vements of the enemy.

I was honored yesterday with your favor of the 5th instant, on the
subject of prisoners, and particularly Lieutenant Governor Hamilton. You
are not unapprized of the influence of this officer with the Indians,
his activity and embittered zeal against us. You also, perhaps, know how
precarious is our tenure of the Illinois country, and how critical
is the situation of the new counties on the Ohio. These circumstances
determined us to detain Governor Hamilton and Major Hay within
our power, when we delivered up the other prisoners. On a late
representation from the people of Kentucky, by a person sent here from
that country, and expressions of what they had reason to apprehend from
these two prisoners, in the event of their liberation, we assured
them they would not be parted with, though we were giving up our other
prisoners. Lieutenant Colonel Dabusson, aid to Baron de Kalb, lately
came here on his parole, with an offer from Lord Rawdon, to exchange
him for Hamilton. Colonel Towles is now here with a like proposition
for himself, from General Phillips, very strongly urged by the General.
These, and other overtures, do not lessen our opinion of the importance
of retaining him; and they have been, and will be, uniformly rejected.
Should the settlement, indeed, of a cartel become impracticable, without
the consent of the States to submit their separate prisoners to its
obligation, we will give up these two prisoners, as we would any thing,
rather than be an obstacle to a general good. But no other circumstance
would, I believe, extract them from us. These two gentlemen, with a
Lieutenant Colonel Elligood, are the only separate prisoners we have
retained, and the last, only on his own request, and not because we set
any store by him. There is, indeed, a Lieutenant Governor Rocheblawe of
Kaskaskia, who has broken his parole and gone to New York, whom we must
shortly trouble your Excellency to demand for us, as soon as we can
forward to you the proper documents. Since the forty prisoners sent
to Winchester, as mentioned in my letter of the 9th ultimo, about one
hundred and fifty more have been sent thither, some of them taken by us
at sea, others sent on by General Gates.

The exposed and weak state of our western settlements, and the danger
to which they are subject from the northern Indians, acting under the
influence of the British post at Detroit, render it necessary for us to
keep from five to eig