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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Alexander Martin to Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau
Martin, Alexander, 1740-1807
June 19, 1782
Volume 16, Page 692

GOVERNOR MARTIN TO HIS EXCELLENCY COUNT DE ROCHAMBEAU.
[From Executive Letter Book.]

Halifax, June 19th, 1782.

Sir:

I am honored with your Excellency’s Letter of the 14th Instant, the contents of which respecting the transporting flour to the Fleet at the cape, I shall gladly communicate to the merchants and traders of this State, but am doubtful a large supply of that article cannot be had for that purpose until after the harvest of the new crops; the several posts of the army having drawn large supplies have rendered the same scarce.

Your Excellency is pleased to inform me of Admiral Rodney having got into Jamaica and the French and Spanish Fleets being at Cape Francois but I am in the dark, with regard to the late action between Count De Grass and Rodney—there being so many various and different accounts from the West Indies as to that affair, I know not what to believe. I am greatly anxious to learn the Count’s fate, and the loss he sustained if any.

I am much obliged to your Excellency’s information respecting Charles Town.

I have nothing late from Major General Greene, but that he continues in his old position waiting for reinforcements from this State and Virginia. We are endeavoring to complete our Continental Battalions by a draft of every twentieth man in the State to serve eighteen Months by himself or substitute, who are to be in the field on the first of August next.

A tribe of the Cherokee Indians called Chickammoggys, instigated by British emisaries and some refugee Tories, have been very troublesome in murdering many peaceable families of this State and Virginia. I am about to form an expedition, to chastise and to extirpate them if possible from that Country if they cannot be reclaimed. I shall with pleasure communicate every matter of moment to your Excellency.

I have the Honor, &c.,
ALEX. MARTIN.