Boston, March 21, 1777
[Extract] My dear Mercy, ー
I wrote you Yesterday by Major Wadsworth, which I hope will reach you this day. Since which the Brigt. Independence2 has Arrived here . . .
1. Warren-Adams Letters Being Chiefiy a Correspondence among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren ... (Boston, 1917-1925), I, 301-02. Hereafter cited as Warren-Adams Letters.
2. Massachusetts Navy brigantine Independence, Captain Simeon Sampson, had been captured by H. M. Sloop Hope. See Volume 7. She was en route to Halifax when retaken by the Massachusetts privateer ship Boston, Captain William Brown.