In Committee of Safety Ex[ete]r Octr 16th 1775
Sr If the enclosed meet you on the Road to the place of your duty where you have for some hours been waited for, you will determine whether your presence may be of Most Importance here or at Portsmouth & will conduct according the Committee are of opinion that it is best to forward as much of the Flour as your Exigencies will admit of ー & if a less quantity is detained than was proposed it will but be a proper return for his the Genls Politeness & Consession2 therefore if you lessen the Quantity to be stopped by fifty bbls they will not contend with you ー
In behalf of the Committee I have the honour to be [&c.]
The Writer
1. Langdon Papers, Captain J. G. M. Stone Private Collection, Annapolis.
2. The ship Prince George, with 1892 barrels of flour, had strayed into Portsmouth harbor on October 2, and Washington had ordered the cargo brought to Cambridge. Upon the intercession of the Portsmouth Committee, he had permitted one hundred barrels to be withheld for the population of that town.
