Copy of a Letter from Mr Panton
Sir

Sickness and unavoidable Accidents has prevented my sending my Sloop to Florida untill now, and I have known of but one opportunity to St Augustine since my arrival in Georgia, and it too late, for me to testify the high Sense I have of the favour You conferred upon me by the loan of the Gun Powder. With it I am enabled to begin my Trade with the Indians, without it I must have dropt a Trade in the bud which I hoped in a little time to have rendered Advantageous to the Province and myself. Much about this time I expected to have been enabled to return to your Excellency the Quantity of Gun Powder you favourd me with from two Sources the first, was, I expected to have received from England upwards of three thousand weight which I ordered to be shiped last June, the other was an Information I received when in Florida, that the people who took the Indian Traders powder, and 2000 lb. of mine amongst the rest, had agreed to return a certain Quantity to them [sic me] for the use of the Indians, and it is in the greatest distress that I acquaint your Excellency of my disappointment in both these.

I am informed by Letters from my Partner (Mr Forbes in England) that just as my Powder and Indian Goods were ready to be shiped, Orders were issued for the total prohibition of Ammunition and Guns to any part of North America or the West Indias, and even Vessels who had on hand a small quantity of Powder and Arms for a trading Voyage to Africa were ordered to rel and them, for fear any part of them should find its way to the Rebels in America. And the Council of Safety in Georgia as they stile themselves have left me out, the only Trader they have forgot, in the division of Powder which they have returned to the Traders. Upon my complaining of this partiality, they replied "That as I was known to be disaffected to their Cause, and supposed to be under your Influence, they thought it inconsistent with the Safety of the Province that I should be supplied." Thus am I prevented from returning the Quantity of Powder You were pleased to lend me, and obliged again to trouble Your Excellency by imploring your Interposition in my behalf or I shall be under the necessity of relinquishing a Trade which I have so warmly at heart ー The other Traders who have all signed the Association are and will be suppiied by the Provincials who are sending out Smuggling Vessels to purchase Ammunition and they have declared that they will dispose of to such Traders as have adopted their Measures the Necessary Quantity for the Indian Trade ー I alone am excluded because I never shall adopt a Measure of Sentiment I do not approve of, ー I wish you Sir, and the Superintendent would state my case to the Minister it surely cannot be the Intention of Government. to distress its Friends. ー It would be madness in me to bring Goods into the Indian Country without some Means can be devised to supply them with Ammunition as by that Article alone they are enabled to pay for them & I leave it to Your Excellencys knowledge of the Indians to point out the Influence that Trade maintains over them. If You and Mr [John] Stuart are pleased to represent my Case to the Earl of Dartmouth I shall have great hopes that my Correspondents Greenwood & Higginson of London will have leave to ship me about 3500 lb. Gun Powder with a proportional Quantity of Bullets and Flints with 200 Indian trading Guns to be lodged in the Magazine in St Augustine and disposed of under your Excellencys inspection ー By doing this you will confer a favour upon me which it shall be my study to deserve. I have the honor to be &ca

[Endorsed] In Govr Tonyn's (No 38) of 16th Feby 1776.