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being maltreated. This being such an unaccountable Step,
and so general a Charge that it even involvd the Doctor
as to whose Province this matter chiefly belongd, which
obligd me to Speak to Major Smith about it and make
Inquiry if he had any Complaints against the attending
Surgeon, and finding he had none but accus'd only the
Quarter Master with respect to Straw and broken Win-
dows, I thought it necessary to remind him that the broken
Windows were not a fault because it was Sumer and could be
mended, and that the Barracks at the fort, had no Window at all,
besides that he himself was by me lookd upon a Delinquent
concerning the Straw & which he probably had forgot. The
Major however mended this Inconsistency, with another when
he replied, that he did not think the Comander was obligd to
furnish Straw to a hospital, and I suppose he was at that Time
so full of his Command that he did not reflect, that he might
sell Straw to the Quarter Master for the use of the hospital,
without derogation to his Comandership, which made this
Excuse appear as an unbecoming Subterfuge.
Nevertheless as I am not prone to Cavilling and the Patients
rather in a mending way; I went down to the Fort to inspect
the place, the Major had allotted for an hospital, and thought
proper to give him my opinion with Candour in writing, The
Copy of which I have herein inclos'd, for Your Excellencys
Perusal and Opinion, as likewise the Majors answer to me, in
which his warmth of Temper and ungenerous Expression and
Ignorance of such matters are so conspicuous, that it cannot
escape your Excellency's Penetration.
I cannot help taking Notice however of an Expression, in
his Letter, and which I have Reason to presume he has in a
manner made to Your Excellency, viz, the hospital being like
a Horse Stable, & I must own, that I must do violence to my-
self to withhold the Indignation a man must necessarily feel,
to be thus reflected against, merely to make good their faults
which have been by the reflector comitted, and I must assure
Your Excellency that the Hospital was kept neet and clean,
washd every other Day, as which only and alone constitutes a
healthy hospital, Straw is only a Convenience, & the Ignorance
of the Major appears as he himself mentions the appearance
of a horse stable on Acct of Windows, and want of Straw, &
which latter was in a great measure his fault.
Upon the whole as I presume, that the Doctor is the princi-
pal man in Hospital Affairs & its Direction, and that the
Quarter Master, is his Assistant, to procure those things which
the Doctor orders, I do not know what Bussiness the Comander
has with him at any Rate, except when faults are comitted,
and then he is to assist, to have those faults remedied in a
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