D^r. Sir.

Your goodness I am assured will pardon my neglect to write by Cap^t. Sutherland.¹ The Com^r of the Packet² waits upon you with this, to receive your Dispatches, with Coll. Patterson.³ But the Fore-Door being for the present shut, the only way the Packet can get off will be through the Sound,⁴ as I have recommended. 

If your information is good that Washington is crossing the North-River,⁵ attention I conceive will be necessary to send such provisions as as may be wanting for Rhode Island, before the Enemy get possession of the Chester Shores,⁶ and with Artillery bar the passage for Ships in the Daytime. These people⁷ seem to affect an attempt to enter the Port. The time they may be engaged in that consideration will I hope, secure the Arrival of the Reinforcement at Rhode Island; And if they really shall prosecute such an attack here, I think it a most fortunate circumstance, in our State. We should succeed at no time, if we can fail on such an occasion. I am ever D^r Sir [&c.]