[Philadelphia] 5th September 1775
[Extract]
Sir Since my last 10th. Ultimo, a large Schooner with Arms, and military stores is taken by a man of war in the river delaware, with which she has proceeded to Boston:2 a Small Vessel with Ten ton's of gunpouder came up the river the night before the schooner was taken whether it was part of her cargo or not I cannot say, but I am told the pouder is marked with the French kings mark:3 this confirms me in the Certainty of what I wrote in my letter 10th. Ultimo, and should the unhappy differences continue, a watchful eye must be keept on the Ports of that Perfidious Nation, who's professions of friendship cannot be depended on, nor are the dutch, or hardly any other Nation, when intrest prompts their Subjects to adventure.
1. Sir Henry Barkly Papers, Collection of Mrs. Mona Macmillan of Long Whittenham, Berkshire, England; printed in Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography, LXXXV, 17, 18.
2. The schooner Tryal, James Warden, master, taken by H.M. Sloop Nautilus. See Graves's Conduct, Prize List, II, 36-38, BM.
3. The small vessel was probably the one described by James Biddle, in the draft of a memorial he prepared in memory of his brother Nicholas. It reads "Mr. Biddle was applied to for the purpose [to secure powder] and dispatch'd with a pilot boat to Hispaniola which he procured a Cargo of powder with which he return'd in a very short time. Soon after he was appointed to the Command of the Franklin Galley then just built." Nicholas Biddle Papers, HSP.
