Colonel Henry Laurens, President of the Council of Safety, to William Henry Drayton

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Charlestown, September 27, 1775.

SIR: On Sunday last we received your letter of the 17th, together with the sundry papers which you refer to; and if Captain Wilson is detained one day more, we will send by him the Declaration and Treaty, to be printed in London; but shall defer a publication here, until we have an opportunity of considering the propriety of such a measure in your presence; which, we suppose, will happen in the course of a few days.

The intelligence from the Cherokees, received in Mr˙ Wilkinson' s letter, is very alarming. We hope you have sent away the Good Warriour and his fellow-travellers in good humour; and that they will influence their countrymen to remain quiet, and give us time to discover the perpetrators of the murder intimated by Mr˙ Wilkinson. In the mean time, we trust that you have taken proper measures for that purpose.

Le Despencer packet arrived here from Falmouth, with advices from London, to the 3d of August. Accounts in brief are, that Administration were sending more troops and ships to America, determined to persevere in the execution of their plan. General Gage, in his account of the Bunker Hill affair, on the 17th June, transmitted to Lord Dartmouth, owns about one thousand and fifty-six of the King' s Troops killed and wounded; and his number of officers rather exceeds our early advices. We have heard nothing since the first of August from our Delegates.

By order of the Council of Safety:

HENRY LAURENS, President.

The Hon˙ William Henry Drayton, Esq˙, at the Camp, Ninety-Six.