[Extract]

...What is certain on the side of the Americans is their activity at sea and the ships of the Crown they are capturing. They recently seized three transports, one of which named the Hope had a cargo of one thousand carbines, much powder and other munitions; so even if the abovementioned declaration by Congress were not true, these operations make it evident their determination to resist the strength of England.

The other day the 74-gun warship Marlborough, one of the eighteen assigned to guard duty in the ports of these kingdoms, burned its main deck and its entire hull warped when fire broke out in three barrels of gunpowder....