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[Page 4]
& Licentiousness. I have however informed His Grace, that now being intend upon my duty no difficulty whatever shall arrest my progress, or relax my endeavours to recover this Colony, (which I must declare to be at this time, a mere Sink of any Species of infamy), to some kind of Order & discipline. You will Naturally Ask, What has occasiond its being so much Worse now in this respect than it was formerly? I must answer in truth, a Spirit for traffic has been encouragd since G Phillip left the Country, and that traffic has absorbed the whole attention of those concernd, so that the Public duty is only a secondary Consideration. And this trade is of the most ominous & destructive kind, Spiritous Liquors have been Chief Article & from which much Mischiefs have arisen. Speculators from the East Indies have been here, and who knowing how Voluble an Article Spirit was, have not faild to bring considerable quantitys, had this been discourag'd at first as it ought to have been, it woud have been less frequent Since, but it was purchasd generally by the Officers, & sold to Settlers for the produce of their Farms, & to the Complete ruin of many of them. Of this destructive article of trade, I refusd permission for Landing more than the Officers might require for their own of familys use, and have always put a Guard on board to prevent Smuggling it on shore, But what can you expect from a Soldier who when he ought to look to the Right, shall feel it his intrest to look to the Left, in short Sir the Governor has so little assistance, that if he professed the Eyes of Argus in his own person, he coud not prevent this Smuggling