in time to come. In furtherance of these ends, I drew up, and, by means of my acquaintance, dispersed in the three frontier and five contiguous counties, petitions to the General Assembly before its last session, praying, that such a line of forts might be built, and such an Indian factory established. To these a favorable hearing was given, and a bill framed according to them, as far as relates to the chain of forts. But before this bill had gone through the several formalities requisite to constitute it a law, an unlucky clause was tacked to it, which, it is to be feared, will destroy every good effect that we had reason to hope for from it; a clause incorporating five hundred men, now levying for the construction and defence of these forts, into the Virginia regiment: rather than submit to which, where the character of the regiment is known, people will pay any fines. The five hundred men are to be raised by a draught upon the young men of each county, who, on refusal to go upon duty are obliged to deposit £10 on the drumhead, by way of fine.
Such was the treatment which that unfortunate regiment received last campaign from the commander in chief, that no person of any property, family or worth has since enlisted in it, and the Governor has filled up the vacant commissions and the new companies with raw, surly and tyrannical Scots, several of them mere boys from behind the counters of the factors here; thus, that regiment, from an exceedingly good one, has degenerated into a most insignificant and corrupt corps. Whence, I apprehend, the salutary purposes of that act will be defeated, as the above complement of men will generally be made up of worthless vagrants, servants just out of servitude, and convicts bought with the fines paid by recusants; men utterly unacquainted with the woods and the use of fire arms, and, for
