Srー

Being well inform'd that four Regiments containing near three Thousand effective Men were sailed, in Transports for this City, we took the Liberty to request the Assistance of those brave Sons of Freedom who are under your Command. We are this Instant farther informed that the Mercury, Ship of War, was cruising upon our Coast, & is now at Sandy Hook, to order those Transports to Boston immediately & did on Tuesday last [June 13], thirty Leagues to the South East of the Hook deliver her Orders to the old Sp[r]y, Man of War, now a Transport with Part of the Forty fourth Regiment on Board, which immediately alter'd her Course  From hence we conclude that a very capital Stroke is meditated against our Brethren of the Massachusetts' Bay ー you best can determine Sir whether it is proper on this Occasion for the Forces under your Command to march Westward; but we are led to believe that it is of more important Consequence to secure the several Passes with which Nature hath bounteously fortified the eastern Country, that if some unexpected Chance of War should prove fatal to us in the first Contest, the Enemy may by such Means receive a Check in his Career of Vengeance  We beg you to transmit this Intelligence to the provincial Camp with the utmost Dispatch  We are Sr [&c.]

(By Order of the Provl Congress)