& from whence the French can annoy our Fishery at Newfoundland, & guard their own navigation to & from Canada. That place is such a Thorn in the sides of the New England people, that it is very probable a large body of men may be raised there to assist in any such design, and if proper officers are sent from England in the summer to exercise them, they may by the ensuing spring be well disciplined, as all their youth are expert in the use of fire arms, from the unrestrained liberty

of Fowling, which obtains in all the Provinces, & I conceive the spring is the most proper season to attack the place, before the Men of War & Fishing Vessells come from France, for in the Winter

they have few men except the Garrisons, & Boston being a proper Fort for our Fleet to harbour in the Winter, we may block

up the Harbour of Breton before the Ships from France can come upon

the coast.

New York 1743.

GOV. CLINTON TO

THE N. Y. ASSEMBLY.

[[Journals of Gen. Assembly. ]

Die Lunse Aug. 20, 1744.

Gentlemen,

From the Examination herewith laid before You, it must be inferred, that the Province

has suffered Considerable damage this summer, by the precipitate Ketreat of our Indian Traders from

Oswego, upon Notice of the French War most of them you will find, left the Place immediately upon the Alarm, sold what they could of their Goods, to those few of their Brethren, that had Sense, Courage and Resolution, to stay behind, and brought the Remainder back with them. You will judge what a Baulk and Discouragement, this Instance of Pusilanimity has occasioned to those Number of Indians, of the far Nations, who have rarely come to Trade with us but perhaps finding the French, had no Goods to supply them at Niagara, resolved to proceed to Oswego, where some of them found the place was basely deserted by most of the People, and no Goods to exchange for their Furs upon Information whereof, many other Indian Canoes were turned back before they reached ;