Dublin Castle. 4th October 1775.
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My Lord, I have the honor of informing your Lordship That yesterday Morning Sir Jno Blagmire received a Letter dated at Cork the 29th past, from Robert Gordon Esqr Surveyor General of His Majesty's Customs & Excise at that Port, containing some Particulars of News from America; the following Extract of which Letter, from the Recency of the Accounts, may perhaps be agreeable to your Lordship.
I have this Moment seen a Captain of a Vessel from North Carolina in twenty one Days to Cork; he came in yesterday, & reports that he saw Fort Johns[t]on burned by the Rebels; That when they began to rise there was an Officer and twenty Men of The King's Troops in the Fort, who with the Governor went on board the Man of War for Safety; That the Day before he sailed, a Messenger had arrived from the back-Settlers to acquaint the People on the Coast that They (the back-Inhabitants) would not submit to any Stoppage of their Trade, and that if their Ships were not suffered to proceed with the Produce of the Country, they would come down & bum all the Houses on the Coast, and put the People to the Sword : That they could not live except they had a free-Trade & would not obey any Orders to the contrary. He further reports that the back-Settlers had stopped all Kinds of Provisions from coming down the Country for the Supply of the People on the Coast, which had prevented Them from assembling in a Body to exercise & train themselves as they had orders to do: I enquired if those backSettlers had any Disposition to the King's Service, he said not, but that they wished not to be under the Restrictions of their Trade, and were a People impatient of Rule as the others.