Sir:

Some time ago I troubled the honourable Board with two letters, wherein I aimed to treat of matters which I thought to be of great importance to the Continent in general, and this Colony in particular, but fearing that a further proceeding in that way might by them be deemed assuming and affrontive, and supposing that the benevolent disposition of your mind, would at the same time it pardons my intruding a long letter on you will induce you to lay such parts of it before the honourable Council, as will have a pertinent tendency to urge them to take under their consideration the importance of preventing the enemies gaining a camp there.

But previous to my treating of the importance of holding this place, and as evidence to support me therein, I beg leave to give you a history of what has been done here since Falmouth was destroyed. Soon after Commodore Mowat, who burnt the town, had sailed for Boston, Captain Symons, in the Cerberus, arrived here, and demanded twenty sheep, two tons of hay, and twenty bushels of potatoes, as a reward for his sparing the few remaining houses; these were denied him by the people, and an alarm spread that he was going to land four hundred men; at the same time the people concluded that the Ministerial army designed to take possession of an eminence on the peninsula of Falmouth-Neck, for reasons and purposes which I shall hereafter mention to you, and apprehended that those houses which were spared in the conflagration, were intended for barracks, to which belief they were more especially led by Captain Mowat's telling a person, that he was sorry so many houses were burnt, as the saving more would have better answered his design; but the people still supposed that if the landing those troops were impeded by the Militia, they would endeavour to burn those houses also; this alarm spread into the County of York, with as much terrour as in the County of Cumberland.

I, therefore, went with a number of men to contrive, if possible, some method to prevent the expected devastation in this part of the Colony; when I came to Falmouth, there were one hundred and eighty men there, including the sea-coast men (many had gone away for want of provisions,) the Militia there was commanded by Colonel [Jonathan] Mitchell, and Colonel [Reuben] Fogg; and a number of gentlemen were attending. They assembled, and chose me to lead them; an office the honour whereof I was as little ambitious of, as I was capable to well execute it; however, it being thought to be a post of danger, and as that modesty and diffidence which strongly urged me to decline it, might have been deemed cowardice, and tended to the discouragement of the people, I accepted it, and instantly determined to break ground on an eminence on the Neck, which overlooks the land for twenty miles round; but as Captain Symons had sent a proclamation on shore, that if we went to erect any fortification he would fire upon us, I thought he might annoy the people; and finding that there was then in town three hundred weight of powder, besides the small stocks in the adjacent towns, and two good double-fortified six-pounders, tolerably well mounted, I ordered the people in the night to throw up a battery on an advantageous point, near the ship, in order to combat her if she fired on the people, who were to intrench on the eminence. The zeal and resolution with which the people set about the execution of this plan was much beyond my expectation, but just as we drew to the designed place, the Cerberus, though in the dark, weighed anchor, and put to sea, but apprehending that she might return the next morning, we continued our labour all night; but she has not returned.

On the 7th instant, the Convention of Committees of this County met, and though their proceedings may want some accuracies, yet the spirit obvious in them does honour to the County; and I, therefore, take the liberty of enclosing a copy of them.

Since that time we have erected two batteries, cannon-proof, one bearing two double fortified six, and two ditto nine-pounders, and one three-pounder; and the other battery bears four double fortified long nine-pounders; all which, except the six-pounders, have been mounted since I came here, and we have gratefully received some guns and powder from the General Court. Upon the eminence we have got a fort in great forwardness, and should before now have completed the parapet of it, had not the severity of the weather prevented us. This is all done by the Militia of these two Counties, with some assistance from the sea-coast men. The Militia readily attended with their provisions, tools, &c.

There is still wanted a redoubt or two, and other advanced works, on the hill, which, with finishing the citadel, must be dderred until the weather is more favourable.

We much rejoice at the appointment of General Frye, who arrived here yesterday, and have the highest expectation, from his acknowledged ability and integrity, provided he was in such a situation as would render him active; but I am sorry to say that the General Court has commanded him to fight with his hands bound. In his appointment over the Militia, he is confined to the County of Cumberland, and all his operations are limited to that place, while the County of York are as much interested in, and anxiously concerned for the defence of Falmouth-Neck, as the County of Cumberland. This seems an effectual bar to that union of the Counties, which, at this time, is so absolutely necessary; he, therefore, should have been, and I hope yet will be appointed Major-General of the Militia in these two, if not in the lower County. And when this is done, unless the Militia is organized, as I hope soon it will be, he had as good try to command the sea, as them in time of action. In his other department, as commander of two hundred and fifty sea-coast men, whose time expires within one month, he can do nothing to the purpose, but if there should four hundred marines be landed, must fall a sacrifice, before any considerable number of our scattering Militia could be collected to reinforce him. Besides this, when he calls the Militia, (and if they should obey him,) he has no way to find them provision, or any authority to provide one single necessary for his formidable army of two hundred and fifty men. This is the situation of this honourable gentleman, which I should not have mentioned, if I had not the honour to belong to the Assembly.

Now, sir, what remains, is to show you why I apprehend that there is danger of the enemy's taking this post, and what I supposed to be a rational plan to prevent so great a calamity; but I must beg your pardon for this prolixity, which is not occasioned by the love of writing, but by the regard I have for the people, and the cause they are engaged in.

This is undoubtedly one of the best harbours in the Continent, and the only one for the space of two hundred miles, between Boston and Sheepscut, where a ship can now lie in safety in the winter, and could they be kept out of this harbour, our privateers might cruise in safety; but if they hold this post, our navigation is at an end, and famine is the consequence.

If an army of fifteen hundred men should be lodged on the eminence before mentioned, with a proper train, ten thousand would not force their lines; and as provision for our sustenance cannot be raised here, we must come to them for bread; and where there is no army, or command, the slaughter of a few persons will bring many to submission. This observation I take to be founded in human nature; and it is in vain for people to talk of dying rather than submitting, for when we are famished, overpowered, or disarmed, we must submit, and are criminal in not doing it; and an entire submission of these Counties when the enemies are possessed of this ground, can be prevented only in three ways, to wit: by forcing their lines, destroying their navy, or watching their motions, with an army much superior in numbers to theirs.

If the importance of these Counties are held as trifling by our Assembly, (as I am sensible they are not) they will be so with the Continental Congress, and the possession of them by our enemies will make a vast odds in the war; for, beside the distress of the people here, the Ministerial army will be able to furnish the West-Indies with lumber, their several detachments with beef, wood, greens, roots, &c., &c., and the Tories now starving in Boston, with comfortable dwellings and farms. These things appear to me to be a sufficient inducement to the Regulars, while they can gain and hold so important a post with a thousand men, to do it; and if they do, we must inevitably submit, or carry famine with us to the westward of Merrimack-River.

This can never be prevented but by an expence which ought to, and I doubt not will be borne by the Continent. It would be cruel to expect the Militia, either to complete or defend the works begun, for in a small space of time after a fleet appears in sight, with a good wind, the soldiers may be landed and formed, and the assembling a body of the Militia in this country, where the inhabitants are scattering, is a work of time; and therefore, the most rational plan in my mind is the having a garrison of one thousand men here, under General Frye, and the Militia in these three Counties, organized in small regiments and companies, under his command, and then I dare be answerable for his success. This expense may be lightened by having no other sea-coast men from York to Kennebeck, where there is now four hundred, except what the General shall send on scouting parties.

I am informed that General Washington has said, that if the General Court would request it, he would send a regiment here; it is true that as the season now is, there can be little done at fortification, but there must be a vast many pickets got this winter, to enable a thousand men to defend this post in the spring, while the Militia may be gathering to reinforce them, and flat-bottomed boats should be provided to transport the Militia over the water here, and in this way General Frye may employ his forces this winter, so as to be able to receive an attack in the spring. I am, sir, with the greatest respect [&c.]

To the Honourable John Winthrop, Honourable Benjamin Greenleaf, or the Honourable Benjamin Lincoln.

P.S. You have a copy of a letter from General Washington to Colonel Phinney.