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Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 201
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Assembly would never be prevailed on again to augment
them I thought it would be best to let them remain as they
were till the Assembly (which was then about to meet again)
could be tried once more & I wrote to the Earl of Loudoun &
Colo Stanwix accordingly, at the same time I told them that if
the Assembly should not upon another Trial come into reason-
able measures but persist in the Resolution they had lately taken
in that Case I should send Colo Stanwix immediate Advice
thereof, that he might if it was thought proper give orders for
three compleat Companies of 100 Men each to be formed out
of the best of our Soldiers who with their proper Officers
might remain at Fort Cumberland as long as His Ldp should
think proper to support them. I never received any Letter
after this time from the Earl of Loudoun which made me con-
clude that his Ldp approved of my Proposal to let all our
Troops remain as they were untill the Assembly should again
meet; but in a Letter which Colo Stanwix was pleased to
send me the 30th of Iany he signified his Approbation in these
words "I think you judge very properly for the Publick in not
diminishing any of your Provincial Forces till you have tried
your Lower House to the uttmost. About the time that I had
wrote to the Officers in Consequence of the Letters which I
had received from the Earl of Loudoun a Member of the As-
sembly went among the Soldiers & told them that since no
money had been raised to pay them they were not obliged to
continue any longer in the Service & that if they did continue
he was well assured the Assembly would never agree to pay
them. After this Doctrine had been propagated among them
the officers found that it would be impossible to retain many
of the Men to their Duty without advancing them their Pay
as it became due, therefore as I had desired them to keep
their respective Companies together & had given them great
Reason to hope that His Majesty's General would not let
them be Sufferers, they scrupled not to pay their men as long
as they had Money to do so, & to give them Orders on the
Pedlars that were settled about the Forts for such Necessaries
as they at any time stood in need of, by these means the
men were kept pretty quiet & indeed they had little reason
to complain, but the Officers have deeply involved themselves
& unless Your Excellency will fulfill the Earl of Loudoun's
Engagement & reimburse them, they & their Families must
be very great Sufferers or perhaps be entirely ruined, for
nothing else can be expected but that as soon as they march
in Obedience to Your Excellency's Orders & are without the
Limits of the Province their several Creditors will endeavour
to secure themselves in the best manner they can by attaching
all the Effects that the Officers shall leave behind them. This
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Letter Bk. III
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