he informed that Mr Howell had been with him, and persuade
me to deliver up the Bills, for it would forever ruin Mr Howell
with the General & Mr Kilby, as he had paid the Orders a
day before they were due and with a view to Oblige me that
I might not be detained any longer in Town, that as they were
not become due from the time they were presented, the
General or Mr Kilby had a right to countermand the payment
as in the case of Bills of Exchange, and by Mr Howells having
made the payment a day sooner, I would even be a gainer, for
if he had not paid them before he recieved Mr Kilbys letter by
the post I would have recived nothing, and Mr Howell was
willing to allow me to retain the £1500 Mr Kilby had prom-
ised to advance by his letter of the 19 of June. I showed Mr
Merideth, Mr Kilbys letter of the 19 of June, a Copy of all the
three Orders, and Observed to him the most considerable
Order was drawn at no sight. I also showed him the abstract
Mr Howell had given me of Mr Kilbys letter of the 14 of
August, and told him I was very certain that neither the
General nor Mr Kilby could have any Intention to counter-
mand their Orders or retract what they had once assented to,
but that the whole seemed owing to a mistake, which I
imagined was Occasioned by the Generals Sickness, As Major
Halltct had told me at Carlyle that he had wrote to Capt
McAdam by the Generals Direction concerning the money to
be advanced me & that I was apprehensive Mr Kilby had
misunderstood Major Halket & supposed that the 850 which
the Major had desired him to pay was all the money that was
asked or expected from him when in fact that was an Addi-
tional sum over & above the Money which he had voluntarily
offered to advance but as Mr Kilby had not yet recived the
letters from Governor Sharpe, for they were at Mr Howells
counting house since I came to Town, these I imagined would
explain the whole affair to Mr Kilbys and at last it would only
be the expence of sending an Express to the General who
would send a Warrant for what he thought proper to advance,
and that I should not leave the Town nor negotiate one of
the Bills till the matter should be adjusted, that if the General
or Governor Sharpe directed me to deliver up the whole
money, that it should be done. Before we had done dinner
Mr Howell came to Mr Merediths, and the whole affair was
again talked over in much the same manner, Mr Howell said
he would not have mentioned it to any Body else, but Mr
Meredith was one he always Consulted with on every difficult
Occassion, and again requested me not to mention it. the
conversation concluded with my telling him, that I had as yet
had no Opportunity of thinking seriously on the affair, that I
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