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512 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe,
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Letter Bk. I.
p. 247
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[Sharpe to Calvert]
30th of Novemr 1756 & transmitted by Capt Dyer —
Sir
In my Letter of the 3d Inst. I gave you some Account of one
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p. 248
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Iohnson who had been sent hither from Fort Cumberland &
advised you of my Intention to have him formally examined
before the Council, this was done the 13th of this Month as
you will see by a Copy of the Council Minutes herewith sent
& as the Fellow gave pretty much the same Account then that
he had before done a Warrant was issued for apprehending &
bringing before us on the 29th the several Persons whom he
had on his Examination accused or named. They were yester-
day brought hither & some of them examined but as they
soon convinced us that the Prisoner had charged them wrong-
fully that he had assumed a feigned Name & was in fact a
great Impostor we discharged them & several of them being
extremely poor I ordered the Sheriff to defray their Expences
& convey them back to their respective homes: As I inclose
you the minutes of this Council also I need not tell you that
the Informant did not when he was called into the Room where
they were so much as know the Priest or Mr Wheeler & that he
thereupon made a Recantation giving us at the same time the
Reasons that induced him to frame & insist on such a Story as he
had before told & sworn to the truth of. I shall forthwith send
for that Plummer & the Soldiers that came with him from Fort
Cumberland & I doubt not but it will on Enquiry be found that
the Fellow has given a true account of their Behaviour towards
him. I have already advised the Earl of Loudoun of my having
such a Person in Custody & as I presume enough Witnesses
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p. 249
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will be found in the Company that was Capt Clark's to convict
him of Desertion he will probably be punished with Death by
the Sentence of a Court Martial. We are told that two Priests
& a Lay Roman Catholick are imprisoned in Phila for seditious
Practices but what they are particularly accused of we do not
yet learn, The Affair however is much talked of & as Every
one is at Liberty to make Conjectures many People among us
are persuaded that some horrid Plot will be shortly discovered.
Governor Denny is just returned from the Frontiers of that
Province whither he had been to hold a Treaty with some of
the Delaware Indians who resided on the Susquehanna River
but have for some time past been at War with us. They
would by what I can find have made a seperate Peace with the
Pensilvanians but Governor Denny let them know that he was
not at Liberty to hear such a Proposal, that if they were willing
to make a League with all the English & to break with the
French Sr Wm Iohnson would hold a Treaty with them for that
purpose but that nothing could be done with them unless they
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