Cambridge, April 4, 1776.
[Extract]
I thank you for your friendly congratulations on the retreat of the king's troops from Boston. It was really a flight; their embarkation was so precipitate; their loading so confused, (after making greater havoc of the king's stores than Dunbar did upon Braddock's defeat, which made so much noise,) 2 that it took them eleven days to fit their transports, adjust the loads of them, and take in water from the islands in Nanasket Road after they had fallen down there. The coast is now clear of them, except the Renown, (a 50 gun ship,) and one or two frigates, which remain here for the protection of such transports as shall be bound to this port.
1. Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, IV, 474-75.
2. Colonel Thomas Dunbar succeeded to the command after Braddock's death and destroyed great quantities of stores before retreating towards the east.
