[Extract]
It will be needless for me to Write long Paragraphs of News not knowing how nor when this will be Conveyed; Newport, Bristol, &c. Receive Daily Insults from Naval Force, which has been Augmented within these few Days to fifteen sail; after they arrived they began soon to Demand Stock from the neighbo[u]ring Towns, at Bristol in Particular, and in Consequence of their not Satisfying a Demand for three or four Hundred Sheep, &c. the Town was fired upon from the Ships under the Command of Captain [James] Wallace, which were arrayed front of the Town, for two or three Hours; finally an Inhabitant, by hailing, had Admittance on Board, who, to stop their Infernal Cruelty, Promised and Delivered them forty S[h]eep; the Firing then Ceased; Three Geese only fell Victims to Wallace's Despotic Power with all his Thunder Bolts, Damaged but few Houses.
Two large Row Gallies have within these few Days been launched in this Town, one Seventy odd, and the other 80 odd Keel, carrying between Thirty and Forty Oars each. It is hoped the plans these kind of Vessels are made to execute will be gloriously succeeded, as the Enemy by Water have it in their Power to do us far greater Mischief than those by Land at present. . . .
Providence, Oct 15th 1775.
