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416 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.
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Morris, of the dangerous Situation of the three Provinces under
your respective Governments, and the proceedings of the
Assemblies within them, that there seems to be not the least
Appearance of any provision's being made for prosecuting the
propos'd Expedition under your Command agst the French
Settlemts on the Ohio, the succeeding in wch it seems to me,
would deliver you in the most effectual manner, from the Dis-
tresses, under wch Virginia and Pensilvania now labour from the
Ravages of the French and their Indians.
I can't find that the Assemblies of those two Provinces have
any thing further in view than the bare protection of their own
Frontiers agst the growing Incursions of the Enemy; and as to
your own Assembly, they are upon the point of disbanding the
only Company they have at a time when his Majy's Fort Cum-
berland within the limits of the Province of Maryland, & several
of his Majy's Stores in it, is in danger of falling into the Enemy's
Hands. —
As to my taking upon me, Sir, to throw the whole Expence
of supporting an Expedition from the Western Colonies to the
Ohio upon the Crown, after his Majy hath been at so great an
one in the Regts he has already rais'd here, & sent, & is still
sending over; and whilst the New England Colonies, & those
of New York & New Jersey, whose Abilities don't exceed those
of the Western Colonies, have besides raising Troops for the
defence of their own Frontiers, rais'd upwards of 9000 Men for
the asserting his Majys just Rights & Dominions upon the Lake
Champlain, & the Lake Ontario, &c, it is what I can't justify;
especially now we are appriz'd from publick Accts in News
papers, & private Letters from England, that the Arrival of
Lord Loudon may be soon expected here with the Chief Com-
mand of his Majy's Forces in North America.
I am likewise in hourly Expectation of receiving his Majys
Commands by General Webb concerning the plan of Opera-
tions, he would have prosecuted this year, wch is another Reason
why I can't send you a peremptory Answer to the points pro-
pos'd to me in your two Letters, before I receive those Orders:
But your Honour may depend upon my sending it to you, as
soon as they arrive.
In the mean time I beg you would be pleas'd to acquaint
Col: Washington, that the Appointment of him to the second
Command in the propos'd Expedition upon the Ohio, will
give me great Satisfaction & pleasure; that I know no Provin-
cial Officer upon this Continent, to whom I would so readily
give it as to himself; that I shall do it, if there is nothing in
the King's Orders, wch I am in continual Expectation of, that
interferes wth it; & that I will have the pleasure of answering
his Letter immediately after my receiving them.
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