[Extract]

. . . Our Intelligence from New York that they [the British] have built 20 row Gallys and are about building_several Redaus which are a very large kind of floating Battery so Constructed as to sail They say these are to carry 1000 men each and 40 Pieces of heavy Cannon yet to draw but four feet water Their use is either to act against Shipping in smooth water or to land great bodies of men expeditiously under the Cover of their Cannon they had a small one upon Lake Champlaine which made prodigious havock amongst our Row Gallies The men fight under Cover and are safe from the danger of Musquetry These Machines will play the Devil along shore in a thick settled Country . . .