[Extract]

Your Favour of the 18th instant hath been duly received. In Compliance with which I give you the following Extract from General Washington's Letter to me of the same Date. "The Voyage to Bayonne is what I should much approve and recommend. The Person sent to Gov. Trumbull hath not yet called upon me; but the Scheme appears so feasable that I should be glad to see it executed. At the same Time I must add that I am in some Doubt as to the Extent of my Powers to appropriate the publick Monies here to this Purpose. I could wish you would communicate it to the [Continental] Congress for which you'll have Time sufficient and I make no Doubt of their Concurrence. In Fact the State of our Treasury here is so low that it would be impracticable to be of any Service to the Expedition, if all other Objections were obviated" ー I have accordingly laid the Proposal before the Congress.

Capt. [Sion] Martindale of our Brigade who left Cambridge Yesterday informs us that he received a Letter dated last Thursday [September 21] from an Officer in the Detachment destined for Quebec informing him that they were then 14 Miles up the River Kennebeck.