of the Council of Safety, 1775-76. 381

49. Q. The instructions are dated on the 14^th & the Let^r
also, how account for it.
A. It was a mistake they ought to have been dated on
Monday the 15^th
50. Q. By your letter to the Gen^t of Baltimore the tender
was to be under their direction did you expect they were to
mix with the Council :
A. My letter to the Gentlemen of Baltimore will shew that
was not my intention, I imagined that on so important an
affair they would confer with them on the subject :
51. Q. Why was Cap^t Smith to consult with the Gen^l of
Baltimore
A. I refered him to those gentlemen, expecting they would
carry him to the Council under whose direction I expected he
would be after his arrival at Annapolis.
52. Q. You say you wrote to your friends that the council
behaved with spirit on the late alarm.
A. I am certain I did to several & observed the happy
effects of it in rousing the whole province.
53. Q. M^r Carroll, the instructions were got by Chance to
my certain knowledge.
A. I neither gave Captⁿ Smith directions to shew his orders
nor forbid him to do it.
54. Q. Did you inclose the Packet to Phil" in a letter of
yours.
A. No.
55. Q. Why was so much respect shewn to the Council of
Safety of Virginia & not to the President of the Congress.
A. A single Gentleman was very sufficient to carry a
packet to the congress & bring back their dispatches. It was
thought probable the Council of Safety would choose to confer
with the members of the Baltimore committee on so interest-
ing a subject as that contained in the papers which they car-
ried. And it was to them, not the Council of Virginia the
respect was intended.
56. Q. did you not cover the letter from the congress :
A. I did, & my reason was, that the packet from con-
gress being endorsed with M^r Hancocks name & the public
curiosity being at that time great to know what was in agita-
tion I feared the express or some other person who might see
the packet would be tempted by curiosity to open it; there-
fore put it under a new cover, directed to the Council, expect-
ing it would pass as an ordinary Packet from the Committee.
To obviate all suspicions of my having opened it, which I pre-
sume is implyed in y^r question, I could have no temptation to
do so base an action. The dispatch from congress to our
committee informed us, they had sent orders to the Council

C. S. J.