N^o 61. To Major Gen^l Knox Sec^ry of war. Hobsons Choice near Fort Washington 2d. July 1793. — Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your public & private letters of the 7^th. ultimo, enclosing copies or extracts of letters from the Commissioners and the British Indian agent Col. McKee. — I wrote you fully on the 20^th. of June, but the boat in which that letter was to have gone, being yet detained here in consequence of a high fresh, affords me a safe opportunity of answering your despatches, which were delivered me on the 2^d. by Cap^t Melcher. — There has not — nor will not, be any additional demonstration of troops or stores at the head of the line other than what was, is, and will be indispensibly necessary preparatory to a forward move; and such the hostile Indians had aright to expect from my speech to the Corn planter & New arrow on the 20^th. of March, wherein I told them, that "the best & only means to ensure a permanent peace was to be well prepared for war": but promised not to advance or establish any new Posts in front of those we now possess'd / unless compelled thereto by the conduct of the hostile Indians/ until the result of the pending treaty was known: — which speech has undoubtedly been communicated to them. — were we now to forbear or neglect, to forward the supplies mentioned in my letter of the 20^th. ultimo; or, to withdraw any of the present Garrison from Jefferson; it would be ruinous to the Campaign / should the war progress/ and would not answer any good purpose at this late hour. — The arrangements I have already made are not equal to what I had in contemplation and what I most certainly would, and was warranted to make by your letters of the 20. & 27. of april and 17. of may; but for the present interdiction. — In that of the 17. May, you say "in case therefore of offensive operations, your force and arrangements must be so calculated, as to insure you compleat success, and it hereby intended to vest you with plenary powers to obtain such force & arrangements it possibly to be obtained." — And in your letter now before me of the 7^th. ultimo, you say, "altho' this delay will occasion you to postpone the collection of your auxiliary force & horses until you receive the information either from me or from the Commissioners according to my letter of the 20^th. april; [underline: yet it will be proper to have every other part of your arrangements in perfect readiness to move on the 20^th. of August, or at furthest the first of September."] — How shall I then construe the [underline: interdiction] contained in the same letter? "that there be no movement of the troops towards the head of the line other than shall serve, as escorts to the ordinary quantity of provision for the advanced Garrisons." — In this embarrassing situation I am rather induced to believe that it will be the most prudent conduct to pursue the arrangements already made for compleating the necessary deposits at Fort Jefferson, as mentioned in my letter of the 20^th. ultimo. — Our troops are rather sickly — and all our hospital stores are expended. — I have therefore been under the necessity of ordering the Surgeon General to procure a temporary supply from the merchants at this place; who charge a most exorbitant & advanced price for every article. — I am just now informed by a M^r. Morrison a Gentleman of veracity that he saw between twenty and thirty waggon loads of public stores laying at Shippensburgh, about five and twenty days since: that they had been there some time and that a M^r. Martin who brought them that far, was of so infamous a character that he could not hire a single team to bring them on to Pittsburgh; — that he had uniformly defrauded every person with whom he had any dealings in that way. — I fear that we shall ultimately be the sufferers, should the water fail as last year, which we have every reason to apprehend. — Enclosed is a copy of a second letter from Governor Shelby of Kentucky with the result of a Council of the General Officers of that state upon the subject of mounted Volunteers; together with a copy of my answer. — Gen^l Scott has been with me some days so has one of the other Generals & several of the Field Officers / at different times/ whose names are mentioned in the enclosed copy of a requisition to them & the Governor for the nomination of Captains and subalterns. — I have at last accomodated this troublesome business and put it in a fair train by the admission of a few influential Characters as General and Field officers more than the Law contemplates but it was absolutely necessary from political considerations — [underline: divide & conquer!] . — I pray you therefore, to forward with all possible dispatch the Commissions for the Gen^l. and Field Officers, together with fifty or sixty blank commissions for the company Officers, to be filled up by me when I shall know who they are. — Permit me now to animadvert a little upon the conduct and motives of the British in procrastinating the pending treaty; for it is evident that it is not the Indians who have done it. — If I am not mistaken, the time proposed by the hostile Indians for holding the treaty was when the "leaves were out" / not when falling/ and by a subsequent message from them by a M^r. Wells, they are more particular & earlier — by that they propose to meet at the lower Sandusky, "when the grass is three inches high." — M^r. McKee is made to say "that the time fixed by the United States / the 1^st. of June/ appears too early for the Indians to assemble &ca. — It does not require a microscopic eye to see this insidious policy: Procrastination is the object: a little time may probably make a very great change in the affairs in France; should that change be unfavorable to liberty, the Ohio at least will be insisted upon as the boundary; and a line chalk'd out which shall effectually exclude the United States from the waters of the Lakes. — Something must also be demanded for, and granted to the Southern or, some other Indian tribes according to M^r McKee. — he says "the Southern Chiefs expected with the messengers who were sent last fall / he ought to have added with seven horse loads of very valuable presents from this place, such as gold & silver laced clothing — vide May's deposition/ and also those who are to attend from Michilimackinac & the Mississipi in order to accomplish a full & permanent settlement of all existing differences between the Confederated Indians & the United States. — It will certainly require some time, management and address to form that Confederacy, and to teach them to be perfect & unanimous in their respective claims & demands — previously to their meeting our Commissioners. — The rapids of the Miami is also the most suitable place for that business, because it is the residence of M^r. McKee and from whence he has been in the habits of supplying the hostile Indians with Arms, ammunition, provision and Clothing — and it is now the deposit for those essential articles. — therefore should no certain & pleasing intelligence arrive shortly from Europe or, should they conceive it better policy to retard the business until the grass would fail, so that we could not derive any advantage or assistance from our Cavalry & mounted Volunteers; M^r McKee will write another letter to Major of Brigade Littlestrales for further procrastination until every thing is matured and the necessary arrangements made for peace or war upon such terms as they shall please to dictate. — Under those impressions, / as well as in consideration of the difficulties that have & possibly may again be made by the Kentuckians against acting with the regulars / I am decidedly of opinion that an expedition against the Indians towns and settlements at the rapids of the Miami of the Lake being the place where the stores & supplies for the Indians are always issued / ought to be undertaken by six or seven hundred mounted Volunteers from the frontier Counties of Pennsylvania and from Ohio County in Virginia / and who were very anxious for this kind of business last summer. — the distance from the mouth of [underline: Big Beaver] don't exceed two hundred & twenty miles to that place, which is about forty miles from Lower Sandusky; this will be an essential & easy business; and may be effected without much difficulty or danger, as all the warriors capable of action will naturally be collected to oppose the troops under my command, and should they have the temerity to engage us, I trust that they will have no cause to triumph from the encounter; for altho' our numbers are few, there appears a strong anxiety for an interview and a pleasing confidence of victory from the Generals down to the private soldier. — The great difficulty will be the necessary supplies, and that may be greatly facilitated by a successful expedition against the place already mentioned: — I have therefore wrote the enclosed letters & address to Gen^l S. Gibson and the Inspectors or County Lieutenants of Washington, Westmoreland, la Fayette & Alleghany in Pennsylva^a and to the Lieutenant of Ohio County in Virginia, which if approved of by the President I pray you to seal & forward at a proper time and season with the blank Commissions therein mentioned. — apropos, do instantly forward by express