The regard which I have for my country has induced me to write the following accusations against commodore [Esek] Hopkins.²

first: I know him to be a man of no principles, and quite unfit for the important trust reposed in him. I have often heard him curse the honorable marine committee in the very words following. ["] God damn them. They are a pack of damned fools. If I Should follow their directions, the whol country would be ruined. I am not going to follow their directions, by God.["] Such profane Swearing is his common conversation, in which respect he Sets a very wicked and detestable [exam]ple both to his Officers and Men. Tis my humble opinion that if he continues to have the command, all the Officers, who have any regard to their own characters, will be obliged very Soon, to quit the Service of their country, When the frigates were at newport, before the british fleet took possession of that place, more than an hundred men, who were discharged from the Army, the most of them Seamen, were willing to come on board the Ships and assist in carrying them to boston, or any other harbour to the Eastward, in order that they might be maned, but commodore hopkins utterly refused, being determined to keep them in this State, from which we have not been able, after all our pains, to procure a Single man for this Ship. He has treated prisoners in a very unbecoming barbarous manner. His Character and conduct are Such, in this part of the country, that I can See no prospect of the fleets ever being maned.