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Sir I take the Liberty to enclose You an Extract of a Letter from General [Richard] Montgomery to me of the 18 Ult; I fear his next will announce the disagreeable Account of his having been obliged to raise the Siege, as soon after the Date of his Letter the Weather became most intensely cold in Canada. Congress will perceive by the first Part of the second Paragraph of his Letter that he expected Troops from this Quarter, I had mentioned to him that I had taken the Liberty to recommend to Congress to send a Body of Troops into Canada this Winter. I am so well convinced of the Practicability as well as the Necessity of It, that altho' I am much indisposed I would willingly undertake to conduct them to the South End of the Bay of Missisque to which Place I can get with the Necessary Provisions in sleds, from whence the Traverse across that Bay (which is by this Time passable on the Ice) to Windmill Point is easy & thence on the Narrow Part of Lake Champlain no Obstacles will intervene & the Distance only about twenty four Miles to St Johns....

Two of the heaviest Cannon broke the Ice in Crossing Hudsons River, the one is got out & the Other will be so in a Day or two, the Others are all gone on & I hope will reach Cambridge by the Sixteenth. ー