WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO THE LORDS OF TRADE 1 MY LORDS, New York Janry 11th 1756. I am honour'd with your Lordships' Letter of the 16th of August. The Approbation, which your Lordships are pleas'd to express therein of my proceedings upon the River Kennebeck in the summer before last, and the Notice there taken of my Recommendation of the Proprietors of the Kennebeck Grant, together with your Lordships's Approbation of what I took the liberty to submit to your consideration in Support of the Excise Act pass'd by the Assembly within my own Government in the year 1754, give me very great Pleasure and Satisfaction; as I am sure the Approbation of the Act will to the General Court. The bad Effects, which your Lordships observe in the same Letter, the Disputes between the Borderers upon both sides of the Boundary Line between this Government and my own have of late produc'd, notwithstanding the Endeavours of both Governments to prevent them, require an effectual stop to be put to them, as soon as possible; which as your Lordships further observe can be done only by a Commission from the Crown: No Endeavours shall be wanting on my part, My Lords, to induce the Province of the Massachusetts Bay to concurr in that Measure upon my Arrival at Boston. I am likewise to acknowledge the Receipt of Mr Pownall's Letter to me dated the 19th of September, signifying to me your Lordships's Directions to transmit to you "an exact "and particular Account of the present actual State and "Quantity of the Cannon, small Arms, Ammunition, and "other Ordnance and Military Stores belonging to the Prov"ince under my Government, either in the publick Magazines "or in the Possession of the Militia or other private Persons, "together with a true state of all places either already for"tify'd, or which I judge further necessary to be fortify'd, "with my Opinion at large, how his Majesty may further 1 P. R. O., C. O. 5, 887. [Copy.] 66 "contribute to the Security and Defence of the Province, and as exact an Account as I can obtain of the Real Number of "Whites and Blacks, how many of the former are able to bear "Arms; of what number the Militia is compos'd, and how 'arm'd, muster'd, and train'd"; which Orders I shall most punctually observe and execute by the first Opportunity after my arrival in my Govt, before which time it is impracticable for me to do it. I am with the greatest Respect, My Lords, Your Lordships's most Humble, The Rt Honble Lords Commissioners W. SHIRLEY. Letter from Mr Shirley, Govr of the Massachusets Bay, dated at New York the 11th of Janry 1756, acknowledging the Receipt of a Letter from the Board dated the 16th of August last, and of one from Mr Pownall, dated the 19th of Septbr, and will punctually observe and execute the Orders therein by the first Opportunity after his Arrival in his Government. Recd March Read -II 1756 WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO SIR THOMAS ROBINSON 1 SIR. New York January 12th 1755. [1756.] [Duplicate] Since I had the Honour of sending you mine of the 20th of December upon the Subject of Indian Affaires,2 I have had 1 P. R. O., C. O. 5, 46. A transcript is in the Library of Con gress. 2 Ante, p. 355. 1 the Satisfaction to receive the inclos'd advices from Oswego, concerning the Disposition of the Northern and Western Indians to meet me there in the Spring, contain'd in an Extract of a Letter from Lieut. Colonel Mercer commanding Officer at Oswego, to my Secretary, since that likewise Colonel Johnson hath given me an Assurance to my Satisfaction, that he will follow my Instructions in the Execution of his trust relative to the Indians, which I have already Settled and delivered to him, and I have now the Utmost reason to hope that Sir Charles Hardy is perfectly disposed to Act in the utmost harmony with me for carrying on his Majesty's Service; The Baron De Dieskau's Aid De Camp, he lets me know, will go to England in his Majesty's Ship Nightingale which I think much more adviseable than to send him at Present to France: The Baron himself is so ill still of his wound that he cant be remov'd out of his bed without danger: as to the other prisoners taken at Lake George in the whole about twenty they were most of them taken by Indians, who I understand from Colonel Johnson claimed the Disposal of them among themselves.2 The inclos'd Extract from a Publick print seems fully to Confirm every part of the Intelligence I had concerning the Design of the French to Attack Fort Oswego called in the print Fort Chonaguen the Last Summer, if such a Diversion had not been given them at Crown point as was then done. 1 See Mercer to Alexander, Dec. 11, 1755, ante, p. 340. 2 On July 21, 1755, Johnson wrote the Lords of Trade:"I went to Alexandria in Virginia to wait on his Excellency General Braddock. I received from and signed by him, a warrant for the sole superintendency and management of the affairs of the Six Confederate Nations of Indians their allies and dependants, also some Instructions relating to my conduct; I further received from him two thousand pounds sterling, part to be laid out in presents and the remainder for various other expences, which would arise from the part I was to act; besides this the General has given me an unlimited Credit upon Govr. Shirley for what further sums this service might call for. "Immediately upon my return home I sent Messages with Belts of Wampum thro' the several Nations, to acquaint them with my appointment, and to desire they would come down to my house The designs of the French against Oswego seems an Additional Argument in favour of Attempting the Reduction of Fort Cadaraqui or Frontenac (from whence the Attack was to be made as early as may be, and Another Strong Motive with all possible dispatch; they came and herewith I transmit to your Lordships an authenticated copy of my proceedings at this meeting. Tho' I have not General Braddocks Instructions for doing this, yet I have wrote him I should take this honour upon me, and as he is at a great distance from any of our Sea Ports Towns, I doubt not but both your Lordships and the General will approve of this method. "In the monies I have laid out, in those I shall be obliged to lay out, I have and shall be governed, by the most prudent frugality, which circumstances will admitt of; my accounts shall be kept with all possible regularity, and an undeviating integrity shall govern my whole conduct." Since the time of this letter the question of the funds from which Johnson should draw money and the person to whom he should be responsible had been constantly in the foreground. Earlier in the month (July 5) Lieutenant Governor De Lancey had written the New York treasurer that 4451 pounds had been assigned Johnson for service of the Indians and "toward supplying the train." (Doct. Hist. N. Y. 2, 391.) On Sept. 3 Johnson had complained to the Board of Trade that Shirley was interfering with his work (ante, p. 243), and on Jan. 3, 1756, he wrote the Massachusetts Governor that he preferred to continue that work under the Braddock commission if Shirley agreed. (Johnson Manuscripts, 4, 16; Docts. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y. 7, 11.) The following day Shirley expressed his doubts as to a formal commission for Johnson ever having been sent by Braddock, and favored, although he did not insist on, a new commission. Johnson's reply of Jan. 5 (ibid. 7, 13) continues the discussion as to the commission under which the writer shall act, and a compromise seems to have been effected satisfactory to the Governor, for on the 7th in his instructions to Johnson for the Indian conference and for his particular duties as Indian superintendent, Shirley refers to himself as Braddock's successor, and on the 10th he sends word to James Stevenson at Albany leading to the handing over of clothing contributed by Pennsylvania to Johnson for use at Forts Edward and William Henry. (Johnson Manuscripts, 23, 177, 203, and 4, 19.) In this letter to Sir Thomas Robinson, however, Shirley brings up the Johnson question once more, and asks for a clear statement as to financial payments. See also ante, pp. 342 and 367. for doing it is, that as the French Vessells of Force design'd for the Lake Ontario the next Summer are Building in the harbour of Cadaraqui if we could be masters of that before those Vessells are Launch[ed]1 it would be the Destruction of their whole Naval Force there. I have been detain'd at this place many days longer than I design'd on Account of a Winter Expedition, which from the Intelligence I have receiv'd of the French having drawn off all their Troops but 5 or 600, from Crown point and their advanced Work, at Ticonderoga, to Montreal, and the advantage of Suddenly Transporting men, Artillery, and Stores, and in Slays over the Ice at this Season, I was incouraged to form against it, as also to have built a Vessell of Force there upon the Edge of the Lake Champlain ready to have launch'd into it, upon the breaking up of the Ice, and thereby made Ourselves Masters of the Navigation of it: this Scheme being founded upon a proposal to the several Colonies of New England, and New York to raise among them 950 Provincial Troops to have Acted with 200 Regulars and a part of a Company of Artillery, I communicated to Sir Charles Hardy who most Readily Lay'd it before his Assembly: But they have declin'd raising their Quota of men, unless I would consent to employ such a Number of pick'd men for the Service out of the two British Regiments, as in the unanimous Opinion of a Council of War, Compos'd of the Field officers here present I could not spare Consistant with the Operations to be carry'd into Execution for his Majesty's Service upon the Lake Ontario, for the next Campaign, determined upon by the Council of Warr, held here the 12th and 13th of December; Minutes of which I have already transmitted, Sir, to you, and now inclose another Copy of; so that I am obliged to drop all thoughts of it.2 1 The binding of this manuscript in the volume has cut off the termination of the word "launched." 2 See Shirley to Robinson, Dec. 19, 1755, ante; Shirley to Governor Hopkins of Rhode Island in Corres. of Col. Govs. of R. I. 2, 181, 184; and Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire to the N. H. Assembly, Jan. 14, N. H. Prov. Papers, 6, 459, 469. |