that the Canadians, almost to a man, were praying for our people to come into their country, or they must be obliged, for their own safety, to join the King’s Troops, &c. He did not see more than six or seven Indians at St. John’s. Nothing of importance has lately occurred at our camps near Boston.

I am, &c.,

J. TRUMBULL.

To Major-General Schuyler.

Newport, Rhode-Island, July 20, 1775.

On Monday night, the seventeenth of July, two men belonging to the Swan, Captain Ayscough, being on shore, saw fit to attempt an escape from their old and detested habitation; their design, by the bye, was communicated to no individual of the Town. The next day, viz. the eighteenth, A. M., two or three of the ferry-boats which pass between Newport and Connecticut, were fired upon and brought to, an event so singular that two respectable members of the Committee waited upon Captain Ayscough to know the reason. He told them that two of his men, the night before, were sent on shore upon some errand and had not returned; added that he was confident the inhabitants knew where they were, and that they were detained by them purposely. The two gentlemen declared themselves ignorant of the matter, and believed the whole Town to be; however, to pacify Captain Ayscough, they assured him that they would summon the Committee together, inquire into the affair, &c., withal, desiring Captain Ayscough to write a letter to the Committee, stating his grievance; this he did, and they promised to wait on him with an answer in the afternoon. As the Captain’s letter was rather in the threatening style, the Committee, could not help inquiring what he meant thereby, and assured him in their reply, that they were not to be intimidated, and did not think themselves, by any means, accountable for the desertion of any of his men. Captain Ayscough read the letter with considerable composure, folded it up, and then gave it to Wallace, Captain of the Rose, Ayscough at this time being on board Wallace’s ship. Captain Wallace immediately flew into a most terrible passion, threw the letter down in a violent fit of rage, damned the Committee, the Congress, &c., swore at Ayscough for writing to such a damned parcel of rebels, and declared that if he knew the two gentlemen, who were then present, to be of the Committee, they never should go ashore again. They endeavoured to pacify him, but in vain; he swore repeatedly, that if there was a God in Heaven, the Town should be destroyed before morning; that he was a King’s officer and would not be insulted, &c. Hereupon the two gentlemen left the ship. A signal gun was instantly discharged, and the three pirates in the harbour, and their tender, immediately weighed anchor and came close in with the Town; their tomkins were taken out, the marines on board beat up to arms, and all the hostile preparations imaginable going forward against a defenceless seaport, consisting (exclusive of the men) of not less than six thousand women and children. About half past nine in the evening, a cannon was discharged from the Rose, when many really thought the firing on the Town was begun. Between the hours of ten and eleven, the same night, a packet arrived from Providence with seven or eight passengers; she was stopt, and a place appointed for her to near the Swan. The passengers were seized, made to tell all their names, and confined as prisoners, repeatedly styled rebels, with the most horrid oaths annexed; a guard with drawn swords kept over them during the night; the late infamous Proclamation of a truce-breaking Gage, was hung close by them, which they were fearful they would be compelled to sign, or else abide the consequence therein denounced. It is worthy of observation, that during this period the three Captains were together on board the Rose, playing cards, drinking, carousing, &c. About one or two o’clock next morning, viz. Wednesday, one of the Swan’s men returned, and in order, it is supposed, to save himself from a flogging, as it was necessary for him to give some account of himself, he invented the following lie, and swore to it upon the holy evangelists, namely: “That the Rhode-Island rebels had taken him and his companion, and wanted that they should enlist among them to fight against the King, but that they refused; and because they did that, the rebels gagged them, and then carried them to Providence jail, but that he broke away, and travelled thirty miles to go on board again.” The Captains of the pirates either believed this gross and inconsistent falsehood, or fain would make the inhabitants think so; accordingly it was taken down in writing, sent on shore, and satisfaction demanded, or the Town should certainly be laid in ashes that very day. Another cannon was now discharged, four ferry-boats and two wood sloops seized, quantities of tar, and other inflammatory combustible matter put into the same, in order to set on fire, and send into the wharves, as a more expeditious way of destroying the Town than by cannon only; the cannon, at the same time, were to be fired on every part of the Town; the Court-House, Doctor Stiles’s Meeting-House, and the Printing Office, were first of all to feel the effects of this horrid plot. The most terrible parade was kept up by those low ministerial tools till near two o’clock, P. M., when two persons of undoubted veracity (farmers, within two or three miles of the Town,) went on board the Swan. One of these gentlemen assured the Captains of the three ships, that be saw the stragglers, for whose desertion such terrible confusion had ensued, in his corn-field on Tuesday morning, and described them; the other gentleman declared that he saw them on Tuesday afternoon, where he was making hay, and likewise described them, for they told these gentlemen how they had made their escape from the Swan, and were determined not to go back again. After fully proving that they knew the men, by pointing out the one who had returned, notwithstanding four others were first produced, in order to deceive them, they (viz. the two gentlemen,) came on shore, when all at once the boats and prisoners were dismissed, the ships weighed anchor, and stood up the river.

Let every honest American rise up in opposition to such inhuman, and, must we add, when speaking of Britons too, worse than savage cruelty. To prepare, after so hostile a manner, to destroy thousands of lives, and ruin vast estates, merely because two drunken wretches had fled from a ship under the command of a petty tyrant, is what will make a considerable figure in some future page, when our many trials are handed down to posterity by some able historian.

LANCASTER (MASSACHUSETTS) COMMITTEE.

Lancaster, Worcester County, July 17, 1775.

Whereas, Nahum Houghton being complained of as being an enemy to his Country, by officiating as an unwearied pedlar of that baneful herb, Tea, and otherwise rendering himself odious to the inhabitants of this Town; and notwithstanding being warned, he did not appear before the Committee that his political principles might be known: This, therefore, agreeable to a vote of said Town, is to caution all friends to the community to entirely shun his company, and have no manner of dealings or connections with him, except acts of common humanity.

JOHN PRESCOTT, Chairman.

NEW-HAMPSHIRE ASSEMBLY.

Friday, July 14, 1775.

The Deputy Secretary brought down a written Message from his Excellency, as follows, viz:

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Assembly:

I find by your votes of the 13th of last mon that you have taken upon you to exclude three returned members, called by the King’s writ, from sitting and voting in the House of Assembly, thereby depriving the electors of their privilege, and a whole County of any representation in the Legislature. You must be sensible that I cannot, consistent with my duty, pass by a measure so essentially infringing on His Majesty’s prerogative and the rights of the people; and I do, therefore, recommend to you to rescind the vote for excluding the said three members from the House, that they may be entirely free to take their seats without interruption, according to the constant usage heretofore practised.

J. WENTWORTH.

Fort William and Mary, New-Hampshire, July 14, 1775.

Voted, That Captain Langdon, Colonel Bartlett, Doctor Thompson, and Meshech Weare, Esq., be a Committee to prepare an answer to his Excellency’s Speech of this day.

The House adjourned to three o’clock, P. M.