Sir:

You will please to repair with dispatch to General Sevier and deliver him the letter herewith and request his answer.

That you will make yourself acquainted with the transactions of the people in the Western Country such as their holding a Convention, and learn whether the same be temporary, to be exercised only during the time of the late Cession Act, and that since the repeal thereof they mean still to consider themselves Citizens of North Carolina, or whether they intend the same to be perpetual, and what measures they have taken to support such Government.

That you procure a copy of the Constitution and the names of such officers at present exercising the powers of the new Government. That you be informed whether a fraction of a few leading men be at the head of this business, or whether it be the sense of a large majority of the people that the State be dismembered at this crisis of affairs and what laws and resolutions are formed for their future Government. Also where the bounds of their new State are to extend, and whether Cumberland or Kentucky, or both, are to be included therein, and whether the people of those places have also taken part in the above transactions.

You will learn the temper and disposition of the Indians, & what is done in Hubbard’s case and how his conduct is approved or disapproved in general. Lastly, every other information you think necessary to procure you will communicate to me as soon as possible. At the same time you will conduct yourself with that prudence you are Master of in not throwing out Menaces or making