ies and regiments, chose their own officers, and
met every week to be instructed in the manual exercise, and other parts
of military discipline. The women, by subscriptions among themselves,
provided silk colors, which they presented to the companies, painted
with different devices and mottos, which I supplied.

The officers of the companies composing the Philadelphia regiment,
being met, chose me for their colonel; but, conceiving myself unfit, I
declin'd that station, and recommended Mr. Lawrence, a fine person, and
man of influence, who was accordingly appointed. I then propos'd a
lottery to defray the expense of building a battery below the town, and
furnishing it with cannon. It filled expeditiously, and the battery
was soon erected, the merlons being fram'd of logs and fill'd with
earth. We bought some old cannon from Boston, but, these not being
sufficient, we wrote to England for more, soliciting, at the same time,
our proprietaries for some assistance, tho' without much expectation of
obtaining it.

Meanwhile, Colonel Lawrence, William Allen, Abram Taylor, Esqr., and
myself were sent to New York by the associators, commission'd to borrow
some cannon of Governor Clinton. He at first refus'd us peremptorily;
but at dinner with his council, where there was great drinking of
Madeira wine, as the custom of that place then was, he softened by
degrees, and said he would lend us six. After a few more bumpers he
advanc'd to ten; and at length he very good-naturedly conceded
eighteen. They were fine cannon, eighteen-pounders, with their
carriages, which we soon transported and mounted on our battery, where
the associators kept a nightly guard while the war lasted, and among
the rest I regularly took my turn of duty there as a common soldier.

My activity in these operations was agreeable to the governor and
council; they took me into confidence, and I was consulted by them in
every measure wherein their concurrence was thought useful to the
association. Calling in the aid of religion, I propos'd to them the
proclaiming a fast, to promote reformation, and implore the blessing of
Heaven on our undertaking. They embrac'd the motion; but, as it was
the first fast ever thought of in the province, the secretary had no
precedent from which to draw the proclamation. My education in New
England, where a fast is proclaimed every year, was here of some
advantage: I drew it in the accustomed stile, it was translated into