King had severall of them in these parts, the people growing every day more numerous @ they generaly of a turbulent disposition

In this Country there is a woman yet alive from whose Loyns there are upwards of three hundred @ sixty persons now living The men that are here have generally lusty strong Fodies

At Albany there is a Fort made of pine trees fifteen foot high foot over with Batterys and conveniences made for men to walk about, where are nine guns, small arms for forty men four Barils of powder with great and small Shott in proportion, The Timber Boards being rotten were renewed this year, In my opinion it were better that fort were built up of Stone @ Lime which will not be double the charge of this years repair which yet will not last above 6 or 7 years before it will require the like again whereas on the contrary were it built of Lime & Stone it may bee far more easily maintained, And truly its very necessary to have a Fort there, it being a frontier place both to the Indians @ffrench

Pemaquid

Connecticut.

At Pemaquid there is another Fort built after the Fort and same manner as I am informed a particular description whereof I am not capable of giving having never been there however its a great charge to this Govermn without being any thing of advantage to it, having officers there with twenty men always in pay, And which makes it yet more chargeable, I am forced to send from time to time provisions @ stores thither altho' its near four hundred miles from this place If his Maty were pleased that I might draw of the men and arms from that place with the guns being of light carriage @ that I might have leave to put them further into the country I would place them where I will give your Lohp an acct hereafter

And then if his Maty were further pleased to annex that place to Boston, being very convenient for them in regard to its vicinity affording great store of Fishery @ Islands fit for that purpose lying all along to the eastward of them-And in lieu of that to add to this Government Connecticut @ Rhode Island, Connec ticut being so conveniently situate in its adjacing to us and soe inconvenient for the people of Boston by reason of its being up

wards of two hundred miles distance from thence, Besides Connecticut as it now is takes away from us almost all the land of value that lies adjoyneing to Hudsons River @ the best part of the river itself, Besides as wee found by experience if that place bee not annexed to that Government it will bee impossible to make any thing considerable of his Matys customs @ revenues in Long Island they carry away with'entring all our oyles which is the greatest part of what wee have to make returns of from this place And from Albany and that way up the river-our Beaver & Peltry.

This Government too has an undoubted right to it by charter which his late Maty of Blessed Memory granted to our present King, and indeed if the form of the Government bee altered these people will rather choose to come under this than that Govermt of Boston as yr Lo'ps will p'ceive by their present Govrs Ires directed to me

Fast and

And as for East Jersey it being situate on the other West Jersey. side of Hudsons river @ between us where the river disembogues itself into the sea paying noe custom @ having likewise the advantage of having better land @ most of the settlers there out of this Govermnt. Wee are like to bee deserted by a great many of our merchants whoe intend to settle there if not annexed to this Government

Last year two or three ships came in there with goods @ I am sure that that Country cannot, noe not with the help of West Jersey consume one thousand £b in goods in two years soe that the rest of their goods must have been run into this Government without paying his Maty customs and indeed theres noe possi

bility of preventing it.

And as for Beaver @ Peltry its impossible to hinder its being carried thither, the Indians, value not the length of their journey soe as they can come to a good market, which those people can better afford them than' wee they paying noe custom or excise inwards or outwards.

An other inconveniency by the Governments remaining as it does is that privateers and others can come within Sandy Hook and take what Provisions @ goods they please from that side.

Alsoe very often shipps bound to this place break bulk there @ run their goods into that Colony with intent afterwards to import the same privately @ at more leisure into this Province notwithstanding their oath, they salving themselves with this evasion that that place is not in this Goverm1, To day an Interloper landed five tun@ one half of teeth there, to prevent all which inconveniences @ for the securing of this place from enemys, I desire to have an order to make up a small Fort with twelve guns "pon Sandy-Hook the channell there being soe near the shore that noe vessel can goe in nor out but shec must come soe neare the Point that from on board one might toss a buiscuit cake on shore

If the Proprietors would rightly consider it they would find it their own interest that that place should bee annexed to this Goverment for they are at a greater charge for maintaining the present Goverm1 than the whole profits of the Province (which is by quit rents) will amount unto; for they are at the whole charge the Country allowing nothing towards its support soe that had they not the charge of the Govermt, they might put that money into their own pockets

And indeed to make Amboy a port will be no less inconvenient for the reasons afore mentioned neighboring colonys being not come to that P'fection but that one fort may sufficiently serve us all

Dutys to paid at Sandy Hook.

We in this Government look upon that bay that runs into the Sea at Sandy Hook to be Hudsons River therfore there being a clause in my instructions directing mee that I cause all vessels that come into Hudson's River to enter at New York I desire to know whether his Maty intends thereby those vessels that come within Sandy-Hook, the people of East-Jersey pretending a right to the river soe farr as their province extends which is eighteen miles up the river to the northward of this place

West Jersey remaining as it does will be no less inconvenient to this Govermt for the same reasons as East Jersey, they both making but one neck of land @ that so near sitiuate to us that its more for their convenience to have commerce here than any where else, @under those circumstances that if there were a warı

either with Christians or Indians they would not bee able to defend themselves without the assistance of this Goverm1.

To bee short, there is an absolute necessity those provinces. and that of Connecticut be annexed

The three lower Countys of Pennsylvania have been a dependency on this place @ a great many of the inhabitants persons that removed thither from this Goverm1 and I doe not believe it was his Maty intention to annex it to Pennsylvania, nor to havę it subject to the same laws it being the King's own land, the doing whereof by mr Pen there has been of great detriment to this place in hindring the Tobacco to come hither as formerly, for then there came two shipps for one that comes now; Beaver @ Peltry taking up but small Stowage in shipps

And indeed it were in my opinion very necessary for the a vantage of this place @ increase of his Matys revenues that it were soe ordered that the Tobacco of these countrys may bee imported hither without paying there the duty of one penny p pound and then wee should not bee at such streights for returns, their trade would much increase, and this place become a maga zin for the Neighboring provinces, @ care taken that the Tobacco bee duly returned to England whereas now a great part of it goes another way @ soe its very necessary that the Collector of this place should be Collector of that River for the enumerated commoditys, And wee will have such regard to the advantage of this port that we'el suffer noe fraud to bee committed there nor noe Tobacco to be exported but what goes either directly for England or this place.

Besides wee find the contrary to bee very inconvenient in this that whereas formerly the damnified Tobacco which came from thence not fit for England wee made up in rolls and sent ye same up the River to the Indians who in Exchange gave in Beaver @ Peltry, for want whereof his Matys revenue here is much impaired inasmuch as the Indians are therefore forct either to Plant the tobacco themselves or to goe where they can be furnished with it @ there carry their beavor @ peltry (they being of that temper that they had rather want clothes than Tobacco) by which Meanes his Maty" revenue sustains a double loss, one in the ten

per cent such tobacco pays custom up the river @ the other in the custom of such Beaver @ peltry as the same would produce

Further if Pennsylvania bee continued as by charter running five degrees to the westward it will take in the most of the five nations that lye to the westward of Albany @ the whole Beaver @ Petry trade of that place the consequence whereof will be the depopulation of this Govermt for the people must follow the trade. Those Indians and the people of this Govermt have been in continued peace @ amity one with another these fifty years And those Indians about forty years agoe did annex their lands to this Governmt @ have ever since constantly renewed the same with every Governor that has been here both in the time of the Dutch @ the English @ in particular to myself who have given them largely in consideration of their lands And I am certainly informed that they have declared they will go @ live on ye other side of the lake than be under any other Govermt on this than ours, Endeavors have been used (tho to noe purpose) to p❜suade some of our Traders who speak the language to goe and live upon the Susquehanna river tho I cannot yet find out by whom this has been made.

The five Indian nations are the most warlike people in America, @ are a bulwark between us @ the French @ all other Indians they goe as far as the South Sea the North West passage @Florida to warr. New England in their last warr with the Indians had been ruined had not Sr Edmund Andros sent some of those nations to their assistance, and indeed they are soe considerable that all the Indians in these parts of America are tributary to them. I suffer no Christians to converse with them any where but at Albany @ that not without my license

Since I came here the people of Boston have sent them presents in acknowledgement of their favor @ friendship. @ I was forc't to goe with my Lord Effingham to bury his hatchet and theirs which is their way of making a peace

Indian propo

sal and

I have sent herewith what the nations that conquered the Susquehannas desired of the King in my Lord Effingham's presence and I believe it to be of dangerous consequence if denyed

present.