418 HISTORY OP 



enough to order Mr. Howell to send for it, lest other 

 troops should receive the benefit of that which we are so 

 much in want of. 



A woman who has been in Philadelaphia for three or 

 four days, and this moment returned, says that the gen- 

 eral report there is, that in the course of two weeks the 

 enemy intend to take the field ; but at the quarters of 

 some principal officers they have frequently been over- 

 heard talking in a desponding style, and that they can't 

 move until they receive reinforcements, with severe 

 sarcasms against their generals. Who they wish to be 

 recalled, and who I hope will not, until we have an 

 opportunity to Burgoyne him ; but this will depend upon 

 the exertion of the states; at present he out numbers us, 

 and by the last accounts New England is so absorbed in 

 accumulating wealth, that they have become totally 

 insensible to our sufferings and danger, and sunk into a 

 torpid supineness, from which it is difficult to rouse them. 

 I am your excellency's most obedient 



And very humble servant. 

 By order of General Wayne. 



Ben. Fishburn, A. D. C. 

 To his excellency Thomas Wharton^ Esq., Lancaster : 



Mountjoy, 16th April, 1778. 

 Dear sir : — Mr. Donaldson of York, who will deliver 

 you this letter, has been kind enough to offer his services 

 in procuring shirts for our troops. He thinks that he 

 could supply us with three or four hundred in a week, 

 and that he has linnen now on hand sufficient to make 

 six hundred, and that he can procure a large quantity if 

 properly empowered and supplied with cash. 



The necessitous situation of our troops, for want of 

 shirts, justify any manner, and requires every exertion to 

 procure our immediate supply. 



