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The two additional wings of the Barracks on Cantonment Hill will be finished in about a fortnight from this time, and they are of a similar character to the buildings I have alluded to. These Regimental buildings have been found to labor more than it was at first expected, which accounts for their not having been finished by this time as I anticipated. I have directed a Magazine to be built near this Barrack, its having been kept in the most alarming state of anxiety by a circumstance which still requires some explanation. Sometime ago the Land Officer informed me that when sent on shore a large quantity of powder was landed to my amazement. This quantity proved to be one hundred and ninety casks. I understood it was thirty casks. As the order in the first instance was entirely a temporary expression of my anxiety in hopes that this powder would be removed every day.
At length Lieut. Col. Montgomerie brought the subject before Major General Bell by whose directions this powder was sent on shore, and the Major General then, and not till then, brought the subject to my attention, at the same time expressing a desire that a Magazine might be built for its safe protection. That having been proposed, of course I consented and was asked by the Brigade Major to allow fifty rounds of musket ammunition in measure to be put on shore in a temporary shed in which the Ordnance to this Island is kept. He assented, but to his arrangement the necessary directions; but this building cannot be finished for sometime yet, and in the meanwhile a large quantity of powder is stored in a straw that, close to a very large quantity of other most valuable property, both of public and private nature liable to be exploded by...