258 | To John Pownall

    Boston Decr. 30. 1763

    Dear Sir

    This is the first opportunity I have of acknowledging the receipt of the letters from your Office Sent by the October packet As to what was Sent by the Sept. Packet, you must before you receive this know that it did not come to hand. The History we have of this Packet is this: She was lost on the flats of North Carolina last, but the Mail was saved; & the Captain with the Mail took his Passage for New York in a Schooner; which Schooner was also lost: But whether the Captain & the Mail, both or either, were lost at this second Shipwreck we know not: but no letters by that mail are arrived here.973

    As to what I received by the last packet I hope my present dispatches will contain a full answer to your board. As I have been before required to communicate with the Secretary of State concerning the prosecution of the breaches of the laws of trade, I enclose a Copy of a letter Sent to the Secretary of State before I received their Lordships orders, which I must desire you to communicate to their Lordships, if you think there is any thing in it new enough to deserve it. As to the letter relating to the condemnation of the Freemason, I write allmost in the very same Words to the Secretary of State on the same. I have nothing more to add but to desire of you for the real Service of the Crown, which you are never inattentive to, to take care, tho’ I know it does not belong to your Office, that the defence of this appeal be supported by the Crown.

    As to my letter on the Melasses Act, It is addr~ssed to their Lordships only: but yet I should not be displeasd, if you would communicate it to Lord Halifax; for whatever his Opinion is, I am sure he will perceive, that a love of truth dictates mine. The Merchants of this Town & the whole Province are under the greatest alarm that the Melasses Act will be continued & strictly executed: they have petitioned the General Court, & a Committee of both houses is sitting from day to day to prepare representations against this Act being continued.974 I wish their results upon this occasion may be so decent & dutiful, (as I doubt not they will) that I may be able to join in them; for there is nothing I am more convinced of than the Expedition Expediency of encouraging a trade (under proper restrictions) between North America & the foreign West India Plantations.

    I enclose with this an account of the peregrinations of a young man of this Province among the Ottawas, in which is included part of the History of the War with the Indians so far as relates to the cause & rise of it, But this is only a Matter of Curiosity: for I hope the present Cessation of Arms will produce a peace with the Indians without any more bloodshed.

    I am Sir &c

    John Pownall Esq.

    with an Enquiry into Act of 2 Geo.3

    with & a Copy of Rand’s Declarn

    L, LbC BP, 3: 116-118.