Enclosed your Excellency will receive an Act of Congress of the 7th Instant, granting a Commission of Major to Joseph Louis Gill, an Indian Chief, and for embodying those of his Tribe who are willing to enter the Service of the States.(1)
Also directing the Board of War to fill up Commissions for a certain Number of Officers who may be recommended to command under Joseph Gill.
Your Letter of the 10th Instant enclosing the New York Paper is received .(2)
Bradford's Paper (3) herewith enclosed contains the Spanish Account of the Engagement between the two fleets in the Extract of a Letter from Bilbao of the 1st of February which I have received.
I have the honor to be, with great Respect, your Excelly's hble servant,Sam. Huntington President
1 This resolve concerning Chief Gill was adopted in response to a recommendation of Col. Moses Hazen, which had been forwarded to Congress by Washington in November 1779. See JCC,15:1263,16:334; PCC, item 152,8:159-63; and Washington, Writings (Fitzpatrick), 17:68-69. For information on this unsuccessful effort to ensure the allegiance of the Abnakis through Gill, who had been raised with the Indians by his European parents during their captivity by the Abnakis of Massachusetts, see John C. Huden, "The White Chief of the St. Francis Abnakis-Some Aspects of Border Warfare, 1690-1790," Vermont History, n.s. 24 (July-Oct. 1956): 199-210, 337-55.
2 For this letter and the enclosed intelligence concerning the British defeat of a Spanish squadron in the West Indies and an imminent embarkation of enemy transports from New York, see PCC, item 152, 8:511; and Washington, Writings (Fitzpatrick), 18:241.
3 That is, the April 12 issue of Thomas Bradford's Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser.