Gentlemen, The annexed depositions contain as full and candid an account of the transaction relative to the landing the goods from the ship Beulah, as we are able to give; in the doing of which, we have studied to give the Committee, and our fellow citizens, the utmost Satisfaction we are capable of.
John Murray being obliged to go to Elizabeth Town, to take an inventory of the goods, found the Committee then sitting, and conceived it to be his duty, as the goods were within their jurisdiction, to give them notice thereof, and to make a full acknowledgment to them; upon doing which, they took, with his consent, possession of the goods as mentioned in the affadavit.
We still declare our readiness to reship the said goods as nearly as is now in our power, agreeable to the tenor of the [Continental] association, or to do otherwise with them, as the Committee of Elizabeth Town shall think proper to intimate or direct; and that we are also ready to give this committee any further satisfaction respecting the said goods; that they may recommend. Being desirous further to testify the sense we have of the imprudent measures we have taken, as well as our concern for the trouble and uneasiness it has given our fellow-citizens, we would wish to make such further satisfaction to the public, as might be most agreeable to them; and therefore do hereby cheerfully engage to give the sum of two hundred pounds towards repairing the Hospital in this city, lately destroyed by fire.2
We are, gentlemen [&c.]
Robert Murray
John Murray
New York, 15th March, 1775