Continent I flatter myself you will not delay to advise me thereof which will much oblige Your Honour's &c
Letters were also writ to the Governors of Rhode Island &
Connecticut Govern^ts to the same purport as that to Gov^r
Belcher.

Sir
I take the Liberty to acquaint you that His Majesty expecting
his good & loyal American Subjects will unanimously exert
themselves to repel the Encroachments that the French are
making on these his Dominions has been pleased to order me
to take the Command of the Forces that may be raised for that
purpose, but as I despair of answering in the least His Maj-
esty's Expectations & Royal Intention in honouring me with
such a Commission unless the several Governments on the
Continent will incline to send us such succours as His Majesty
by one of his Principal Secretaries of State gives me reason to
hope for; I have addressed myself to them severally solliciting
their aid & I entertain sanguine hopes that the Gentlemen
of your Assembly will not be backward to favour my Applica-
tion I am not insensible that the Incursions of the Enemy on
your own Frontiers have occasioned a considerable Expence to
the Province yet as the French seem particularly sollicitous &
intent at this time on executing their long projected Scheme of
establishing a Communication from Cape Breton thro the
Continent to the Gulf of Mexico, in which they have this last
Summer made prodigious Progress by the Settlements they
have made & the Forts they have built & strongly garrisoned
on the Back of these Provinces I cannot but think our united
Force should be directed to disconcert their Scheme, the