My Lord,

Since I had the honor of representing to your Lordship the State of this Country in my Dispatch No 33 various circumstances have occurred of which I think it my duty to give your Lordshipe the best account my information enables me to lay before you.

On Tuesday the 23d of May a day when a set of People, calling themselves a Committee met at Newbern a motley mob, without any previous notice of their purpose, appeared coming towards my House. I did not see them until they were near my door, and supposing they were the committee of whose meeting I had heard, I directed my Secretary, if they announced themselves by that name to signify my resolution not to see them, he came to me however with a message from this body, importing that they were the Inhabitants of the Town of New Bern who were come to wait upon me, and requested to be admitted to speak to me, I directed them to be shown into an Apartment below stairs, and immediately went down to them. Mr Abner Nash, an Attorney, ard the oracle of the Committee appointed in that Town, whom I have before had occasion to mention to your Lordship, as a principal promoter of sedition here, came forward out of the crowd, and presenting himself before me said he had been chosen by the Inhabitants of Newbern then present to signify their purpose in waiting upon me, that it was in consequence of a general alarm, the People of the place had taken that morning at my dismounting some pieces of old cannon which lay behind my house, and which had occasionally been made use of on rejoicing days; that this circumstance had caused alarm, because the Governor of Virginia had lately deprived the People of that Colony of their Ammunition, and that the Inhabitants therefore requested, and hoped I would order the Guns to be remounted, and restored to the same order they had been in until that morning. Unprepared as I was My Lord, for such a visit, and filled with indignation at the absurdity and impertinence of the cause of it, assigned by Mr Nash, and satisfied also that it was a mere pretext for insulting me, I replied that the visit of the inhabitants of Newberne, and the motives of it I thought very extraordinary. That the Guns which I had dismounted belonged to the King, and that I was duly answerable to His Majesty for any disposition I made of them, but being at the same time inclined to quiet the minds of the Inhabitants of Newbern and to give them every reasonable satisfaction, I then declared to them that I had dismounted the Guns, and laid them on the ground because the carriages were entirely rotten and unserviceable and incapable of bearing the discharge of them on the King's birthday that was at hand, and for the celebration of which I was making the usual preparation of those Guns. Mr Nash said he was persuaded the Answer I had condescended to give would be very satisfactory to the Inhabitants of New Bern, and bowing retired with his mob. I must confess to your Lordship the reason I assigned for dismounting those guns, was really but one of my motives, and that I had another which I did not think fit to communicate upon that occasion. I had received for some weeks before repeated advices of a design concerting in the Committee of that Town, to seize those guns by force, and my principal object in throwing them off the carriages at the time I did it (although it was really necessary and intended for the other avowed purpose) was to make the removal of them more difficult in case of such an attempt, and to procure thereby more time to defend them, or at least to parley about them. A day or two after this studied insult a certain old soldier arrived at New Bern from New York, who having been instructed with the Execution of a Commission of importance in this Country, came to me and told me, after communicating his own business, and being assured of my best assistance, that he had learnt on Board the Kings Fisher Sloop of War at New York, that she had Arms and Ammunition on Board, intended to be sent to me by the first opportunity that offered, in consequence of an application I had made for such aids to General Gage, and that Lieutenant Governor [Cadwallader] Colden at New York who had received Dispatches from the General to me, which were supposed to refer to those Stores, and committed them to the Post, was under the greatest anxiety for their safety, having discovered that the Committees had proceeded in some places to the extravagance of violating Letters sent by that channel. Upon interrogating his intelligence about the manner in which it was designed to convey the Arms and Ammunition to me, which he mentioned, I found him altogether uncertain, whether they were to be sent by a Man of War, or a Merchant's Vessel, and that he encouraged apprehensions of the latter by observing it might happen from the mistaken opinion the People held in the Northern Provinces of the universal Loyalty and good disposition of the Inhabitants of this Colony. Thus My Lord I had to expect on the one hand, that my correspondence with General Gage, would be at once betrayed, and to fear at the same time that the expected Stores might come in a Merchant's Vessel to New Bern, where I had not a man to protect them, and that they must of consequence fall into the hands of the mob, which was continually watching every movement about my house, and by which possible accident all my good purposes would be defeated. On the other hand I was to apprehend either of those cases, would furnish reason for insult to me, and my family at least, and might probably become a pretext for seizing my person and detaining me, according to the design avowed in all the Colonies, continually of making themselves eventually Masters of the King's Servants, among them, and the more probable' too, as a most infamous report had lately been propagated among the People, that I had formed a design of Arming the Negroes, and proclaiming freedom to all such as should resort to the King's Standard. It was therefore immediately necessary to take some measures to prevent if possible the Military Stores falling into the hands of the Mob, and to obviate any ill consequences that might arise from the promulgation of my correspondence with General Gage. Accordingly I determined after revolving the matter a moment in my mind, to relieve myself from all embarrassments that the sufferings of my family might expose me to, by sending them instantly to New York, which would at the same time furnish me with a certain unsuspected opportunity of writing to prevent any hazard of the Arms and Ammunition if they were not already sent away; place Mrs Martin and my children in safety, and leave me at liberty to pursue such measures as occasion might call for. This purpose I executed immediately, writing to General Gage of my situation, and I set out almost at the same time for this place, where one of His Majesty's Sloops of War is stationed, intending as well as the security of my person in all events that I could not yet expose with any possible advantage to His Majesty's Service, as to employ the most effectual means with the assistance of Capt. [Francis] Parry Commander of the Cruizer Sloop of War, to secure the Arms and Ammunition if they should be sent away before my advices, dispatched with my family, should reach New York, and lest my further precaution of posting my Secretary at Acracock Inlet, the first entrance to the Port of New Bern, to bring any Vessel that should arrive there with those stores round to the Man of War in this river should prove ineffectual. Accordingly on my arrival here on the 2d instant, I communicated to Capt. Parry the circumstances I have here related to your Lordship, suggesting my wishes at the same time, that he could spare from his Ship a sufficient force to waylay at Ocracock the Vessel I had reason to expect with Military Stores, in order to compel her in case of necessity to bring them round here to be lodged in safety on board His Majesty's Ship under his Command. Captain Parry to whom my Lord, I owe it in justice to say that he embraces with the utmost alacrity every occasion to promote the King's Service, instantly seeing the importance of the object of my concern, assured me of his most willing and effectual assistance and accordingly without any loss of time, detached an officer and a party of men well armed in a little schooner to secure that point.' Since my first intelligence I have heard nothing to be depended on relative to the Arms and Ammunition, but I am in hopes, from comparison of dates, that the letters from General Gage, which caused Mr Colden and myself so much anxiety, were what I have since received a few, that contained nothing more than an Account of the Affair of the 20th of April between a Detachment of the King's Troops and the People of the neighborhood of Boston which reached me in little less time than two months after the event, and too late to operate against the infamous and false reports of that transaction which were circulated to this Distance from Boston in the space of 12 or 13 days, and had already like all first impressions taken deep root in the minds of the vulgar here universally and wrought a great change in the face of things, confirming the seditious in their evil purposes, and bringing over vast numbers of the fickle, wavering and unsteady multitude to their party. This was an effect to be apprehended, and it will be the same unquestionably in all future occurrences, unless a regular communication is established, by which the Accounts transmitted by the King's General and Admiral of their operations may anticipate the gross and abominable forgeries of the New England People, and I have accordingly represented the expediency of it to General Gage.

. . . I hold my former opinion, that if my hands were strengthened with the aids I have required of General Gage, I could not only maintain the sovereignty of this Province to His Majesty, with the power I could collect immediately among the Emigrants from the Highlands of Scotland, who were settled here, and imrnoveably attached to His Majesty and His Government, that I am assured by the best authority I may compute at 3000 effective men, but should be able to draw together under that protection, out 01 the interior Counties of this Province, where the People are in General well affected, much attached to me, at least two thirds of the fighting men in the whole Country; which may be computed according to my best information to exceed Thirty Thousand and with which I could effectually restore order here and in South Carolina, and hold Virginia in such awe as to prevent that Province sending any succour to the Northward, added to which such a head made here against rebellion, would draw over to it such multitudes of well affected Subjects of His Majesty from other Colonies who only want countenance to induce them to take an open part in favour of Government as would put it in my power to reduce to order and obedience every Colony to the Southward of Pennsylvania . . .

As I fear the busy scene in which General Gage is at this time employed, may not afford him leisure to attend minutely to objects at this distance, I should ardently wish, that the importance of my proposition above mentioned, may be taken into consideration by your Lordship, and submitted to the King, and in the case of its meeting with His Majesty's Royal Approbation, that the supplies of arms and ammunition I have requested of General Gage should be sent in a fourfold proportion to me from England immediately. Ten Thousand Stand of Arms at least with proper Accoutrements may be disposed in hands that would make a good use of them, and I should wish them to be accompanied with six light brass field pieces, Six Pounders with all their atterail, and good store of Ammunition, some pairs of Colours, Drums, &c. and such a supply of money as might be necessary for the support of such a force.