Pocket & carry something towards his mouth as if it were a quid of tobacco. It was examined & found to be what is now inclosed. As this is the first authentic disclosure of their purpose in coming here and may serve to found with somewhat more of certainty conjectures of their future movements while their disappointment in not meeting with Ld. Cornwallis may occasion new plans at New York, I thought it worthy of being communicated to your Excy. by express. Some deserters were yesterday taken, said to be of the British Convention troops who had found means to get to the enemy at Portsmouth & were 70 or 80 miles on their way back to the barracks when they were taken. They were passing under the guise of deserters from Portsmouth. TO THE DELEGATES OF VIRGINIA IN CONGRESS. C. C. RICHMD. Novr. 17th 1780. GENTN,-With respect to the payment made on behalf of Mr. Braxton into the Continental treasury in Part of our Quota of the fifteen Million tax, the Execcutive having been Charged with the raising and remitting that money, we have thought it unnecessary to lay it before the Legislature. The sum to be sent, was sent, partly in Money, and Partly in Bills. These Bills were drawn in Continental Dollars, & paible in such, and not in specie. Of this nature was Mr. Braxton's Bill desiring his correspondent to pay so many Continental Dollars into the Treasury. If the treasurer has received payment in another kind of money at an arbitrary rate of Exchange, this must have been either under the Rules of his office or against them. The former I can hardly suppose, and in the latter case it has become his own Private act, and he should be deemed to have received (not £1318-15. hard money but) 263750 dollars Continental Money as he has I suppose given a discharge on Bill for so much of its Contents. Had he rejected the Tender of the Hard Money would not Continental dollars have been paid? If they had not, then indeed the demand should have reverted on the State, and we would have fallen on means for compelling payment. We were really concerned on the return of our agent who carried the Money and Bills that he did not have them regularly protested as there appeared some doubts on them. But he acted for the best in his own Judgment, and in that point of view was to be approved. I am exceedingly sorry that this want of Punctuality has a risen in these remittances. We sold Tobo. for these Bills, which would in much less time have produced us money here. But the responsibility and known connection between the drawer & drawee induced us to consider them as even Better than money which wd. have been liable to accidents in transportation. Had a tender of specie been made to us here we would certainly have rejected it. But the payment being now to be transacted between the Drawee & Congress (passing us over) neither the Tender or receipt can be considered as our act, but the former the act of the Drawee, and the latter of the treasurer of Congress. We do not therefore think ourselves concerned immediately in this transaction. If Congress please to consider the Payment of the £1318-15 hard money as a discharge of 263.750 dollars paper which was to be paid by the drawee well if not on rejecting it he will make payment in the specific Money he was call'd on to pay or we will resort to the Drawer, and Compell such payment. Since writing thus far I note more particularly than I had before done that the treasurers return sais that he had received from the Commonwealth of Virginia a sum of money in specie &c. this indeed stating it as the act of this Commonwealth renders it necessary for me to disavow it-which I hereby do. It was the act of the drawee of which the Commonwealth had neither knowledge or Intimation; and this return fixing the act on the Commonwealth instead of the Drawee is so far wrong. TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. (BENJAMIN HARRISON.) V. S. A. IN COUNCIL November 17th 1780. SIR,-At the request of the Honorable Theoderick Bland I take the liberty of laying before the General Assembly the inclosed paper in which he states a difficulty which has arisen in reconciling his qualifications as a delegate to the peculiar channel into which he had previously turned his private fortune. From the inclosed extract from a Letter from our Delegates in Congress you will also perceive that they suffer some inconven ience from precarious remittances. Tho this be not within the line of our immediate care we have never been wanting in furnishing such facilities as we were able towards effecting remittances to them. But these we believe have been rendered irregular sometimes by the want of conveyance, & sometimes by the state of the treasury. TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. C. C. RICHMOND Nov 19. 1780. SIR,-The vessel which had been sent by Genl. Leslie to Charles town as we supposed, returned about the 12th inst. The enemy began to embark soon after from Portsmouth, and in the night of the 15th. compleated the embarkation of their whole force. In the morning of the 16th. some of our people entered Portsmouth. They had left their works unfinished and undestroyed. Great numbers of negroes who had gone over to them were left either for want of ship-room, or through choice. They had not moved from Elizabeth river at eleven o'clock A. M. of the 16th. They gave out that they intended up James river, but the precipitate abandoning of works on receipt of some communication or other from Charles town, was not likely to be for the purpose of coming up James river. I received this intelligence by express from Genl. Muhlenberg yesterday morning. As the enemy's situation was such as to give reason to expect every moment a movement in some direction, I delayed sending off notice to you in hopes that that movement would point out their destina tion but no such information being yet come to hand I think it proper no longer to delay communicating to you so much. As our riders will be two days going their distance and returning to their post, it will necessarily be so long before anything further can be communicated. By a letter from Govr. Nash dated Newbern Nov. 5. I am informed that on the 28th. ult. a Capt Howell of that place in a small privateer passed in the night off Charles town a very large fleet, but of what nation he knew not. In a vessel he took the same day directly out of Charles town were South Carolina gazettes which mentioned this fleet, & that they had for several days been off firing signal guns. A gentleman on board her said Ld. Cornwallis returned to town that day. This is the only intelligence I have received from the Southward since that of Ferguson's defeat which I had the honor of forwarding to your Excellency. Since writing so far I have received the inclosed dispatches from the Southward. The moment the enemy leave us I hope a good reinforcement may march from their present encampment to the Southerd. TO MAJOR-GENERAL HORATIO GATES. J. MSS. RICHMOND Nov 19. 1780. SIR, *** Since writing so far your favor of the 8th inst comes to hand, accompanied by one from Genl Stevens at Hillsborough of the 10th. A strange |