upon the defence of that country, that this is a pretty bold stroke of the gentlemen. It is suspected some of our Virginia gentlemen are privately concerned in it.

I have always expected that the new-fangled doctrine lately broached, of the Crown having no title beyond the Alleghany Mountains until after the purchase at Fort Stanwix, would produce a thousand other absurdities and squabbles. However, if I am not mistaken, the Crown, at that Treaty, purchased of the Six Nations all the Lands as low as the Tennessee River. So now, I suppose, we must have a formal trial, whether the Six Nations or the Cherokees had the legal right; but whether this is to be done by Ejectment, Writ of Inquiry, Writ of Partition, or What other process, let those who invented this curious distinction determine. The inattention of our Assembly to so grand an object as the right of this Colony to the Western Lands, is inexcusable, and the confusion it will introduce endless.

We make but a poor hand of collecting; very few pay, though every body promises, except Mr. Hartshorn, of Alexandria, who flatly refused; his conscience, I suppose, would not suffer him to be concerned in paying for the instruments of death. Your affectionate humble servant,

G. MASON.

George Washington, Esquire.

Boston, (Monday,) March 13, 1755.

Last Thursday morning, the 9th instant, a countryman was tarred and feathered, and carried through some of the streets of this Town by a party of Soldiers, attended By some Officers.

The following is the man’s own Deposition relative to that affair, sworn to before a Magistrate, upon which we shall make no remarks, but leave the publick to judge of the conduct of some of those who are said to have been sent among us to preserve peace and good order, and to prevent mobs, tumults, and other unlawful assemblies.

Deposition of THOMAS DITSON.

I, Thomas Ditson, Jun., of Billerica, husbandman, testify and declare, that while walking in Fore-street, on the 8th of March, in the forenoon, I inquired of some townsmen, who had any guns to sell? One, whom I did not know, replied he had a very fine gun to sell. The man appeared to be a Soldier, and I went with him to a house where one was, whom the Soldier called Sergeant, and seeing some old clothes about the house, I asked whether they sold such things. The Sergeant replied that they did frequently. I then asked his price for an old red coat, ript to pieces. He asked Three Shillings and Six Pence Sterling; but I refused to give it. Then one McClenchy, the Soldier I met with at first in the street, said he had some old clothes to sell, and sent his wife out after them to a man he called Sergeant, and she soon brought an old jacket and an old coat. I then asked him if he had any right to sell them, and the Sergeant said that they frequently sold them, and he would give me writing if I desired it; but said there was no occasion. I then bought the said coat and jacket, and gave Two Pistareens, and then put the clothes in a bag, which I left behind. After which I went to McClenchy’s to see his gun, which he said was a very fine piece. I asked him if he had any right to sell it. He replied he had, and that the gun was his to dispose of at any time. I then asked whether the sentry would not take it from me at the Ferry, as I had heard that some persons had had their guns taken from them, but never thought there was any law against trading with a soldier. He then told me he had stood sentry, and that they frequently let them pass. He then asked me what I would give for the gun. I told him I would give Four Dollars, if there was no risk in carrying it over the Ferry. He said there was not, and that I might rely on his word. I then agreed to give Four Dollars for his gun, but did not take it nor pay the money. Coming away, he followed me down stairs, and said there was a Sergeant that had an old rusty piece he would sell cheap. I asked him his price. He said he would sell it for One Dollar and a Half, if I would pay the money down; and he urged me to take it. I then agreed to give him said sum. His wife, as he called her, then came down, and said, McClenchy, what are you going to do to bring that man into a scrape. I then told them that if there was any difficulty to give me my money again; but he refused, and replied his wife made an oration about nothing, and that he had a right to sell his gun to any body. I was afraid from her speaking, that there was something not right in it, and left the gun; and coming away, he followed me, and urged the guns upon me. I told him I had rather not take them, for fear of what his wife said. He then declared there was no danger, for he had spoken to the Officer or sentry, who said he had a right to dispose of them, and urged me to pay the Four Dollars I had offered for the gun; which I then refused, and desired I might have the One and Half Dollar back which I had paid him for the gun. He refused, saying there was no danger, and damned me for a fool. I then paid him the Four Dollars for the good gun, but did not receive any one of them. After I had paid the money, he then said, take care of yourself; and the first thing I saw was some men coming up. I then stept off to go after my great coat, but they followed and seized me, and carried me to the Guard-house upon Foster’s Wharf. This was about six or seven o’clock in the evening. When I came into the Guard-house they read me a law which I never before saw nor heard of. I was detained there till about seven in the morning, when I expected I should have been obliged to pay the Five Pounds mentioned in the law read to me, and hired a Regular to carry a letter to some friends over the Ferry, which was to desire them to come to me as quick as possible, with money to pay my fine. Soon after the Sergeant came in and ordered me to strip. I then asked him what he was going to do with me. He said, damn you I am going to serve you as you have served our men; then came in a Soldier with a bucket of tar and a pillow of feathers. I was then made to strip, which I did to my breeches; they then tarred and feathered me; and while they were doing it, an Officer who stood at the door said, tar and feather his breeches, which they accordingly did, and I was then tarred and feathered from head to foot, and had a paper read to me, which was then tied round my neck, but afterwards turned behind me, with the following words wrote upon it, to the best of my remembrance: “American Liberty, or Democracy exemplified in a villian who attempted to entice one of the Soldiers of His Majesty’s Forty-Seventh Regiment to desert, and take up Arms with Rebels against his King and Country.” I was then ordered to walk out and get into a chair fastened upon trucks, which I did, when a number of the King’s Soldiers, as I imagined about forty or fifty, armed with guns and fixed bayonets, surrounded the trucks, and they marched, with a number of Officers before them, one of whom I was told was the Colonel of the Forty-Seventh Regiment, who I have since heard was named Nesbit, together with a number of drums and fifes, from the Wharf up King-street, and down Fore-street, and then through the main street passing the Governour’s house, until they came to Liberty-tree; they then turned up Frog-lane, and made a halt, and a Sergeant, as I took him to be, said, get down. I then asked him which way I should go, and he said, where you please. Near the Governour’s house, the inhabitants pressed in upon the Soldiers; the latter appeared to me to be angry, and I was then afraid they would have fired, they being ordered to load their muskets, which they did.

THOMAS DITSON, Jun.

SUFFOLK, BOSTON, ss., March 9, 1775:

The above-named Thomas Ditson, Jun., personally appearing maketh solemn oath to the truth of the foregoing Deposition by him subscribed. Before

EDM. QUINCEY, Justice of the Peace.

TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS-BAY.

NO. V.

Boston, March 9, 1775.

MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: In our last we showed that the torrent of evidence, the run of history, a series of facts, the scheme of British policy, the principles of the English Constitution, and the prevailing sentiments of our predecessors, and the English Nation, all united in support of our claim. Perhaps there is no one fact in all historick existence of a similar nature, and the same antiquity, supported by such a variety of arguments and uniformity of evidence. Was it a truth, that by our Charter we were to be considered as a distinct State uniting