[254] I beg [undecipherable] liberty to request of you to inform me at this [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] persons as [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] they may [undecipherable] to [undecipherable] — Colonel [undecipherable] to [Portsmouth?] being here has [undecipherable] him to mention you [undecipherable] as a Gentleman that will attend to this request and as one who will [undecipherable] the enemy so far [undecipherable] as not to alarm them Sam [undecipherable] [undecipherable: Pierce?] Colonel W^m. Taylor Richmond May 24 1787 Sir I am informed that you are acquainted in North Carolina. and from your character I may place a reliance on your information I have therefore [undecipherable] myself the honor to write you and to request that you will be pleased to inform me, where a M^r William [undecipherable] Alexander who acted as Quarter Master at Hillsborough in the year 1783 may be found, and if he has not come within your Knowledge that you would be so kind as to write to some correspondent of yours at Hillsborough who may perhaps give the information. he received a large sum of the Public monies to deliver to another person in that year, which money has never been delivered [undecipherable] accounted for. — It is intimated that this money afterwards fell into the hands of a [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable], who has lately lived at Charleston, and is [continued]