In secret Committee at Baltimore, 22nd Feb. 1777.
Sirs
Enclosed is an order for one bbl. of Powder for the Brig. Friendship which you will please to deliver immediately to Mr. Fitzsimons that he may apply to the Commissary for the same as the Brig only waits for the powder in order to sail.
You'l please to observe that it is the resolve of the Committee that this Brig take no more than four 4 pounders 4 swivills & 6 muskets, the remainder to be left in your custody till called for by the Committee. You'l take the Captain or owner's receipt for these warlike stores delivered him.
Richard Henry Lee
Wm. Whipple
Francis Lewis
MS not found; reprinted from George C. Thomas, ed., Autograph Letters and Autographs of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (Philadelphia: privately printed, 1908), no pagination.