[Extract]

. . . With respect to supplying the Continental frigates with ammunition from the Continental magazine. . . it is intirely proper they should have the necessary supply from them. — Indeed they should not be suffered to want so essential an article, and I know of no other way in which they could be furnished, with equal propriety, if at all. —

I am happy to hear of the valuable prizes that have been lately brought in to your port. — We shall stand in need of all our activity to increase our supplies by these means, and render them as far as possible adequate to our numerous and pressing wants. —

The aspect of our Northern affairs is extremely pleasing, particularly by our last accounts, which give us to hope that Tyconderoga ere this has fallen into our hands, and that General Burgoigne after an unsuccessful attack has been obliged to retreat under circumstances that threaten his ruin. — It is of the greatest importance that these favorable prospects may be speedily realized.

Probably before this reaches you, you will have heard that General Howe, after much manoeuvring marching and countermarching, has at length gained possession of Philadelphia. — Many unlucky incidents presented in a great measure the opposition he would have received notwithstanding our misfortune on the Brandywine, before he accomplished his purpose. — But though matters have taken a turn different from what we could have wished, I am in hopes; it will not be long before we are in a situation to repair the consequences of our late ill-success and give a more happy complexion to our affairs in this quarter. . . .