General Schuyler to Governour Trumbull

v3:17

Ticonderoga, August 3, 1775.

SIR: Your Honour' s letter of the 28th ultimo was delivered me yesterday. Major Elmore, who is at Crown Point, has applied to me for leave to sell the cows, which I readily consented to. If he had any grass in this quarter, they might probably become fit for the knife by fall. Provision is now coming up with more speed than heretofore, and my fears of being detained on that account are subsided. I continue building boats; but if the accounts contained in the enclosed affidavits be well founded, and of which we do not seem to entertain the least doubt, the enemy' s naval strength will be such as, in all probability, will prevent our getting down the Sorrel River to St˙ John' s, as we suppose their vessels are nearly if not quite finished by this time. And although if we had a number of Carpenters and the necessary materials, we might soon construct vessels equal to theirs, yet our want of ammunition would render them useless, for after completing the troops to a pound a man, I shall not have a ton of powder left.

The troops sicken alarmingly fast; ninety-two are now returned ill at this place, only when we are about five hundred strong. I wish they had tents, without which they must suffer incredibly if we should move on.

I am, your Honour' s most obedient humble servant,

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

The Honourable Jonathan Trumbull, Esq.