copy of the official notice that William and Mary had prepared for Andros. The transmission of this document had been delayed at the behest of Massachusetts agents in London. It specifically retained all non-Catholic officeholders until further notice, and technically legitimized the rule of the council in Nicholson's absence. In accordance with this document, van Cortlandt fired the customs collector, who was Catholic, and replaced him with Bayard and others to oversee customs activities. Leisler objected to this assertion of power and descended on the customs house with a troop of militia. Accounts left by both sides of the dispute state that there was a near riot, and Bayard claimed to barely escape being killed by a mob. Bayard then fled to Albany, followed by van Cortlandt a few days later. Philipse withdrew from political life, leaving Leisler in effective control of the city. On June 26, a convention composed of delegates from a number of communities from lower New York and East Jersey established a committee of safety to oversee affairs. This committee essentially became the nucleus of Leisler's later government. They chose Leisler to be the province's commander-in-chief "till orders shall come from their Majesties." Through July and August, his hand-picked militia exercised de facto control over the city, financed by provincial funds which Nicholson had deposited in the fort. He was assisted by sympathetic officials from Connecticut who sent a troop of militia to assist in holding the fort. Nicholson's company of regulars was formally disbanded on August 1, about the same time that formal word arrived that France and England were at war. Leisler dispatched Jost Stoll and Matthew Clarkson to England on August 15 to bolster his position with the government in London. They carried documents intended to support accusations that Nicholson had been conspiring against the people of New York and to justify the propriety of Leisler's actions against his "oppressive" rule. The agents were instructed to request a new charter for the province and to claim that the united colonies could defeat New France without assistance from the home country. He made no specific requests that the new charter include any sort of democratic representation. An election ordered Leisler's committee of safety formally to turn van Cortlandt out of office in October, consolidating Leisler's command over New York except the Albany area. According to Bayard, the turnout in New York City was extremely