Newbury-Port, January 12.
On Wednesday the 3d of January, arrived in Pemaquid harbour, the brig Squirrel, Richard Willis, master, from Poole, in England, which place he left the 6th of November, in whom came passengers the Captains [Thomas] Palmer, [Josiah] Shackford, [Stephen] Meeds and [John] Hart of Portsmouth, and Capt. Gideon Crawford, of Providence, who on their Passage the 2d of December, in lat. 44, long. 38, spoke with the Orpheus Frigate of 32 Guns, from England, bound to America, but had met with a very hard gale of wind the 30th of November, by which she lost her Main and Fore-mast, and was the bound back to refit, she had been out 5 weeks when the gale took her.
Capt. Meeds informs us that Administration were determined to pursue vigorous measures against the Americans, but that the majority were daily leaving them; that the Noble Duke of grafton, and Lord Littelton, had already left them, and were determined to oppose all their measures against the brave Americans, even if they were reduced to Beggary by their opposition. He likewise informs, that a number of Transports had sailed, laden with stores for Boston, that one lay in the river, near him, with a number of hogs on board, out of which he saw 28 hove overboard which had died in one night, on account of their being crowded too close in the vessel; that immediately after the transports had sailed, there was as hard a gale of wind as was almost ever known, which dismasted some, but what other damage they sustained we have not yet learnt, tho soon after vast numbers of hogs were seen floating in the river.
Capt. Meeds was likewise at the meeting of the Merchants at the Kings Arms Tavern, in London, where the meeting consisted of between seven and eight hundred, unanimous to a man in favour of the Americans: They petitioned his Majesty to have matters settled with America, and set forth in their Petition that destruction must be brought on the Land if the War was carried on; it was signed 1102 Gentlemen, and his Majesty was pleased to receive it very Graciously. Capt. Meeds also informs that our Friends increase daily, that we shall be no longer termed rebels, and that 'twas dangerous to speak a word in the Coffee Houses against the Americans.