Sr. these is to Aquant you that I Saild from fals Pint1 the 2 of July Bound Down the Bay Sunday 5th I got in to newpint Comford2 in Company With Capt giddis & Capt Hartwell the Wind at NE at Tuesday 7th the Wind got at SW Capt Berry Hartwell & my Self got under way in the morning & Stood Down the Bay at 7 am Being in Sight of the Capes &c Capt Hartwell 4 Miles a Starn I Setting on the Quarter Dack of the Boat St Lewis the Mate Mr. francis Roggers3 Came behind me & got me By the 2 Arms & told me I was a Prisonar & Cold the Rest of the men4 to Assist thear was 5 of the men Came & Lashed my Hands behind me I Asked weathar thear was All Agin me they Tould me yes they Intended to go to New york with the Boat than the Mait told me that he wood give me & Daniel Spencer the Boat they got the boat out & poot 2 oars in hir & hove my Self & Danil Spencer in the Boat I Asked Mr. Rogers if he wood give me my Close5 & Quarthar & Books he wood not But turned me a drift With out Bread or watter6 he made Sail & stood out the Capes in a Half a nour Capt Berry Hartwell Came up with me & took me on Board & Returned to Newpint Comford thear I got Sum Meet & Bread of the Wessils & I purseadded up the Bay the 10 of July I got to Baltimore Nothing More but I Remain your Most Obedant Humble Seryant
Geo Ross
L, FrPNA Marine B4 vol. 143 fol. 137. Ross captained the schooner St. Louis, a vessel of 50 tons burden, bound from Baltimore to France with a cargo of tobacco.
1. That is, Fell's Point, Baltimore, Maryland.
2. That is, New Point Comfort, Virginia.
3. Mate Francis Rogers. Rogers was "about five feet five inches high, well set" with "black hair," "a dark complexion," and was "about twenty-nine years of age." He spoke "English and French very well" and had "formerly sailed out of Boston in an armed Brig, and being taken, was a prisoner at New York for some time, from whence he made his escape." When Rogers was tying Ross up, Ross "called aloud 'Are ye all against me?-Have I no Friend amongst?' To which one of the Frenchmen, with great Vivacity, replied, "No, Monsieur Capitaine, all Tory, all Tory by G d!'" DLC, Broadside Collection, "Five Hundred Pounds Reward," 16 July 1778 (Philadelphia: John Dunlap).
4. The other crew members were Joshua (or James) Berry, an Irishman; Andrew Averty and Andrew Gladermerid, both Frenchmen, one born in Nantes, the other in Provence; Robert Freeman, an Englishman; and Joshua Hozier (or Hoser), born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, who stood five feet three inches and had curled hair. “Five Hundred Pounds Reward" and The Maryland Journal, and Baltimore Advertiser, 14 July 1778.
5. That is, clothes.
6. An article in The Maryland Journal, and Baltimore Advertiser of 14 July reported that Ross and the boy set adrift with him were "destitute of both Clothes and Provisions."
