etter of John Dodge report

That they have made the fullest enquiry that the circumstances of the
case would admit, relative to the Facts mentioned in said Letter, But
have not been able to obtain any Evidence to support them--and are
therefore of opinion that the Committee ought to be discharged.

March 20, 1782.

In council June 16, 1779.

The board proceeded to the consideration of the letters of colonel
Clarke, and other papers relating to Henry Hamilton Esqr., who has
acted for some years past as Lieutenant Governour of the settlement
at and about Detroit, and Commandant of the British garrison there,
under Sir Guy Carleton as Governour in Chief; Philip Dejean Justice
of the Peace for Detroit and William Lamothe, Captain of volunteers,
prisoners of war, taken in the county of Illinois.

They find that Governour Hamilton has executed the task of inciting
the Indians to perpetrate their accustomed cruelties on the citizens
of these States, without distinction of age, sex, or condition, with
an eagerness and activity which evince that the general nature of
his charge harmonized with his particular disposition; they should
have been satisfied from the other testimony adduced that these
enormities were committed by savages acting under his commission,
but the number of proclamations which, at different times were left
in houses, the inhabitants of which were killed or carried away by
the Indians, one of which proclamations, under the hand and seal of
Governour Hamilton, is in possession of the Board, puts this fact
beyond doubt. At the time of his captivity it appears, that he had
sent considerable detachments of Indians against the frontier
settlements of these states, and had actually appointed a great
council of Indians to meet him at the mouth of the Tanissee, to
concert the operations of this present campaign. They find that his
treatment of our citizens and soldiers, captivated and carried
within the limits of his command, has been cruel and inhumane; that
in the case of John Dodge, a citizen of these states, which has been
particularly stated to this Board, he loaded him with irons, threw
him into a dungeon, without bedding, without straw, without fire, in
the dead of winter and severe climate of Detroit; that in that state
he harrassed and wasted him, with incessant expectations of death;
that when the rigours of his situation had brought h