[Extract]

I send you inclosed a printed account of intelligence recd at Headquarters from our camp at the [great] bridge about 20 miles from Norfolk,... Our Army has been for some time arrested in its march to Norfolk by a redoubt, or stockade, or hog pen, as they call it here, by way of derision, at the end of this bridge. Tho', by the way, this hog pen seems filled with a parcel of wild-boars, which we appear not overfond to meddle with. My apprehension is that we shall be amused at this outpost, until Dunmore gets the lines at Norfolk finished; where he is now entrenching, & mounting cannon, some hundreds of negro's being employ'd in the work. This consideration added to the advanced season of the year & the strong expectation, as we find by intercepted intelligence, of a reinforcement arriving every hour from St Augustine made a bold & sudden stroke necessary, whilst we walk too cautiously in the road of prudence. ー There were other passes into the neighbourhood of Norfolk. We are now in convention & have already voted the raising six new battalions of the continental number the two old battalions to be recruited to the same standard ー these eight are expected to be on the continental establishment. The express, which brings you this go's with an application to Congress for this purpose. It would seem indeed highly necessary, from the manner in which Dunmore has hitherto baffled all our endeavours, to put our military matters under some other direction.

If Philadelphia is in such a forward state of Naval preparation as report says, it would be in her power to render the most signal service to this colony, and thereby to the American cause. The naval force of the enemy in this country consists of two sloops of war, the Otter, & Kingfisher, of sixteen six & four pounders, with their compliment of men indeed, one hundred & ten, but these much dispersed in tenders, & all except ten in the Kingfisher, & a few in the Otter, pressed men, disaffected to the cause, & unwilling to fight. Six deserters from the Kingfisher, examined last night, confirm these circumstances, which we were informed of before from other hands. A frigate of thirty guns, with metal proportionable, by coming into Norfolk river would not only become master of these, but of Dunmores ship Wm. & a vast many other vessels loaded with the floating property of Tories, & seized cargoes, to the amount, as is said upon good grounds, of £14000. These gentry would, by such a stroke as this, be all taken up in a nett. Ld. Dunmore's preparations be all torn up by the roots, & the plan of hostility for this country to be begun anew. Ld Dunmore has issued his first Virginia Gazette printed I think on board the William. It contains his proclamation, the oath tendered to the people of Princess Anne & Norfolk, his conquest over the militia, & the letters of the Delegates intercepted by Capt Wallace.