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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from the South Carolina Council of Safety to the North Carolina Provincial Council
South Carolina. Council of Safety
January 30, 1776
Volume 11, Pages 271-272

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[From Journal of the Council of Safety (Vol. 3, pages 237-238.]

Charles-Town, South Carolina, 30th January 1776.

Gentlemen—We are favored with your letter of the 24th ult., by the hands of Waightstill Avery, esquire, to which we have paid all possible attention and regard, by consenting, out of our very small fund of gunpowder, to supply your colony with one thousand pounds weight; which, according to Mr. Avery's arrangement, we have ordered to be delivered from George-Town and Camden stores, viz: seven hundred pounds on the Committee of George-Town, and three hundred pounds by Col. Richardson or Mr. Joseph Kershaw, at Camden. Your order to the Committee to whom we have written, at George-Town, will be complied with; Mr. Avery will take charge of that which is to go from Camden.

We are extremely sorry that we cannot send you the full quantity which you require. Two days before Mr. Avery's arrival we received a most pressing demand from Savannah, in Georgia, for 5000℔, claimed in return for a loan. We had it not in our power to repay (if it was due) more than 2000℔. This unexpected demand was made in consequence of menaces from the Commodore of the ships-of-war at Cockspur to burn Savannah, and has proved a bar to further supplies to you. We had indeed received, some months ago, 5000℔ powder from Georgia, but the whole was forwarded to Philadelphia for the use of the Continental army. These several circumstances have really impoverished us at a juncture when we, also, are threatened with severe attacks, against which we are preparing to make a proper defence. We have many vessels abroad in search of the necessary article, and we give great encouragement to the manufacture of saltpetre and gunpowder. We lately paid a premium for the first fifty pounds produced at one works. If every planter and farmer would devote a very little of the time and labour of his servants to the manufacture of that article, America would not require supplies of gunpowder from abroad.

We wrote you the 2nd Inst. by a Capt. Wylly, who was going to your Colony in order to claim a scooner which Capt. Tollemache had seized from him; but having heard on his journey that the scooner had foundered in the intended voyage to Cape Fear, he

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turned back, but assured us he had forwarded our letter by a safe hand.

By order of the Council of Safety.
HENRY LAURENS, President.