The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-10

faculties should reCafQ an Allulr ol po
 much Importance" He wrote again eN-
 pressing sorrow that the design should
 miscarry for want of thousand brave
 men in His Majesty's pay, who are at home, following their own private pusl-
 ness, while the rest of the Troops are
 acting vigorously against his Hnemles'
 but the Connecticut Yankee only flled the letter writing on the back the sls- nificant words '1000 brave men in ms majesties pay" At last Governor Shlr- ley determined to proceed. He had al
 reody forwarded provisions to Albany and moved the southern troops, twenty four hundred in number, who were eH- camped there to send cannon to Safatp-
 ga His own soldiers were therefore
 dispatched thitherA At this crisis, how ever, the authorities of New York came over to the side of Connecticut and de
 termined against their troops proceeding
 to Grown Point" upon which Governor Shirley respectfully wrote, February IA, 1746-7. q have countermanded the order l had given to our troops marching to
 Hudson River" In his memoirs ne
 made this record of the expedition. "One or more of the colonies concerned in it judged it too late to proceed, ana
 refused to join with the province or
 Massachusetts Bay, and Disunlon ol Councils on the Point finally prevented it's being carried into Execution. III the opinion of many at the time the
 venture was extremely rash. It would doubtless have encountered untold hard ships on account of the winter season
 and the smallpox which prevailed to
 an alarming extent among the southern
 troops. It is certain, too, that the cap
 ture of Crown Point at that time would
 not have affected materially the sequel. A Massachusetts historian has truly
 said By the prudence of the members of the Connecticut assembly, who
 deemed the winter an improper season for so great an undertaking, the rash acheme was defeated
 The disappointment of Governor Shir- ley was very sore, He never forgaVe Connecticut for her opposition to ms
 glorious project. He afterwards wrote the, Duke of Bedford in prejudicia note, reporting the inactivity Of the Connecticut troops and suggesting a re~
 duction of their pay--an act which was
 reported from England and duly noticed and disapproved by the Connecticut as
 sembly This colony, however had
 throughout adhered strictly to the only
 warrant for action which they had re-
 ce!ved-the letter of the Duke of New
 castle.
 TROOPS REIMBURSED.
 The relation of this story to the dis covery of the muster rolls and other
 documents in the English archives can
 be briefly stated. The general assembly ,, in october. 1746, passed the following
 vote: That His Honor the governor be
 desired, with the advice of the commit
 tee of New Haven, to take such proper
 measures as they shall judge consistent with the best interest and safety or thls colony. for the obtaining from his ma jesty'2 pasmaster-genera such wages as are or may become due to the officers and soldiers raised in this colony for ms Maiesty's services in the intended eXpe-
 dition to Canada" Accordingly. on the
 26tb of November, 1746, when the 1an-
 kee governor had gotten his troops nice ly tucked in for the winter under His
 MajeSty's pay with an indefinite fur lough he wrote to the paymaster-sen ral in England as follows: You Will l
 conclude herewith receive ye muster
 rolls of yet several companies in ye reg iment raised in this colony in pursuance of His Majesty's order and for his ser vice in ye designed expedition against
 ye French settlements at Canada, in which you will see ye names of ye ot1l- cers and ye respective offices to which
 they are appointed and ye time in which
 they engaged in ye service, as also ye several days in which ye soldiers did enlist. and | w'd take ye liberty to say in their behalf that from we time of
 their engagement they have been on ye
 business and continually waiting for or
 ders to proceed and therefore agreed ble to ye assurance given by his Grace ye Duke of Newsastle desire that
 both officers and soldiers may receive their pay accordingly" This letter was forwarded to the cOlony'S agent, Elikim Palmer, Esq, who on the 18th of March following acknowledged the receipt of the rolls and accompanying papers.
 The general assembly further directed in May, 1747, that the governor make proper drafts on the paymaster-general for the conmissaries' expenses for
 clothing and arms, which was to have
 been discharged by General St. Clair, Hollister, referring in his history of Connecticut to the colony's petition for | reimbursement on account of the Cape ! Breton expedition, says, Her prayer
 was disregarded and she submitted to 1 the loss in silence"-a statement which he himself partly disproves when he further declares that the money granted by parliament for this purpose was neN- | CT received. This is an error. The mon- ey was paid after some delay to pr. Benjamin Avery, who was constituted
 the colony's agent in London, and was duly transmitted by bills of exchange. | So likewise the colonies were reim-
 bursed for their expenses in the pro- posed expedition of 1746. The total
 amount carried into parliament as the award to the nine colonies engaged was
 G224,41 and the proportion of Connecti-
 cut was f1,191, 15c., 1-2 Thus the hopes of the Yankee governor for his
 q ,00 brave men in His Majesty's pay were happily fulfilled and now after the lapse of one hundred and fifty-fQur
 years their descendants may know who | they were,
 { To the Connecticut Historical Society: 1 MUSTER ROLLS FOUND.