"Fourteen of the nine months men have already deserted, two of whom are apprehended. There are now at this post only thirty-nine of them. As the Continental troops here are without shoes it is impossible to keep out the necessary scouts. Cannot a parcel of shoes be obtained at Albany, and sent up to them? It will be of importance to give the earliest intelligence if the party discovered by Colonel Lewis should appear on the Mohawk river, that we may with the troops here, and what militia we may be able to collect, try to intercept them."
In a postscript to a letter of the 21st, General Schuyler observed:—"Since the above I have been informed from very good authority, that the enemy's morning and evening guns at Ticonderoga have been distinctly heard near Fort Anne for three or four days past" And on the 24th the General wrote more confidently still of the enemy's approach. "Captain Gray is returned. He has not been near enough to determine the enemy's force, but sufficiently so to discover, by the fires, that they are numerous. Is it not strange, and subject of suspicion, that the Vermonters should not afford us any intelligence of the enemy's approach, as they must certainly know of his arrival at Crown Point and Ticonderoga?" [FN]
[FN] This ambiguous conduct of Vermont was the consequence of the quarrel between the settlers of the grants from New Hampshire, which were within the chartered limits, and the government of New-York. Colonel Allen, not long before, had been in Albany upon the business of the settlers, and had come away dissatisfied—having uttered a threat on his departure. He was at this time, as General Schuyler was informed, at the Isle Au Noix—sick—as was pretended.
This was alarming intelligence, more especially when taken in connexion with the reports simultaneously coming in from the west, of an expedition meditated against Pittsburgh, to be led by Sir John Johnson and Colonel Connelly; while other reports were rife, at the same time, of more extensive combinations among the hostile Indians than had previously marked the war. But even this was not all—nor by any means the worst of the case. Treachery was at work, and from the temper of great numbers of the people, the carriage of the disaffected, and the intelligence received by means of spies and intercepted despatches, there was just cause to apprehend that, should the enemy again invade the country, either from the north or the west, his standard would be joined by much larger numbers of the people than would have rallied beneath it at any former period. The poison was actively at work even in Albany. On the 24th of May, General Schuyler announced to General Clinton the return of a confidential agent from the north, "where he met with five of the enemy, whose confidence he so far obtained as to be entrusted with letters written on the spot to persons at Albany, whose names I forbear to mention," (says Schuyler,) "for fear of accidents. They contained nothing material, except the arrival of the enemy in force at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, with this expression in one,—'We shall make rare work with the rebels.'" But other, and more "material" despatches were soon afterward intercepted, from the tenor of which the conclusion was irresistible, not only that a powerful invasion was about taking place from the north, but that very extensive arrangements had been made in Albany, and the towns adjacent, for the reception of the invaders, whose standard the disaffected were to join, and whose wants they were to supply. Among the papers thus intercepted, was the following letter, supposed to have been addressed to General Haldimand:—
"Albany, 9th May, 1781.
"Your Excellency may learn from this that when I received your instructions, &c., I was obliged at that time to put myself into a place of security, as there were heavy charges laid against me. I thank God I have baffled that storm. Your commands are observed to the letter, part of them faithfully executed, the particulars of which I hope in a short time to have the honor to acquaint you verbally. Now is the season to strike a blow on this place, when multitudes will join, provided a considerable force comes down. The sooner the attempt is made the better. Let it be rapid and intrepid, carefully avoiding to sour the inhabitants' tempers by savage cruelties on their defenceless families. If a few handbills, intimating pardon, protection, &c., &c. were sent down, and distributed about this part of the country, they would effect wonders; and should your Excellency think proper to send an army against this den of persecutors, notice ought to be given ten days before, by some careful and intelligent person, to a certain Mr. McPherson in Ball's Town, who will immediately convey the intention to the well-affected of New Scotland, Norman's Kill, Hillbarack's, Neskayuna, &c., all in the vicinity of Albany. The plan is already fixed, and should a formidable force appear, I make no doubt provisions and other succors will immediately take place. A few lines of comfort, in print, from your Excellency to those people, would make them the more eager in prosecuting their designs; and if the Vermonters lie still, as I have some hopes they will, there is no fear of success. No troops are yet raised. There is a flag from this place shortly to be sent; perhaps I may go with it; I expected before this time I would 'be removed from my present situation,' &c.
"25th May. N. B. This I expected should reach you before now, but had no opportunity. Excuse haste." [FN]
[FN] This document has been discovered by the author among the papers of General Clinton. It is endorsed as follows:—"A copy of a letter in Doctor Smyth's handwriting, supposed to General Haldimand. Intercepted 27th of May, 1781." The author has not been able to ascertain who Doctor Smith was, farther than that he hat been informed at Albany, that he was a brother to Smith the historian of New-York, afterward Chief Justice of New Brunswick. Some time afterward Governor Clinton transmitted a special message to the legislature, then sitting at Poughkeepsie, containing important information respecting the designs of the Vermonters, by which it appears that Dr. Smith was actively engaged in fomenting disaffection in that quarter, and had held interviews with Ethan Allen upon the subject in Albany, &c. Smith is spoken of in that message as having been appointed a Commissioner by the British officers to treat with the Vermonters.