OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 271 



to take the proper depositions and order an Inquest on the body of the 

 unfortunate man, in order that those who have been concerned may be 

 brought to justice. I hope no resistance will be made to this inquiry, 

 or to such Lawful steps as the nature of the case requires, if there should 

 you. are to call upon the Lieutenants or sub-Lieutenants of the County 

 to furnish you with a sufficient guard of the Militia, to keep the peace 

 and enable you to proceed on the business with safety. Directed, 

 To the Magistrates of Lancaster and Chester Counties. 



Council to Board of War, 1778. 



In Council, Lancaster, Eeb. 16, 1778. 



Sir: Agreeable to the request of the Hn'ble board of war of the 31st 

 ult., the facts relating to the flagg have been collected and would have 

 been forwarded before now, but that it was hoped some further circum- 

 stances would have transpired in the examination of the horse thieves 

 sent out of the City by General Howe, and some of the papers were 

 wanted by the Court Martial on their trial — but no further evidence 

 appears. 



On the arrival of the flagg in this borough, Capt. Wilson and Lieut. 

 Patterson, the officers appointed by General Washington, to attend the 

 Flagg, waited on the Council for instructions respecting the price to be 

 paid by the enemy officers for provisions on their journey, and produced 

 a list of prices which, they said, had been given them by a superior offi- 

 cer; but it was not signed. As the Council was not authorized by law 

 to limit the prices of articles of any kind, they did not choose to interfere, 

 or give any directions in the matter, further than to inform the Gentle- 

 men, that there was a law of the State forbidding the asking a higher 

 price for anything whatever in continental money than in gold or silver. 

 Lieutenant Patterson afterwards complained that Mr. Herbert, a tavern 

 keeper in this borough, had made out the bill against the enemy's offi- 

 cers much lower than his bill for like articles. Mr. Herbert was sent for 

 and the matter examined. It appeared that the articles though high 

 were charged at the rates then commonly paid by travellers, and there- 

 fore Council declined to order any abatement in the bill ; or to give a 

 list of prices to be paid on the road. Soon after this Council were in- 

 formed that the enemy officers were determined to return unless some- 

 thing further was done in their favor, to which it was replied, that the 

 Gentlemen were perfectly at liberty to do as they pleased in that respect, 

 and that they might depend no law of the State would be violated in 

 order to induce them to go forward. What passed between our officers 

 and those of the Flag, or between either of them and the Gentlemen who 

 signed and sent the paper to Council, which has been sent forward to 

 the Delegates of Pennsylvania in Congress, we do not [pretend to know. 



