Watertown, June 12, 1776
[Extract]
The prize you mention is indeed a great affair;2 the several prizes since are very important, but the loss of the Yankee Hero is a damper. What must be done with the West-India prizes?3 They must be made legal; British property must not escape under the cover of West-India property, which if real will be converted into British as soon as it arrives. I fear the manning of your fleet will go heavily. Why may not the sailors we have taken be obliged to do duty there, as they make ours do on board their's?
1. James T. Austin, The Life of Elbridge Gerry (Boston, 1828), I, 183, 184.
2. The powder ship Hope.
3. The Jamaicamen Lady Juliana and Reynolds, carried into Marblehead and Dartmouth, respectively.
