(Copy)
Sir, I received this Morning your Letter of Yesterday desiring that a Detachment consisting of a Captain, One Serjeant, One Corporal, and Fifty private Marines may be ordered on Board his Majesty's Ship Asia, which you propose sending to New York. ー I will beg to observe to you that by the Earl of Dartmouth's Letter to me on the Subject of the Marines sent out to reinforce his Majesty's Troops here, that his Lordship calculates them to Amount to about Six Hundred Men, Whereas not quite four Hundred have been landed.
That the present Moment is a critical One, his Majesty's final Orders being daily expected, on all the Transactions of this Country, And the Faction now Assembled at Concord endeavoring to procure a vote to call out all their Forces into the Field, so that I may be in want immediately of every Man I shall be able to collect.
In such a Situation I cannot Answer the Weakning the Force I have by any means at present, and Judge it absolutely Necessary to Wait the King's Orders, before I venture such a Step,
I am, Sir, &ca,