[444] M^r Eldridge Brooker                                        Accountants Office Contracts Charleston &c.                                 December 13 1799 Sir William Irvine Agent for this Department having in the part of the United States contracted with you to supply the Troops of the United States in & near Charleston with rations & for the remainder of the present Year, and as it appears by your receipts received through the hands of M^r Irvine up to the 31^st August last, that your charges are very deficient in condition which must be remedied in future, I now hasten to inform you that it will be necessary for you to procure at the Officers [undecipherable] upon which your charges are founded — the articles are purchased the bills & receipts of the parties from whom bought must be presented or if they are furnished from your own Store, sufficient proof will be required that they are not charged above the market price, charges thus substantiated and the receipt of the articles being acknowledged by the Commanding Officer shall be your vouchers, or to furnish a multiplicity of papers the Officer may take up his original orders upon his receipting at the foot of the Abstract [which must always fully express the nature of each charge] that the articles were furnished & delivered agreeably to said orders, and that in his opinion they to be reasonably charged, on exactly over or rendered, the Officer will then be [undecipherable]. As the men at the several Garrisons appear to draw more full rations than they are entitled to I enclose you Rules & Regulations for the distribution of these articles, to which I shall expect a strict conformity in making out the returns, which are always to be put in with your accounts. I observe charges in one or two instances of [undecipherable] [undecipherable] rations, an error fatal to the Officer in case of their taking, this is wrong because the Officer has no right to draw from you any money for either his rations or fuzes — if he has not chose the