[Boston] 3d October.
This morning two bomb Ketches and several armed vessels with some soldiers sailed on a secret expedition,2 it is said to demand a Ship belonging to Portsmouth, retaken by our whale boats, and carried into Cape Ann3 ー also to demand of that towm 40 seamen which they took from the man of war4 ー if not delivered in 24 hours to bombard the town.
1. "Newell's Journal," Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series, I,. 268.
2. A squadron under Lieutenant Henry Mowat, which later destroyed Falmouth.
3. Newell refers to the Unity, taken in September by Captain Nicholson Broughton in the Hannah.
4. Taken when the boats of H.M. Sloop Falcon attempted to cut out a schooner from Gloucester harbor.
