[Extract]

Dear Sir ー On Friday last, General [Charles] Lee arrived safe in Williamsburg, in a very rainy day, and much fatigued; we considered him as a valuable acquisiti<;>n, and esteem it a favour in Congress to spare him to this department, where, most p~ople here think, the gentry who found Boston too hot for them, will come; and be joined by the much talked of powerful force from Europe. However, I am not of that opinion, and think they either mean a descent upon some other part of New England they like better, or, perhaps, by dividing our army, may purpose to return to Boston with greater advantage, or else to go to Halifax, and wait for the season to go up to Quebec. General Lee thinks if they come here, they will certainly make Williamsburg their object, and on that supposition is going to entrench it. I hear since I came away, he has ordered all the battalions from their stations to that place, which has made the people in town very happy, but I fear will be very alarming to other parts, particularly the Northern Neck, who were before uneasy, on the appearance of tenders in Potomac and Rappahannoc ... I have seen your resolves about reprisals. Is it considered as a law we are now to execute by granting commission~? or must we wait for a confirmation by our convention?