[Extract]

Gent: The inclosed contains a State of the powder and Arms we have sent from hence. Willing and Morris still assure us they daily expect an Arrival of powder to enable them to furnish us with the Quantity they contracted for they were but partly interested in the Salt petre which arrived & had not the Management of it nor was it in their power to procure any of it to be manufactured f~>r us the Congress having immediately on the Arrival of the Salt petre taken up all the Powder Mills If you think it necessary we have no Doubt but that we can borrow a Ton of powder more as it begins now to come in from the Mills we should be inclined to borrow & forward it but that we think the additional Expense and Risk cannot be justified but by necessity. We should have got a return of the Musquets furnished the Hornet & Wasp with the powder but the Congress have it not in their power .... Inclosed you have the pay in the Marine Service .... The price of Duck & indeed every kind of Linen exceeds here what it does with you any Thing of the kind cannot be got at scarce any price nor could it when T. J. [Thomas Johnson] got to Phila wherefore no Attempt was made to get Knapsacks & Haversacks buying [sic believing] proper materials might arrive in port or from Vanbebber Time enough We hope what has been sent down of Vanbebber's Cargoe will answer for their purposes & for tents. The duck is too heavy for any use about our Troops we have sold the Holland Duck at 8.10 & the Russia at 7:,0 a ps the sale was to the Congress for the use of the Frigates and to the Virginians for their armed vessels. Immediately on T J's coming to Phila he & R.A: [Robert Alexander] mentioned the Defence to the Marine Committee either to sell or have insured they seemed not very fond of taking her off our hands before the matter was totally given up Capt Squires Expedition was defeated T.J. confirms our Opinion that if any Depredations should take place after we had parted from the vessell it would be imputed to the sale of her and there's no Idea of the Congress taking her off our Hands but on subjecting her to the uncontrolled orders of the Congress we have therefore thought it best to let this Matter rest till the Convention. . . . We are [&c.]

R. Alexander Th Johnson