[Confidential] Having examined this matter as I [undecipherable] refer'd to my Honorable Board, in the [undecipherable] I find the Claim sustained by his Agent; as to the following finding — 1^o This [undecipherable] Proprietor is the [constituted?] [undecipherable] 2^o His personal [undecipherable] as [undecipherable] expedition to [strikethrough: [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable]] 3^o His [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] Military or [undecipherable], [undecipherable], [undecipherable] formation [undecipherable] of May 29 [undecipherable] 1798 No Claims on this head, from the general provisions to that an Officer is entitled whilst in service to Forage, which has urgent wants not been shown — but as I cannot be furnished with the regulations respecting the [undecipherable] rations allowed to an Officer of this rank, at the time of the [undecipherable] changes, at the period of his action, or with any data, by which I can be determined whether forage has or has not been drawn, and as I conceived, a proper note [undecipherable] late [undecipherable] to admit new claims of this nature whilst [undecipherable] might have been established at the time, with the proper Officer if the claim is [undecipherable] — I am of opinion that the charges under this head be refused [undecipherable] The claimant is a [undecipherable] of the 2^d article — his [undecipherable], a resolution of Congress of the 5^th day of Nov. 1779 appropriating the [undecipherable], the [undecipherable] to the expedition to destroy the [undecipherable] at [undecipherable] Indians — which his agent says was in [undecipherable] seven [undecipherable], so [undecipherable] employed, that he appears to have been [undecipherable], and [undecipherable] a claimant in this resolution [undecipherable] to receive money for an — [undecipherable] and expenses thereof, not [undecipherable] whether resolutions of Congress. The claimant, it appears to me, not to have been the intention of Congress to allow any more than [undecipherable] pay [undecipherable] — Your major Generals commanding in expeditions along [undecipherable] [undecipherable], and the small allowance to accommodate Officers when on active service — and if this provision was departed from, there would be no need to show of this notice to every Officer who has been obtained either by Congress or the Commander in Chief, [strikethrough: [undecipherable]] would be entitled to his expenses — it is necessary to bring evidence that there actually was a commanding Officer in this department, as the [undecipherable] to inform the Generals to their [undecipherable] supplies — I understood the contingent expenses of the expedition, to be the military contingences, and not less [undecipherable] personal expenses — and was therefore of opinion that the executive offices of Congress was [undecipherable] authorized to take upon themselves to admit expenses of this nature, especially [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] I think his charges and that his [undecipherable] go [undecipherable] — as far as the [undecipherable] of a new [undecipherable] [undecipherable] I determine [undecipherable], this [undecipherable] has lead to all the amount continued in it fairly; telling the provisions with the generally attested operates also against the admission —