[No 17 From Gen'l Knox Sec'y of War-] War department September 11^th 1792. Sir, Conceiving it would delay the money for the payment of the troops to the first of August too long, were it to wait for the escort of Catons company, the Secretary of the Treasury & myself have concluded it proper to forward it by special Messengers— accordingly it has been delivered, amounting to Forty five thousand six hundred thirty seven [undecipherable] dollars, conformably to the invoice herein enclosed, to William Knox Clerk to Samuel Hodgson and Christian [undecipherable: Bilaims] employed in the Ordnance Stores. These persons it is conceived will be a sufficient security— until it shall arrive at Bedford where it will meet the escort, written for in my letter of the seventh instant. The bank notes have been made out in the names of James O'Hara and Isaac Craig for the greater security against accidents. It is ardently to be hoped that M^r Swan may have arrived at head Quarters, so that the payments be regulated according to the instructions to him by the Comptroller, copies of which were transmitted to you on the 3 ultimo. if he should be present the notes must be endorsed to him. But if unluckily he should not have arrived this money must be paid on account upon your warrants— the new troops however may be paid pretty accurately, upon pay abstracts made out founded upon the muster rolls — It will be necessary that you should appoint some persons to examine the Pay abstracts, & report to you the sum to be paid & for you to give your warrant on the Quarter Master [undecipherable] who will officiate as a treasurer until the arrival of the Paymaster. — Let me entreat you that the payments you shall order be strictly conformable to the instructions aforementioned to the paymaster, provided he should not have arrived — The Estimate of the accountant of the war department dated the 10^th ultimo a copy of which is herein enclosed will exhibit to you the objects precisely for which the money is now forwarded, and it must solely be applied to the discharge of the same. Perhaps you may upon examination judge M^r Matthew Ernest of Pittsburgh a proper person to examine the pay abstracts with the muster rolls, and report to you the sums to be paid. I suggest him, because he was for a time paymaster to the artillery of which he was a lieutenant and resigned— but it must be left entirely to your judgment to choose another person, but whoever he is, he must act under the solemnity of an oath, and if a suitable commissioned officer could be found to exercise the duty, it would still more enhance the responsibility. In order that the person who shall be appointed by you to settle the accounts may act with intelligence