Your two Lets. of 28th. Decr. & 4th. Jany. I recd. two Day's ago & it gives me much Pleasure that You keep your Health & Harmony that is begun I hope will long continue between You & the People. Your Speech is consistt. with your good Sense & Inclinatn. & I read their Address to You with Pleasure as they seem to set out well & hope they will consider their Int[eres]t in followg. your Advice. The 8000 under your Directn. will fully support, pay, Clothe & maintn. 200 Men for one year, if their Pay is 8d. ⅌ Day. I have wrote to the Secry of State for blank Commissns. but as yet have no Answer, when I have I shall acquaint You thereof His M[ajest]y's Ship Gibraltar arrived here 10 Day's ago & brot. Sr. Jno. St. Clair Qut. Msr. Genl. two Lt. Colonels vizt. Ellison & Mercers for the two regimts. to be raised in N. Engld. under the Comd. of Govr. Shirley & Sr. Wm. Pepperill. They tell me I may expect Halket's & Dunbars Regimts. every Day, the Transports sailed three Day’s from Portsmo[uth] before them, & the Comd. of all the Forces is given to Genl. Braddock & that an 80 Gun Ship a 50 & 4 Twenty Gun Ships may be expected as Convoy to the Forces, & a large Train of Artillery with proper officers, a Compa. of 100 Men are also expected this is the News they bring by which we may observe His Majesty's & Ministers great Care of these Colonies, which I think shd. induce them with grateful Hearts to aid this essential Expeditn. with proper Spirits. The Method You propose for raising Money by a Paper Currcy. by erecting a Loan office on Land Security which with the Poll Tax I think very eligible, but the Poll Tax at 2/ wd. not be much felt, if the poorer sort wd. only deny themselves Punch for one Day at the Courts wd. pay that Tax but as I do not know the Number of your Taxables probably 10d. ⅌ Poll may answer your Expectats. & under the Regulatn. of your Paper Currcy. I doubt not it will be currt in this Dom[inio]n as it will be pd. again for your Comodities. I have raised 600 Men & hope to make them 800 by middle of next Mo. when I expect all the Forces will be at W. Creek & it will be proper I think if Yours were there the next Mo. I wrote Mr. Glen pretty freely by Messrs. Wragg & Cleland, & as yet have not heard from him, those Gent. blamed him much for his improper Method of writing me and sd. they had no doubt but their Province wd. grant a handsom Supply. You may consider the Uneasiness I am under to provide Proviss. for the Numbers here & those expected, I have sent to our frontier Counties to purchase all the Pork they can to Pensylvaa. to engage 600,000 lbs. of Flour—to Boston for 300 Quintals of Fish, but if these are supplied it will be greatly deficient of the quty wanted. I wd. therefore desire the Favr. of you to speak to some proper Person to purchase 3 or 400 hundd. lbs of Pork to be pd. out of your Fund, or I will pay for them in Bills of Excha. This Pork if You can procure maybe sent in the Vessell with Your Forces either to Alexa[ndri]a on Potom[ac] River or Fredericksbg. on Rappahan[nock] River these Towns are at an equal Distance from Winch[es]t[e]r & W. Creek. In the Sumer there will be wanted a good many Beeves, & if cd. know the Price to be dd. at W. Creek.

Sr. Jno. St. Clair set out this Day for the Camp to prepare Barracks &ca. for the Troops expected, he is a very sensible Gent. full of Spirits & active with Discretn. & good Judgmt. he dd me a Packet for You from the Secry of State, one for Mr. Glen, the other for Govr. of Georgia all of them I send You, prayg. the Favr. of You to forwd. the two Packets above to So. Carolina as I do not want to write to Mr. Glen at this Time. I think I have nothing more to write now but sincerely wishing You an happy and easy Govt. that the people may be prevailed on to their own Intt. in following the Rules You have so judiciously propos'd them in Your Speech. The Gibraltar waits 3 Weeks for my Dispatches, if You have any Letters I shall take great Care of them. My Wife and two Girls join me in sincere good Wishes for You Son & Nephew's Health's & be assur'd I am with great Esteem & in Truth