War office May 1796. Sir. You will be pleased to proceed to Canada with as much expedition as possible, and deliver to Lord Dorchester, the enclosed letter with which the President has thought proper to intrust you. The object of this letter is to inform his Lordship that the provisions required, on the part of the U.S. by the Treaty of amity commerce and navigation between his Britannic Majesty and the U.S. of America, have been duly made by our government, that attachments of our troops, will speedily be put in motion, to take possession of the posts; and that you are authorised to receive from his lordship, and transmit to these detachments a duplicate of the orders for their evacuation, and to confer with the commandant relative to the detail of it in any [undecipherable] you conceive this will be necessary. Upon receiving this being furnished with Remainder and his lordships answer, you will immediately return to Philadelphia. And as a detachment from West Point will be on its march to Oswego and Niagara you will endeavour to fall in with it, and provide the com-manding officer with a copy of the orders. With much respect be Thomas, Cap^t. Lewis.