Gentlemen

Inclosed you have Copies of Captn Hacker & Mr Shaws Letters, by which you will know Circumstance of the Brig and the Schooner which Mr Shaw was to purchase ー The Alfred is this day going to Newport there to be hove down, as upon examining find her Bottom so foul that she will not do well to Cruise untill Clean'd ー The Andrew Doria has sent in here two Brigs, One from Dunmore with Salt, Tobacco, Rice and Flour, One Phaeton and Chaise bound to Antigua ー the other with fifty hogsheads Rum from Barbados to the Land ー² Captn Biddle had also taken a Ship with 15,000 bushs Wheat which Lieutt [John] McDougall thinks was bound to the Westward

There has also arrived in this port this week a large Ship loaded with Sugar from Grenada, and Brig with Rum from Antigua taken by the Sloop Independance of this place ー³

The People onboard Captn Biddies Prizes informs, that they left the Columbus in Lattd 36 ー and when they parted a Sixty Gun Ship was in Chace of her

The whole attention of Merchants and Seamen at present seems to be on Privateering through the whole New England Coionies, any Small Carriage Guns will now Sell at the extraordinary Price of 400 Dollars pr Tonー

I believe if you was to give the same Prize Money which is one half as they do, it would be a great deal easier to Mann the Continental Vessels I am with great Regard [&c.]