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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from William Tryon to William Petty, Marquis of Lansdowne
Tryon, William, 1729-1788
July 08, 1767
Volume 07, Pages 500-501

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[From Tryon's Letter Book.]
Letter from Governor Tryon to Earl Shelburne.

No 6.

Brunswick 8th July 1767.

The inclosed dispatches will inform your Lordship, I carried into execution in part my intention of attending the running of the dividing line as therein recited, which I should have gone through with if the Indians had joined me the 16th of May agreeable to my appointment.

My talk to the indians will explain the motives that made it necessary for me to return to Salisbury before this service was completed. The disappointment I complained of was owing to Mr Stuart by the confession of Mr Cameron, who told me Mr Stuart had appointed the Indians to be at Reedy river the 16th of May, in lieu of meeting me at Salisbury, distant from each other one hundred and eighty miles. Indeed I thought it very extraordinary after the requisitions I made Mr Stuart, and the fair promises he made of meeting me on this very important duty, at Salisbury, or on the frontiers, that he should omit joining this service. I was creditably informed, that after he returned to meet the Creeks, who had disappointed him in point of time, he left Augusta the 30th or 31st of May and as that town was but four score miles from Reedy River, he had ample time to meet me as the line was not begun to be run till his Majesty's birth day, a day I fixed upon as auspicious and memorable; indeed I could not help expressing to Mr Cameron my great disappointment in not meeting the principal in his department on that service.

Every publick matter and transaction on this service being set forth in the public orders, the journal of the escort and the other papers, in this dispatch makes it unnecessary for me to repeat them.

I wish my Lord his Majesty may be informed that of the fifty men [who] escorted me, I had not occasion to reprehend one officer or man during the time they were on that command; what they wanted in discipline they made up by a strict observance and willing obedience to all orders delivered to them. Each man had his rifle gun, and their general uniform and appointments were a carters frock, indian match clouts (in lieu of breeches) moccasons (for shoes) and woolen or leather leggins, the latter were necessary to prevent the bite of the snakes of which we saw a great plenty.

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It was with a very sensible satisfaction I found on those hilly or back settlements a race of people, sightly, active, and laborious, and loyal subjects to his Majesty. The face and produce of that country and the industry of the inhabitants may be the subject of a future letter, The heats were so extreme that I killed one horse and left upon the road every other I took out on this expedition.

As soon as the commissioners return and report the services they have performed, I shall transmit them to your Lordships with these dispatches.

I am My Lords &c