ixx Introduction.

care of the Arms, many of which unless immediately cleaned and repaired
will be rendered useless to the Province" (pp. 395, 340-342). The Armourer
was Henry Walls, who had apparently held that office since the retirement of
Onorio Razolini in 1748, when Walls had been appointed at a salary of £35
a year (Arch. Md. XXVIII; 464). On November 15, when this report was
read to the Lower House a second time, it was ordered that an address to the
Governor be prepared (p. 373). This address called the Governor's attention
to the condition and deficiency of the arms and ammunition, and the incapacity
of the Armourer to perform his duty. The house asked the Governor to remove
him and to require an accounting, and to appoint a suitable successor. It closed
with the reminder that as the powder delivered on the Governor's order to
private gentlemen was presumably done so that it could be replaced later with
newer powder, the Governor was requested that this replacement be promptly
effected (pp. 390, 391). The Governor replied that he well knew that the
arms returned from Fort Frederick were in bad condition but that he could
not insist upon the Armourer being put to further expense since there was
already a considerable sum due him for his salary and that there was no assur-
ance that the Assembly would ever reimburse him. This was, of course, a
knock at the Lower House for its failure for several years to pass the Journal
of Accounts which carried the Armourer's salary. The Governor added that
if Mr. Walls was paid he would see to it that the work was done, or that if
he had issued ammunition without orders he would supersede him, although
his present bad state of health rendered him an object of pity, and allowance
should be made for any small failures on his part. He concluded by saying
that he would like to have copies of these reports of the Lower House com-
mittee, as for many years none had been entered on its [printed] Journal
(p. 395). It would appear that Sharpe had decidedly the better of this con-
troversy with the Lower House.

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Indian affairs for the last year or two of the Seven Years' War as far as
Maryland was concerned had been quiescent, but with the conclusion of the
peace and the cession of Canada by France to Great Britain, the northwestern
Indians under Pontiac made a final effort in 1763.1764 to throw off the yoke
of the whites. Possibly as a reflection of this outbreak, Indian depredations,
involving the heretofore friendly Six Nations, now at war with the southern
Indians, began to occur along the western frontiers of the central colonies, so
that when the Assembly met at the October-November, 1763, session, the
settlers on the frontier of Maryland were again in a state of panic. On October
15, 1763, Sharpe sent a message to both houses transmitting with it a letter
from Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the British Commander-in-Chief, urging that all
measures be taken to put a stop to every kind of trade between the Province
and the Indians, as they could not continue hostilities much longer if their
supplies were cut off; and he added that he suspected "there are people mad
Enough for the sake of gain that would Venture .... to Carry Supplies to
the Indians" (pp. 226, 317).