these reasons, were there no other, unfit to be sent against Indians.
Besides this, feuds and dissensions still subsist between different branches of the legislature.
To crown our misfortunes, we have been informed that such accounts of our temper and disposition in this colony have been transmitted to England, by a certain person, that the Ministry suppose we want nothing but ability and opportunity to attempt shaking off allegiance to the Most Gracious Prince, that, peradventure, ever adorned the British throne. This is a vile calumny, for the calumniator well knows that we have shed our blood with the utmost cheerfulness, and we have paid taxes freely and willingly in support of the common cause, equally with any of our sister colonies, in proportion to our numbers and wealth.
I fear nothing good will be done with all the money we have raised, unless affairs shall take quite a different turn on the arrival of the Earl of Loudoun, whom private letters, as well as public prints, give us reason daily to expect in his government. Besides augmenting our regiment to one thousand men, in the fall, and endeavoring to augment it further, now, to fifteen hundred men, levying monies and guarding our frontiers, the Honorable Peter Randolph and the Honorable William Byrd, two of the Council, have been sent ambassadors to the Cherokees, and have concluded a treaty between this government and that nation; obliging us, on the one hand, to build and garrison a good and sufficient fort in their country, for the protection of their women and children, which a body of men are now on their march to perform; and that nation, on the other part, is to furnish us with five hundred warriors, this
