped after the Action upon the Monongahela, that the French Forces at that Fort consisted of 3000 Men.

That General Shirley with the Forces under his Command was upon the Mohawk River about 100 Miles from Oswego on the 6th of August, and that he had sent Orders to Colo.

1 B. M., Additional Manuscript 33,029, 212. A transcript is in the Library of Congress. Mr. Pownall was probably John Pownall, Secretary of the Lords of Trade, and the information presented to the Commissioners appears to have been obtained in large part from Sir William Johnson. See Pownall to Johnson, acknowledging letters and papers, Oct. 9, 1755, Johnson Manuscripts, 3, 56, and Docts. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y. 6, 1017.

Dunbar to compleat his two Regiments to 1000 each, and join him as soon as possible; for which purpose he was to embark at Amboy in New Jersey, and proceed by way of Albany.1

That Colo. Johnson was still at Albany waiting for some warlike Stores he expected; and that he was disappointed of part of his Force by the New Hampshire Troops not joining him.

That upon Advice of the Arrival of the French Troops from Europe at Quebec, several of the Colonies had agreed to an augmentation of the forces destined for Crown Point, viz.

That Captain Bradstreet, who commands at Oswego, had launched one of the Vessels built there to be employed upon Lake Ontario, and had sunk several French Canoes.

That the News of General Braddock's Defeat had not had any bad Effect upon the Indians of the Five Nations, who only took notice of it as an Accident, from which they should learn to proceed in their Expedition with more Caution.

That Colo. Lawrence, Lieut. Governor of Nova Scotia, had resolved to remove the French Inhabitants of that Province, and to disperse them in the other Colonies upon the Continent; for which purpose he had prepared Vessels to transport them.

That the Fleet under Admiral Boscawen's Command had taken a Snow from France laden with Provisions for Louisbourg; also a Ship from Canada for France; also a French armed Snow; and sent them into Halifax.

Endorsed:

American Intelligence from Mr. Pownall Octr. Ist, 1755.

See Shirley to Josiah Willard, Oct. 1, 1755, in Mass. Arch., Col. Ser. 54, 170.

SIR,

WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO CHARLES HARDY 1

Camp at Oswego, October 4, 1755.

Yesterday I had the Honour of your Excellency's Letter of the 26th September. The instance you have given of your Attention to the public Service, in removing from New York to Albany before you could be well recover'd from the Fatigue of your Voyage, must have a very good Effect for expediting it.

I am much afraid it will be thought an extraordinary Expence to the Crown for his Majesty to be oblig'd to build Barracks for the Reception of the Troops of Colonel Dunbar's and the late Sir Peter Halket's Regiments at Albany and Schenectady this Winter, when perhaps he may not have Occasion for Barracks there again. But as it is absolutely necessary for the good of his Service in the Operation of the next year's Campaign that those Troops should be quartered there this Winter, and your Excellency informs me in your Letter that you are apprehensive of great Inconveniencies in disposing of those Troops at Albany by hiring houses for them there, and you mention, that "you could "wish you had my Instructions for the constructing of Bar"racks there and at Schenectady, which you apprehend may "be done at any easy Rate, least your Assembly should not "care to be at such an Expense;" I desire your Excellency would take the Care upon you of providing such Barracks at the two before mentioned places, as you shall judge proper for the reception of the two aforesd Regiments which I believe at present don't exceed 1200 Men, but will, I hope, be recruited by the Spring to 1000 each, and that you

1 1 Printed: 1 Penna. Arch. 2, 435. See also Shirley to Gov. Horatio Sharpe, Arch. of Md. 6, 288, and Shirley to Josiah Willard, Mass. Arch., Col. Ser. 54, 173, both of equal date. Sir Charles Hardy was governor of Newfoundland in 1744, and served as British Administrative Governor of New York, 17551757. He was grandson of Sir Thomas Hardy, the naval commander, and served as Rear Admiral at Louisbourg in 1758.

would give Orders accordingly to have them built as soon as possible, that the Troops may not, upon their Arrival in your Government, be destitute of Quarters to receive them.

In case your Excellency can't induce the Assembly of New York to be at the Charge of building those Barracks, I will give you one or more Warrants upon the Deputy Paymaster for the Southern District for such Sums of money as shall be requisite to defray the Expence of building them, and your Excellency will be pleas'd to look upon this as my Instruction to you for that purpose.

I can't, however, but hope that the Assembly of New York will think it reasonable that the Province should be at the Charge. It was very much at the motion of their Govt. that I determined to draw these Troops from the Southward this Year. The Province will in an especial manner have not only the Benefit of being covered by them this Winter, but of their Service at Oswego in the ensuing Spring, and the Inhabitants draw very large Sums of Money from the Residence of the Troops among them, as they will in general from the Expedition, in which they are employ'd, and I have to add that the Province of the Massachusetts Bay thought it reasonable upon the raising of the Regiments under my own Command to erect Barracks at the Charge of the Govt. for the Reception of upwards of 800 Troops.

As to Garrisoning Fort Edward1or the Fort building at Lake George with any part of the Troops of these two Regiments this Winter, it would disappoint that part of the Service for which His Majesty principally destin'd them, and which is of infinitely more Consequence to the publick than any Saving it could make by their being quarter'd in those Forts so that I have no thought of posting any of them there.

I have kept two Companies posted the whole Campaign upon the Oneida Carrying place, and purpose to leave one there this Winter, but must endeavour to prevent its giving

1 Fort Edward was on the Hudson river about fifteen miles south of Lake George, at what was known as the Great Carrying Place. It had been known as Fort Lyman, ante, p. 282 n.

Umbrage to the Oneida Indians who have express'd some uneasiness at the Building we have already there.

I shall place Garrisons in Fort Hunter and the Fort at Conejahora this Winter. They have had a Garrison of twenty-five men, and an Officer at each of them the whole Summer.

I approve much of having small Forts erected in every one of the Six Nations of Indians, as what will have a great tendency to conciliate them to the English, and to fix them in a dependence upon his Majesty. For this reason I will send thirty men to the Onandaga Castle to build them one at their own Request to me, and shall propose the same thing to the Oneidas, and if they consent to it, will have a small one built upon their Carrying place, as I shall likewise think it right to do in the Country of the Tuscaroras, Cayugas and Senecas. Not that I am of opinion these Forts will secure the Indian Country to his Majesty against the French; nothing can effectually do that or cover the English Territories South-Eastward of this Lake, but holding Oswego. If that, which is the Key of the Country of the six Nations, should be lost to the French, they will soon be masters of that whole Country, and draw all those Indians intirely into their Interest; and when that shall happen your Excellency may look upon all the intermediate Country between this Lake and the City of New York to be gone too.

With regard to the little security and cover, which the Fort now building by General Johnson at Lake George, will afford to the Country between Albany and Crown Point, and the necessity of his Forces proceeding as far at least as Ticonderoge this year, I have so fully express'd my Sentiments in my Letters to General Johnson, Copies of which I have transmitted to your Excellency, that I need say nothing further, and I can't but hope from the accounts I have of reinforcements daily pouring in upon him from New England, that the Troops under his Command are gone on.

The three points in which the General Welfare of his Majesty's Northern Colonies, and Consequently his Majesty's Service in North America, are at present most es