[Extract]

My Dear Sir It is almost too late to congratulate you upon our regaining Boston, but I may give you joy of our not having yet relost it. We ought by this time to have had the harbour fortified so strongly that a fleet could not have ventured in to have insulted the town, without paying dear for it: but there has been strange not-doings. You will ask me who is to blame? Should I answer without reserve, I would say the Assembly in not exerting themselves more vigorously for the defence of the capital (Inter nos their capitals want to be informed & act right) I would add Gen. [Artemas] Ward for suffering matters of importance to be so disregarded & in sleeping so over them; I would further mention, the inhabitants in complaining, being uneasy, & yet not calling a town meeting & agreeing to turn out & work. In truth we have been for too longtime past amazingly disordered; however as in other cases, every culprit pleads not guilty, & like old Adam shift the blame from himself to another. We are however at last doing better. Was up on Dorchester hills yesterday, & met with two twelve pounders on each, carried there the latter end of last week, besides an howitzer on that next to the neck, which has been there for some considerable time. Fort hill goes on sure, & begins to make a respectable figure. Went from the hills to Dorchester point where the Committee have been directing the erection of a fort. Was much pleased with it. The work is as neat & good as any of the regulars. Yesterday they were carting on the timber for the platforms which will be soon laid; & in a few days I apprehend the fort will be as far perfected as to be capable of defending the entrance of the harbour. Shirley's battery is to undergo an immediate repair. I flatter myself that by the latter end of the next week, if the enemy do not pop in upon us before, we shall be capable of setting them at defiance ....

By the by before I forget it, there are many fine noble large masts in Kennebec river designed for the British navy, would the French King buy them tho at a low price & fetch them away, it might assist a very good purpose by proving a bone of contention. Your time is too precious to be needlessly spent in reading long letters of little consequence, I shall therefore not interrupt you longer, than to assure you of my best wishes for your prosperity both temporal & spiritual, to request a kind remembrance to those honoure gentlemen of the Congress with whom I have the happiness of being acquainted (our own delegates especially) & to declare myself an independent Whig as was my namesake.

Boston. A number of the inhabitants have engaged to work two days in the week for six weeks in fortifying. I propose signing the paper to encourage by example.

Tracy's
² vessel is arrived at Kennebec immediately from Bourdeaux with 21,000 lbs of powder, 12,000 lb of sulphur & 16 pieces of large cannon.