During the night [of October 17] the people saved all they could. About 4 oclock in the morning Mr. Little got in with two stout teams which we loaded and sent out; and besides what we thus saved, the tide being up we loaded a gondola at Porter's wharf with West India goods, and sent it around the neck, and then left a great amount of Property to destruction. When the time drew near to nine o'clock, and the people generally had gone out of town, Col. John Waite came by our house and seeing Mr. Little in the house spoke like one in a fright, and said "Little! it is time to go; they will fire in a few minutes"; his answer was "I shall go directly;" and turning to me he said, "Daniel, you had better go." and I replied, "I shall go when you do." We soon started, we went through Federal street and around Sanfords Corner through Back street, and when I was almost abreast of the windmill that stood where Sam Husseys does now, Mowatt hoisted a red flag, and fired the first gun, and the shot whistled along between me and the old meeting house. The other vessels in the fleet having already commenced a spiteful fire, and continued it with very little cessation until six oclock P.M. The first house that was fired stood where Mr Gorham now keeps; the building burned down without communicating with any other; but it was but a short time before all the north part of the town was in a blaze. They landed in their boats from all their vessels at the same moment and threw torches into the doors and windows of the houses and stores, and then fled like cowards on board their little fleet. Among the public buildings were a handsome new Court House that stood where the north school house did, and the Episcopal Church that stood on the lot adjoining Mr Newhalls dwelling house. All the buildings on [blank] street, on Fore street, from Fort Burrows to Exchange street and on Middle Street as far as Jonah Cox's house, were burnt down, and a more melancholy sight or a more cowardly transaction I did not witness through the remainder of the war; and before it was over I was in three engagements at sea. Mowatt immediately withdrew his fleet from the town, and the next day sailed for Boston, which was then held and blocked by the English. Many people have blamed the inhabitants of Falmouth for not defending the town against so small a force: but the truth is it was not in their power, for there was not a cannon mounted in town at that time, and there was a great scarcity of powder. There was an old decayed fort and blockhouse where Mrs. Weeks house and garden is; this fortress was built in the resign of Queen Anne, and therefore was in a ruinous state by the dilapidation of time: the people all fled into the country in the beginning of winter which set in uncommonly early; they went out poor and had to live among a people as poor as themselves; and those that have occupied the stage of life from that time can form but a faint idea of what their ancestors suffered in those "times that tried men's (and women's) souls."