may be endebted whatever their Arrears of Pay at that time
shall amount to, which will not I suppose be so much as the
Bounty Money that you allow for Recruits.
I had received a Copy of the Charge agst Capt Pearis
before I was favoured with your Lettr which as I had repeat-
edly given him peremptory Instructions to concern himself
on no account with the Cherokees farther than to interpret
between them & the Commanding Officer at Fort Cumber-
land did not a little surprize me, but the Report of a Court of
Enquiry which has been appointed to enquire into the Affair
together with Mr Smith's opinion that little Credit ought to
be given to the Indian's Information inclines me to think that
Capt Pearis has not acted such a Part as he is represented to
have done by the Minutes you were pleased to send me,
however to remove all occasion for such kind of Complaints
for the future I was determined in case our Troops had been
still kept up to superseed him & to leave it to the General to
do with him afterwards as he should think fit.
I am obliged to you for your Answer to the Request I was
importuned by Colonel Cresap to make & will take the
Liberty to communicate it to him.
[Sharpe to St. Clair.]
15th of May 1758.
Dr Sr
It was not till Saturday last that I gave over all hopes of
prevailing with our Assembly to grant a Sum of Money for
the Support of a Number of Troops to act under the Com-
mand of General Forbes & to garrison the Forts on our Fron-
tiers during the Continuance of the Expedition, but the
Resolutions which the Lower House came to on that Day
convinced me that no Supplies could be expected afterwards
& laid me under the necessity of putting an End to the Ses-
sion. This being the Case I shall (as soon as a Court in which I
am obliged to preside is over) repair with all possible Dispatch
to Fort Frederick in hopes of meeting either yourself or the
General somewhere on the Frontiers about the 22d or 23d Inst.
I sent the 600 Dollars to Colo Prather a few Days after I
received Your Lettr of the 8th of April & I had before that
time given Instructions to the Commanding Officers at Fort
Cumberland & Fort Frederick to obey & execute any orders
that they should receive from the General or Yourself. In a
Letter that I wrote to the General the 27th of April I told him
that there were at Fort Cumberland the 8th of March last 220
Men exclusive of Commission'd & non Commission'd Officers
& that the Number then at Fort Frederick was 114, this was
|
Letter Bk. III
|
