[Docket on exterior of folded letter: Comptrollers office / July 30. 1799. / [undecipherable] to / [undecipherable] June 2[undecipherable] / depositing a quantity [undecipherable] / [undecipherable] the fortifications at / New York] Treasury Department, Comptroller's Office, July 30. 1799 Sir, I received your letter of the 27. instant enclosing one from Ebenezer Stevens to you dated the 23^d, concerning a quantity of provisions deposited at the fortifications at New York. — From an investigation of the Contractors accounts for the year 1798, which have been settled at the Treasury, it is obvious that any provisions which remained on hand at the beginning of the present year, of deposits made during the last, must be public property. This conclusion is drawn principally from the circumstance of the Contractors charges admitted at the Treasury, being all founded on the requisitions of officers, supported by proper receipts for the delivery of the provisions required; and it may be fairly inferred, if the Contractor had not been paid for all that were deposited, his own interest would long since have induced him to regain possession of his property. Besides, it may be remarked that in some instances the requisitions and receipts, neither specify the time for which the supplies were required, nor the number of men for whose consumption, they were intended. From this cause, it is probable, the surplus has arisen. This surplus, whatever it may be, can only be ascertained (unless by an actual survey) by a comparison between the quantities furnished at each post and the number of troops stationed thereat. The documents on file at the Treasury will afford the former, those of your own Department, the latter information. Col^o Stevens's letter is herewith returned. I am, Sir, very respectfully, Your Ob^t. Serv^t. David Rawn Pr. Clk. William Simmons Esq^r.