As your Excellency can have no reason to doubt the truth of the foregoing representation of our distressed circumstances, we rest assured the benevolence of your disposition will cause them to be duly attended to.

That your Excellency's success may be equal to the importance of the trust reposed in you, and your future Fame in the annals of America equal to both, is the ardent and unalterable wish of your Excellency's faithful servant,

JOSIAH QUINCY.

COLONEL HUNTINGTON TO GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL.

Roxbury Camp, February 19, 1776.

HONOURED SIR: If a fair occasion should present itself, in the course of your correspondence with our worthy Commander-in-chief, and you should think proper to mention Major Chester as a fit person to fill any suitable place that may be vacant in the rmy, I think it will serve our cause, and oblige the General, who is very desirous that persons of character and military spirit should be nominated for officers. Many of a very different spirit have, by some means or other, got into the Army.

The sickness which, for three weeks past, has much prevailed in our camp, and been very mortal, is now abating. Every now and then, some one breaks out with the smallpox, but this has not been mortal.

Three of our sentries, who were taken by the enemy, in their late excursion to Dorchester-Point, were brought out by a flag of truce, and delivered up to us, this day. The others who were made prisoners at the same time, the officers on the lines say, do not choose to come out; but why they have permitted any to return to us, is a matter of speculation.

A vessel, from the west-Indies to this Continent, has been lately cast away on Cape-Cod; cargo and people saved. Among them is a gentleman, who says he is a Prussian officer, and is lately from France; appears to be well acquainted with the history of our times; says the French papers are full of the American affairs, and that every success of ours gives them joy.

The bearer, whom I should have mentioned in the beginning of my letter, is Mr. Hooper, of North-Carolina, one of the Delegates of Congress, an old and particular acquaintance of brother Jonathan's.

JEDEDIAH HUNTINGTON.

To Governour Trumhull.

SALEM COMMITTEE TO MASSACHUSETTS COUNCIL.

Committee of Safety and Correspondence,

Salem, February 19, 1776.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOURS: The Committee of Safely and Correspondence of this town beg leave to represent to your Honours, that about the 24th day of January last, the sloop Rainbow, Lemuel Perkins, master, loaded with wood, was taken by one of our privateers, commanded by Captain Tucker, upon a suspicion that she was bound to Boston, and carried into Cape-Ann. Upon her arrival there, the master produced a certificate in his favour from the Committee of Safety of Newcastle, upon which, and his solemn declaration that he was bound for Salem, he and his vessel were released and suffered to proceed on his voyage. That soon after his departure from Cape-Ann, he was taken, as he says, by a British man-of-war and carried into Boston, where his cargo of wood was sold, which done, he was proceeding with his vessel to the Eastern-Shore, but, meeting with contrary winds, he put into this harbour, and came to anchor under cover of the guns of the Fort.

Upon the Committee having information thereof, they apprehended it to be their duty to make inquiry into the affair, in the course of which they found Captain Perkins's conduct to have been attended with such circumstances as to make them think it necessary to detain his vessel, and to send him to the Committee of the honourable Board, to be proceeded with as they shall in their wisdom think proper.

The Committee have, likewise, directed Captain Benjamin Ward to wait upon your Honours, who is one of their members, and who is fully acquainted with all the circumstances relative to this matter that have come to the knowledge of this Committee. To him, therefore, the Committee beg leave to refer your Honours for a more particular account of this affair.

By order of the Committee:

JOHN PICKERING, JUN., Chairman pro tem.

To the Honourable the Committee of Council.

At a meeting of the Committee, &c., it appeared that the sloop Mermaid, commanded by Lemuel Perkins, sailedfrom Damascotta on the ——day of January last, havinga certificate from the Committee at that place, which expressed his being bound to Newburyport or Salem; thathis lading consisted of about forty-five cords of wood, aboutten bushels of potatoes, two bushels of turnips, and a quantity of spruce for beer; he had on board, also, a piece ofvenison, a quarter of veal, and a goose. That in his passage from Damascotta he touched at Falmouth; that onthe 29th January, in the morning, he was seen by one ofour privateers, about half-way from Cape-Ann to Bostonlight-house, and nearly in that direction, the wind beingnorth, or nearly so; that the privateer put hands on boardhis sloop, and sent her to Cape-Ann; that Perkins wasexamined by one of the Committee of that place, and supposed to be bound to Salem, and it does not appear thatany person there thought to the contrary at that time; thathe tarried at Cape-Ann ——days, waiting for a wind suitable to carry him to Salem; that on ——instant, in the evening, a vessel bound to Salem, Benjamin Gale, commander, sailed from Cape-Ann for Salem, and that before he sailed he told Captain Perkins he would go through the most northern passage, with which he (Gale) was acquainted; that Perkins might follow him, and by these means avoid the man-of-war which lay off Marblehead; that Captain Perkins left Cape-Ann about half an hour after Captain Gale, the wind being then about northwest by north; that Captain Gale, after having sailed about one ——of his distance, found the wind to head him, put about and returned to Cape-Ann; that he (Gale) spoke with Perkins, and told him the wind was too much ahead to proceed: (Perkins says he could not understand what Gale said;) that Gale went back to Cape-Ann, and that Perkins kept on westward, and his vessel was next morning seen by or near the man-of-war off Marblehead, and soon after to proceed to Boston; that on Saturday last said vessel came into this harbour and there anchored, after having stood as far to the eastward as Cape-Ann; that as the vessel passed the fort at the entrance of the harbour, she was hailed by the guards, and proper steps taken to prevent her going out again till examined; that soon after her being at anchor, she was boarded by a boat from this place and taken possession of; that this Committee have desired the commanding officer of the guards stationed here to take charge of said vessel, &c., which he has done; that the above boat was commanded by the Captain of a privateer, which is now at Cape-Ann.

The account said Perkins and his men (being three in all) give of their going to Boston, is as follows:

That on their passage from Cape-Ann to Salem, they were boarded by a boat from the aforesaid man-of-war and carried to her, and that the next day an officer and five hands were put on board, who carried them to Boston; that their wood, &c., was taken out of their vessel and disposed of by the man-of-war's men; and the master, Perkins, says, that on his promising to go to the eastward and get a load of wood, and to bring the same to Boston, his vessel was given him, and three dollars a cord for his wood, to enable him to procure another load, and a promise to, Perkins that he should have the whole of what that load should sell for; that passes from General Howe and Admiral Shuldham were given him, to enable him to pass the ships-of-war; that he left Boston thereupon, and arrived in this harbour, as is before-mentioned.

DANIEL GOULD.

When Tucker chased Perkins he was standing for Boston. When he brought him to, he said he was bound to Plymouth; then said he was thinking about putting about for Salem.

By MOLYNEUX SHULDHAM, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the White, and Commander-in-chief of His Majesty's Ships