On Monday morning arrived here a schooner, which sailed the 14th of May from Squam (it is a creek on the N .E. side of Cape Ann, a few leagues from Boston) commanded by Captains [William] Wood and [John] Robinson, whose ships, the Jenny and Nelly, were taken by the Provincials; as were also the James, [William] Littledale; the Norfolk, [Jonathan] Grindall; and the Happy Return, [James] Hall, all of this port. The above schooner was purchased by the Captains who came home in her jointly, with Capt. Littledale and Capt. Nellis, of the Henry and Esther, of Whitby, who, with their people, being prisoners, had obtained leave to depart the continent, and take their passage for Great Britain.

This being granted, and the provisions laid in for the people, as they amounted to forty-eight, some disagreeable accounts coming to the Provincials they unbent the sails and took away her rigging, till they gave further permission. During this and sailing Capt. Littledale, Capt. Nellis, and a Mr. Wilson, who were coming home with them, were drowned by the boat oversetting in going on shore from the vessel. The schooner sailed the Monday following this accident, and off the banks of Newfoundland was boarded by his Majesty's ship the Centurion, Capt. Braithwaite [Richard Brathwaite], who pressed eleven hands out of her, his ship's company being then eighty short of complement.

When the schooner left Squam, upwards of thirty vessels were upon the stocks at Newbury, among which were one of 24 and another of 36 guns; one of 36 was launched a few days before a little to the northward of Newbury.² Ships, they were informed, were arriving there daily from Bilboa with gunpowder and military stores. The men of war sometimes pursue them to the mouth of the river, at the entrance of which there is a very bad bar, about three miles from the town. Numbers of people were employed at Newbury making saltpetre, of which one man will, with indifferent materials, make a pound a day.