The enclos’d is a Copy of my last. The Preliminaries of Peace, on which I congratulate you, are since come to hand, and are universally approved of in these Parts. While we retain our Superiority at Sea, and are suffer’d to grow numerous and strong in North America, I cannot but look on the Places left or restor’d to our Enemies on this Side the Ocean, as so many Pledges for their good Behaviour. Those Places will hereafter be so much in our Power, that the more valuable they are to the Possessors, the more cautious will they naturally be of giving us Offence. So that I think this Peace has all the Appearance of being a durable one.

Since all the Country is now ceded to us on this Side the Missisipi, is not this a good time to think of new Colonies on that River, to secure our Territory and extend our Commerce; and to separate the Indians on this side from those on the other, by intervening Settlements of English, and by that means keep them more easily in order? What think you now of asking for a Slice of Territory, to be settled in some manner like that I once propos’d? When I was about to leave England, I refer’d Mr. Sargent to you for a Plan of that nature. Did he apply to you?

I find this City greatly increas’d in Building, and they say it is so in Numbers of Inhabitants. But to me the Streets seem thinner of People, owing perhaps to my being so long accustom’d to the bustling crowded Streets of London.

The Expence of Living is greatly advanc’d in my Absence; it is more than double in most Articles; and in some ’tis treble. This is by some ascrib’d to the scarcity of Labourers and thence the Dearness of Labour; but I think the [Dearness] of Labour, as well as of other Things the Labour of which was long since perform’d, or in which Labour is not concern’d; such as Rent of old Houses, and Value of Lands, which are trebled in the last Six Years, is in great measure owing to the enormous Plenty of Money among us. The Crown, I am inform’d, has paid £800,000 Sterling in this Province only, for Provisions Carriages, and other Necessaries in the Service. Beside which, the Province has struck £5 or 600,000 great part of which is still current; and in New Jersey and New York, they have had proportionable Quantities. This is such an over Proportion of Money to the Demand for a Medium of Trade in these Countries, that it seems from Plenty to have lost much of its Value. Our Tradesmen are grown as idle, and as extravagant in their Demands when you would prevail on them to work, as so many Spaniards. But what with burning our Paper yearly, and paying our Debts to England with our Silver, we shall, ’tis to be hop’d, soon reduce the Quantity, and come again to our Senses. And this leads me to an Observation, that your Commerce is now become so profitable, and naturally brings so much Gold and Silver into your Island, that if you had not now and then some expensive foreign War, to draw it off, your Country would, like ours, have a Plethora in its Veins, productive of the same Sloth, and the same feverish Extravagance.

Our Assembly met lately, but have yet appointed no Agent: They will I believe do it at their next Sitting, which is to be in three Weeks from this Time. On settling my Accounts and considering my Services, they found themselves indebted to me £2214 10s. 7d. Sterling, which they order’d to be immediately paid me; together with the Thanks of the House by the Speaker for my Services. This I mention to you, because I hear that Mr. T. Penn has insinuated to Mr. Collinson that I had embezzled the Publick Money, and made use of it in my private Affairs in England; and possibly the same may have been intimated to you and others of my Friends.

I enclose an Estimation of the Numbers of Indians inhabiting near our present advanc’d Posts. It was made by a Person lately sent to visit those Posts. He call’d the chief Men of each Nation together, assur’d them of the Good will of the English, and that they should be well supply’d with Goods for their Peltry; but bringing no Presents for them, they were disappointed and generally disgusted. I think he was sent per Order of General Amherst, who perhaps has no Allowance for such Presents, or judges them now unnecessary; but in my Opinion, we should let the Indians feel as little as possible, the Superiority we have acquir’d, and should treat them with as much Consideration, for some time at least, as we did while the French Power in America subsisted: And as they never negotiate among themselves, or call any Meeting of another Nation or Tribe, without Presents, they ought not to have been omitted on this Occasion by us. The Indians think us so wealthy, and that we have such Plenty of every thing valuable to them, that if we omit so essential and so establish’d a Ceremony, it cannot be through Want, it must proceed from Contempt. I hope however, that this Mistake of ours, if it was one, will soon be rectified.

There are now some considerable little Towns on the Line of Communication between this Place and Fort Pitt; and the Town, under that Fort, has, they say, at least 200 Log Houses. There is a Brewery, would you think it, near the Town, that lets for £100 a Year. Smiths, Carpenters, Taylors, Shoemakers, and most other common Trades are in the Town; and the Inhabitants, on some mistaken Intelligence of a Design among the Indians to attack the Place, form’d two good Companies of Militia. Their Fuel is chiefly Stone Coal, brought from just across the Monongahela, and sold in the Town at two pence a Bushel. I cannot call it Pittcoal, because it is not dug out of Pits, but broke off the Cliff into Boats in the River; the Vein 3 feet thick. The Government, civil as well as military, is in the commanding Officer, Col. Bouquet, whose Will is the Law; and as he is a very good Man it is a very good Government. The People have Balls for Dancing, and Assemblies for Religious Worship, but as they cannot yet afford to maintain both a Clergyman and a Dancing-master, the Dancingmaster reads Prayers and one of Tristram Shandy’s Sermons every Sunday. A considerable Indian Trade is now carried on there, by the Publick Store of this Province, by Sir William Johnson’s Agent (who claims I know not on what Foundation, some Right of governing the Indian Trade) and by private Traders, some of whom take Licences of Sir William’s Agent. The Province has likewise a Trading House at Fort Augusta on Susquehanah.

I am glad on many Accounts to hear you have at length got into Parliament. I hope much Good to America from your Influence there.

I wish you sincerely every kind of Happiness, and among the rest that of a good Wife when you chuse it; being as ever, with perfect Esteem, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant