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Lib. C. B.
p. 308
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you my humble Thanks for the great Honour you do me in
believing me faithful in the Trust committed to my Charge,
as also to let you know what Measures has been taken here,
and how far We are advanced in Our common Cause, that
you may be the better able to form your Designs, in order to
bring this great Work to a final Conclusion: The Gentlemen
recommended to you have accepted their Commissions, and
as an Acknowledgment of the Honour you do them, they have
entred into a solemn Engagement, either to perish in the
Enterprize or pursue every Man to Destruction that opposes
your just Proceedings, and in that Resolution to persevere
until the Roman Catholicks are reestablished in their former
Tranquillity: in raising Men and Money I have used all
necessary Precautions to prevent Discoveries and to that pur-
pose have caused all the Priests, in the respective Congrega-
tions over whom they reside, to exhort their People often to
Confession, & then to examine them how they stood affected
to the Plott, & after Examination to bind them to Secrecy
according to the form in such Cases — provided, under Pain of
an Anathema: & then to take a Memorandum of All those
whose Hearts the Lord stirred up, to engage either in Person
or in Purse in this blessed Design, which from time to time
they have delivered in to me, and which I have sent to you
inclosed in a List by the Bearer: But what is like to augment
our small Forces as much as any thing is the Proceedings of
the late general Assembly, at which poor People are much
dissatisfyed, particularly those who are much in Debt (which
is the unhappy Circumstance of too many in this Province) for
the Burgesses not considering the Benefit of the People whom
they represent, have made a Warehouse Law, & such a One
in all it's Circumstances, that it not only deprives them of
every future Advantage that may arise thereon, but there is a
Clause inserted under pretence of enabling People to support
the Charges of the said Law, by a Reduction of Twenty five
p Cent from Tobacco Debts, which seems to be done on pur-
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p. 309
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pose, and serves for no other End than to set Creditors on
the Backs of poor Debtors to use them with more Rigour
than ever, from which Proceedings many well foreseeing the
unhappy Circumstances they must inevitably fall under, there
is no doubt but they will joyn us, as some has already done,
rather than fall a Sacrifice to such a Law: And poor Prisoners
finding no Door of Mercy can be opened upon any Consid-
eration offered by them, either to their Creditors, or to the
house of Assembly there is no doubt but they will extricate
themselves, by such means as We offer them, as some has
already promised to do as soon as We make Way for them
to joyn Us: The Rebels that arrived here last Summer are
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