[Extract]
Gentlemen /

Congress are very anxious, that some immediate Steps should be taken by our State, not only as to the person of Captain [William] Patterson, but as to the Payment of the Engagement entered into by the Continental and your Agent. — Capt patterson is viewed as a pirate, and after Examination, if the facts should appear to You to be well founded, it may be well to consider, if it would not be proper to send him to Martini.co for Trial there, by the Law of Nations.² If our State shall pay the Value of the Vessel & Goods seised by Patterson, would it not be proper to inform the Governor of Martinique that the whole would have been returned, but for the Risque? — If no Remittance can be made but by produce, it will be an equal Risque to send back the Vessel. — could not Mr [Robert] Morris pay the Money for our State? — an Opportunity of Writing will present itself in a few Days. would it not be proper for our State to write a Letter, disavowing the Conduct of Capt Patterson, and engaging Payment as soon as possible, & mentioning the Men of War in our Bay, which may delay the Remittance.

Mr Zachariah Campbell, in a Letter from Vienna, of 1st Inst — writes to his Brother Capt Campbell "That the Tories in Sussex, Som[erse]t & Wor[cester] Co[un]tys, have been assembling for some Days, they have 250 Men collected at parker's Mill, about 9 Miles from Salisbury, and 'tis reported they have three Field pieces which they received from the Roebuck, with some Men, with Intention to seise the Magazine, & destroy the property of the Whiggs. Colo [Joseph] Dashiell is now at Salisbury wth what Whiggs he could collect, about 130, & is to be reinforced on Monday, by eight Companies from this County," —

Captain [James] Nicholson's Tender brings Account, that there are three Men of War in the bay, one at the Tangiers, one at Smiths point, and one in the middle, & that it is reported some Men, with two Field pieces are landed from the Roebuck —

Congress has ordered Colo Wm Buchanans Battalion, which was ordd to Camp, to march with Colo [Mordecai] Gist — & some armed Vessells to prevent any Communication from the Ships, and to prevent their plundering —

If Advice Boats are not sent outside of the Capes, several of our Store Vessells may fall into the Hands of our Enemies.