as you will perceive by my letter to my uncle John (to which I refer you) ours is at present. God only knows when it will be better with us; as he only knows when and how the present contest between Great Britain and France will be decided, upon which depends the all not only of this, but of every other British plantation in America. And such seems to be the connection between the mother and children in this case, that the downfall of either must sooner or later be attended with that of the other.
Our people are loaded with debt and taxes. Money is much scarcer than it has been for many years. Our spring crops of wheat, barley, oats, and rye, have been ruined by an early drought. Our Indian corn, the main support of man and beast in this part of the world, has been so much hurt by a later drought, that I fear scarce enough will be made for the sustenance of our people, exclusive of our stocks, great numbers of which must in all probability perish this winter. Some of our neighboring colonies have likewise suffered in the same manner, and cannot assist us. So fertile, too, are our lands, that there is no such thing as a magazine for grain in all British America, which, as it has never known the want of bread, has never made any provision against it.
Our frontiers are daily ravaged by savages, and, worse than savages, papists, who, in conjunction with them, captivate and butcher our out-settlers, and have drove great numbers of them into the thicker inhabited parts, who, as they have left their farms and stocks, must be supported by us, who shall be scarcely able to support our own families. These, with many others that might be mentioned, are very melancholy and affecting considerations. However, dependence upon the supreme arbiter of all things, and resignation to the dispensa-
