No Carolina Whitfields on Neuse
13th July 1776
Inclosed we transmit you Copies of three Letters the one from Brigadier Rutherford of Rowan County in this Provence with respect to the Indians having Committed acts of hostility on the Frontiers of So Carolina within the line of that Province dividing it from the Cherokee Country and that the inhabitants of Tryon County in this Province were in hourly expectation of being attacked by the Cherokee Indians the second letter is from Colo Lock of Rowan Concerning Lead the Contents of which we beg leave
to refer you to and request that you will give immediate directions to your Manager at Chriswell Mines to supply Colo Lock with five Tons of Lead as our back inhabitants are in the greatest want of that article & the people on the Sea board are in the same Situation and if we can be informed of the Amount thereof an order will be immediately sent in favour of your Colony upon the Continental TreasuryThe third Letter is from Col Graham of our Tryon County to Brigadier Rutherford relative to the conduct of the Indians, to which we also refer you. We have in a very particular manner instructed Brigadier Rutherford how to act on this alarming occasion and have directed him by no means to precipitate the Southern Colonies unnecessarily into an Indian war.