"I have no particular interest in this affair, as, except the
satisfaction of endeavoring to do good, I shall have only my labour
for my pains. If this method of obtaining the waggons and horses
is not likely to succeed, I am obliged to send word to the general
in fourteen days; and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hussar,
with a body of soldiers, will immediately enter the province
for the purpose, which I shall be sorry to hear, because I
am very sincerely and truly your friend and well-wisher, B. FRANKLIN."
I received of the general about eight hundred pounds, to be
disbursed in advance-money to the waggon owners, etc.; but, that sum
being insufficient, I advanc'd upward of two hundred pounds more,
and in two weeks the one hundred and fifty waggons, with two hundred
and fifty-nine carrying horses, were on their march for the camp.
The advertisement promised payment according to the valuation,
in case any waggon or horse should be lost. The owners, however,
alleging they did not know General Braddock, or what dependence
might be had on his promise, insisted on my bond for the performance,
which I accordingly gave them.
While I was at the camp, supping one evening with the officers
of Colonel Dunbar's regiment, he represented to me his concern
for the subalterns, who, he said, were generally not in affluence,
and could ill afford, in this dear country, to lay in the stores
that might be necessary in so long a march, thro' a wilderness,
where nothing was to be purchas'd.
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