[Extract]

Dear Sir Your Express found us here last night in Council, so there was no time lost in laying your dispatch before them. They were well pleased with having an Express from you and with the intelligence he brought, many of the things recommended by you were under their Contemplation and they are endeavouring to take some steps to protect our Inlets from Tenders with which they have of late [been] infested, for this purpose they have ordered three armed Vessells to be fitted out, one at Cape Fear one at New Bern and a third at Edenton under the direction of Commissioners at each of these places the two at Edenton and New Bern to act in conjunction at Peacock [Ocracocke] and we hope if properly conducted they will be sufficient to keep off anything that can come over our Bar ー