You may have noticed in your travels, Mr.Garvald--for they tell me you are not often out of the saddle--that up and down the land there's a good few folk that are not very easy in their minds.

Many of these are former troopers of Bacon, some are new men who have eyes in their heads, some are old settlers who have been soured by the folly of the Government.

With such poor means as I possess I keep in touch with these gentlemen, and in them we have the rudiments of a frontier army.

I don't say they are many; but five hundred resolute fellows, well horsed and well armed, and led by some man who knows the Indian ways, might be a stumbling-block in the way of an Iroquois raid.

But to perfect this force needs time, and, above all, it needs a man on the spot; for Virginia is not a healthy place for me, and these savannahs are a trifle distant, I want a man in James Town who will receive word when I send it, and pass it onto those who should hear it, I want a discreet man, whose trade takes him about the country.