Sir
I received Your Excellency's Letter of the 23d inst desiring me to give Your Excellency my reasons for Ordering the Guns at Fort Johnston to be spiked. Pursuant to Your Excellency's Letter of the 19th Inst signifying to me that as Fort Johnston had but one Officer and five men in Garrison and of its standing in need of all the Assistance the Viper and Diligence could give the Commanding Officer there should any Insult be offered to His Majesty's Fort or Store and likewise Your Excellency's Request to Repel Force with Force, I, on Information the same Evening from Lieut: Calder, Corroborated by that of several other Gentlemen, that a Party of Men consisting of three or four Hundred under the Command of Colo Waddell were
on their March to Fort Johnston in Order to take Possession of it, as there was no Possibility of getting the Ship down, being Night and no Pilots to be had, early enough to prevent their making their Quarters good, sent Lieutenant Calder in a Boat with Your Excellency's Order addrest to Capt Dalrymple, commanding that He should comply with any Orders he should Receive from Myself or Capt Phipps, with one from me to Render the Cannon Unserviceable by spiking them up to the end of facilitating our Repossession as soon as the Ships could Arrive before it.Viper Sloop, Brunswick 24th February 1766.