[Extract]

I have recd from Col. [Benjamin] Hinman & others very favourable Accounts of the Disposition of the Canadians towards the General Cause, and their Desire that our Army may penetrate into their Province &c  Suppose you are fully acquainted with their Intelligence. I shall therefore only trouble you with some Information I have recd from Capt. John Bigelow a Gentleman of Harford who was lately sent by our Assembly into Canada as an Escort to some Ladies taken at Skeensborough who we tho't proper to return to their Friends in that Province. He is returned and informs that there are about 350 Kings Troops at St Johns, 100 at Montreal, and 40 at Chamblee. Those at St John's keep a good Look out, have picketted an Acre or two of Ground, in which they have some Field Pices not yet mounted. He understood there were a Number of Batteaus, and two floating Batteries building just below St Johns. The officers boasted to him the Number of Canadians & Indians they were able to raise ー but he says, tis certain they are not sure of one Man. . . .was informed that the Canadians almost to a Man are praying for our People to come into their Country ー or they must be obliged for their own Safety to join the King's Troops. He did not see more than 6 or 7 Indians at St Johns