J Howell esq^r Philadelphia Dec.^t 19^th 1788 Dear Sir My own health being such as to prevent my being able to make a journey to your City at present I have forwarded the Accounts of Maryland & Delaware which have been collected by me, and which agreeably to the Ordinance of Congress are to receive a final adjustment at your office, by the bearer M^r John Wright one of my Clerks who will deliver you the several Abstracts made of them— In the prosecution of this business I have made it my particular aim to arrange the facts in such a way as would be most likely to lead to a discovery of their real situation, but the confused and complex manner in which many of these transactions originated will, I presume render a final decision on them very troublesome— M^r N. Schlan having been absent several weeks, I have not bu[undecipherable]