[Extract]
... Our Army Consists of few more than Two thousand effective Men, & twelve hundred sick & unfit for duty chiefly with the small Pox which is universal in the Country. We have very little Provs No Cash, & less Credit & until the arrival of the heavy Cannon & two Mortars from Cambridge Our Artillery has been trifHing. the Mortars I expect will reach Camp tomorrow & shells can be supplied from three Rivers. I hope they will have the desired Effect. the want of Cash has greatly retarded Our Opperations in this Country. We are fortifying two very Important Posts which Command the River at Richelieu, fifteen Leagues above Quebec and at Jacques Cartier which commands a pass between two . Mountains eleven Leagues above Quebec: If succours should arrive before we can possess ourselves of Quebec I hope we shall be able to Maintain these two Posts until a reinforcement Arrives to our Assistance, which we are told are on their way here. these are the only Posts that secure the River, until you approach near Montreal and of so much consequence, that Nothing but superiour numbers will oblige us to abandon them.
I have mounted three 24 Pounders on a Gundaloe & Armed several Badoes, which go down the River tomorrow. these with a schooner mounting Ten Guns & a Gundaloe mounting One twelve Pounder are all the Force we have in the River. four other Gondaloes are building at Chambly calculated to mount three heavy pieces of Cannon. but will not be compleated these two weeks. tomorrow I set off for the Army with no very Agreable prospects before me. should the enemy receive any considerable reinforcement soon, I make no Dciu ht, we shall have our hands full, at any rate we will do all that cari" be expected from Raw Troops, badly cloathed and fed, & worse paid, & without Discipline. & trust the event to Providence.
