The day before yesterday we went to Chelsea, famous for the battle of Noddle-Island near to it; while we were on Powder-Horn Hill, back of Chelsea, we saw a skirmish between a party of our people (120 in number) who went in whale boats, to an island about 12 miles from Boston, and burnt a large quantity of hay, which was put up into bundles by the Regulars, and intended to be sent to Boston for their horses. A great number of marines, in schooners, men of war's boats, and two ships of war kept up a constant fire on our men, while they remained on the Island; but this did not prevent them from destroying the hay. The schooner and boats endeavoured to cut off their retreat, which brought on a very warm engagement, in which we had one killed and one wounded. . . .
We have just got over land from Cape-Cod a large fleet of whale boats, in a day or two we shall man them in Cambridge and Mystick rivers, and try to keep our enemies boats from insulting us.
