Last Wednesday night [May 24] the sloop Collector, Capt. Nicholas Webster, sailed from this port for Boston, with a quantity of salt provisions, for the use of the standing army there; & a number of sheep; but for whose use these were is as yet uncertain. It is reported, that said sloop & salt provisions were taken into the custody of one of the ships of war here, and sent by her to Boston; but how that matter is, by whom those sheep were shipped, and for whose use, all-discovering TIME may unfold. ー The Committee of Inspection, we hear, have taken the affair of the sheep into their consideration.
Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Providence, dated May 25.
It is strongly suspected here, that the provisions on board Webster were really purchased for the King's service, and that the Capture was a SHAM. If this be not the truth of the case, pray set it in a true light, for the report spreads fast; and as surely as it is believed that the ENEMY is supplied from Newport, will every supply for that town be stopped from every colony upon the continent.
Last Saturday [May 20] put in here, the ship Peggy, Capt. William Baron, in 28 days from Baltimore, in Maryland: This vessel was bound to Cork, with a load of flour and Indian corn, 'tis said, but having contrary winds, was likely to fall short of wood & water. She is now in custody of the men of war in this harbour, and we hear is to be sent to Boston.
Another ship, said to be from Virginia, loaded with wheat, &c. was lately taken, near Nantucket, by the Falcon sloop of war, and sent to Boston; this ship was said to be bound to Europe.
That two ships, bound from Virginia and Maryland to Europe, should, at this juncture, fall in with Nantucket and Rhode-Island, is a matter of some speculation.