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proper manner, the quarter Master is to receive Orders from
the Doctor for everything he is to furnish in his handwriting
and have his Accts again acknowledgd & signed before he can
settle his Affairs.
As the Doctor prescribes the Diet according to the Nature
of the Disorder some will receive full Diet, others half Diet,
some one thing some another and as a Diet is not always
pleasing to obstrepulous Soldiers they will make Complaints,
if then the Comander is so weak as to listen to their Com-
plaints as valid, and so hasty as to conclude without proper
Inquiry, he will do great mischief I mention this as an Ex-
ample which has happend, when some sugar was orderd on
particular occasion, & which being withdrawn when that was
over it being so disagreable to be deprived of so sweet a
Thing, that they grumbled and preferrd general Complaints,
as if they were stinted, whereupon the quarter Master was
ready to give what they wanted rather then to be exclaimd
ag' untill I thought it requisite to give him positive Orders
to the Contrary. Nevertheless such things will gradually
breed bickerings and at last open Complaints, for want only
of proper limits in every one's Department.
I must humbly beg Your Excellencys Pardon for being to
prolix, but as the Major has been so eager to procure Your
Sanction, for his proceeding, it seems to me as if he has some
Design, more to gratify his obstinacy than to have the real
good of the Service at heart, even at any Risque, and I think
it requisite to expose one of his assertions in his Letter (viz)
that the Soldiers for so long a Time previous had been so
healthy at the Fort, though in greater number, which must
discover a great Irregularity in his Returne since, I have had
often a much greater Number in the hospital. The Truth of
the Matter however is, that when Smallwoods Battalion was
erected we had the Hospital we had a fixt hospital from May
to the i st of Decembr, after which I had them attended at the
Fort and no State hospital was kept till in Septr following
when the Council sat in this Town, when the number of Sick
besides those of the Sailors requird an absolute Hospital then
another hospital was opend which lasted till March following
when it was again dissolvd and attendance given at the Fort,
and it must be noted that all this was done without the Majors
in the least intermedling, and which shows that what he now
has cravd Your Excellencys Approbation for is no new thing
I hereby Subjoin a Return made in that very month, which
will justify my assertion.
All I will beg will be that Your Excell. will please if I merit
a Confidence to be entrusted with the Management of the
Sick, to direct the Major to consult me in Cases of Sickness
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