upon us, have thought it our duty to write you the following Letter:

Brothers, the great wickedness of such as should be our friends, but are our enemies, (we mean the Ministry of Great Britain,) have laid deep plots to take away our liberty and your liberty. They want to get all our money; make us pay it to them when they never earned it; to make you and us their servants, and let us have nothing to eat, drink, or wear, but what they say we shall, and prevent us from having guns and powder to use and kill our deer and wolves, and other game, or to send to you for you to kill your game with, and to get skins and furs to trade with us for what you want. But we hope soon to be able to supply you with both guns and powder of our own making.

We have petitioned to England for you and us, and told them plainly we want nothing but our own, and don’t want to hurt them; but they won’t hear us, and have great ships and their men with guns to make us give up, and kill us, and have killed some of our men; but we have drove them back and beat them, and killed a great many of their men. The Englishmen of all the Colonies, from Nova-Scotia to Georgia, have firmly resolved to stand together and oppose them. Our liberty and your liberty is the same. We are brothers, and what is for our good is for your good; and we, by standing together, shall make those wicked men afraid, and overcome them, and all be freemen. Captain Goldthwait has given up Fort Pownall to our enemies. We are angry at it, and we hear you are angry with him, and we don’t wonder at it. We want to know what you, our good brothers, want from us of clothing or warlike stores, and we will supply you as fast as we can. We will do all for you we can, and fight to save you any time, and hope none of your men, or the Indians in Canada, will join with our enemies. You may have a great deal of good influence on them. Our good brothers, the Indians at Stockbridge, all join with us, and some of their men have enlisted as soldiers, and we have given them that enlisted each one a blanket and a ribbon, and they will be paid when they are from home in the service, and if any of you are willing to enlist we will do the same for you. We have sent Captain John Lane to you for that purpose, and he will show you his orders for raising one Company of your men to join with us in the war with your and our enemies.

Brothers, we humbly beseech that God, who lives above, and who does what is right here below, to be your friend, and bless you, and to prevent the designs of those wicked men from hurting you or us.

Brothers, if you let Mr. John Preble know what things you want, he will take care to inform us, and we will do the best for you that we can.

TOWN-MEETING, PORTSMOUTH, NEW-HAMPSHIRE.

Extracts of sundry Votes passed at a Town-Meeting held at the North Meeting-House in Portsmouth, May 15, 1775:

Voted, That the Town will aid and assist the Committee that is or shall be chosen in behalf of this Town, to preserve the peace and order of it, whenever the Committee shall judge occasion may require.

And that this Committee be fully empowered to inquire touching any obnoxious persons who may flee to this Town for an asylum, and that they shall judge whether it is expedient for any such refugees to reside here or depart from it; and any inhabitant of this Town who shall be obnoxious, shall be only accountable to the Committee for their conduct.

Voted, That no other persons but the Committee shall concern with any such refugees; but if any person shall know of any such obnoxious persons coming into Town, the earliest notice thereof should be given the Committee.

Voted, That the Committee be empowered to call before them, and upon proper evidence to pass censure upon, any inhabitants of this Town who shall dare to transgress any of the preceding votes, or in any manner to disturb the peace of the Town.

Voted, That it is recommended to the inhabitants of this Town to refrain from purchasing any Lamb that shall be killed before the first day of August next, and that they kill no Lambs before that time.

Voted, That the Town recommend the use of fresh Fish to the inhabitants, twice a week at least.

COMMITTEE AND SELECTMEN OF MARLOW TO THE PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.

Marlow, N. H., May 15, 1775.

We received your letter inviting us to send a Deputy in our behalf to represent us at a Congress at Exeter, on the 17th instant, to consult on the affairs of this Government, and adopt such plan as may be most expedient to preserve the rights and privileges of this and the other Colonies. After notice, we met and considered the matters, and our own circumstances, and our poverty is such that at present we are not able to support a Deputy at said Congress. But being well-wishers to the continuance of our rights and privileges, both civil and sacred, we have chosen us a Committee of Correspondence with the other Committees of the other Towns in said Province, and we do hereby acquaint you of our free and voluntary will and resolution, with the hazard of our lives and interests to assist in the defence of the same with our neighbouring Colonies; and we do hereby commit and entrust the consulting of the measures to be proceeded in to your wise and prudent conduct, under God, considering him as the alone Governour of men under him; and we hope and trust that God will give wisdom and understanding and strength according to the troubles and trials of the day in which we now live; and in all things we mean to pay our portion according to our ability, hoping that God will help us so to do.

Com. of Correspondence and Selectmen of MARLOW.

To the Provincial Committee to be held at Exeter, in the Province of New-Hampshire.

P. S. We should be glad to be favoured with what measures are concerted by the said Congress.

TOWN OF ALSTEAD TO THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE CONGRESS.

Alstead, N. H., May 15, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: We received a letter from the former Convention requesting us to assist by sending a man to represent us. We should gladly have embraced the privilege were we in a capacity; but our ability is such that we look upon ourselves as not able to maintain a man to sit in Congress, but have proceeded so far in town-meeting, duly warned, to choose a Committee to correspond with our sister Towns, and to draw a letter to forward our doings, joining with the Town of Marlow in this procedure, which are as follows, viz:

Made choice of Nathaniel Sartell Prentiss, Oliver Shepherd, and Simon Brooks, as a Committee of Correspondence, and voted to abide by the proceedings of a Convention at the risk of our all, trusting in their wisdom and sagacity (under God) that their endeavours and proceedings will happily extricate us out of the alarming evil that we either feel or fear; which will be the constant prayer and wish of your friends and brethren in one common cause, the inhabitants of Alstead.

By a vote of the Town chose Mr. Oliver Shepherd to forward these our proceedings immediately, and make return. In behalf of the Committee:

NATHANIEL PRENTISS, Town Clerk.

To the Honourable the Delegates from the several Towns in this Province now sitting at Exeter, New-Hampshire.

AUGUSTA COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

At a meeting of the inhabitants of that part of Augusta County that lies on the west side of the Laurel Hill, at Pittsburgh, the 16th day of May, 1775, the following gentlemen were chosen a Committee for the said District, viz: George Croghan, John Campbell, Edward Ward, Thomas Smallman, John Cannon, John McCullaugh, William Gee, George Valandingham, John Gibson, Dorsey Penticost, Edward Cook, William Crawford, Devereux Smith, John Anderson, David Rodgers, Jacob Vanmetre,