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Micajah Perry & Comp.

Shirley Aug. 20th 1737

Gentlemen

As you will undoubtedly be writ to by your Correspondents on this Occasion, I would not be silent, especially having consigned you a large quantity of Page Tobacco this year. The Drouth here has
been General and so Excessive that it has quire knock'd o' the Head all the hopes we had of a Plentifull Crop both of Corn and Tobacco. There is a General fear of wanting Bread to eat & food for our Negroes & stocks. The case of the tob. is indeed a little better, yet that is wretched; no weather that can come in the ordinary Course of seasons, can now bring the latter Tobacco, which makes a very large part of what was Planted, to be good for any thing, and that which is more forward suffers not a little. Maryland, it is said is in as bad a condition as we are. I think it is most certain, that there will be vastly less tobacco to be exported next year than I have known since I came to Virginia. Nothing has happened like it since the year 1714, and some say the present case is worse than that was. From this and (crossed out) the advice you will receive from others, you will be able to determine whether or not it will be worth while to keep back the sale of any of the Tob. [Tobacco] I have sent you till next year if any of it should be unsold when this gits to [illegible]. I leave this to your judm (judgment) and am.

Gentlemen

Your most Humble Serv.