[Edenton] 21st July 1775
[Extract]
A vessel from New York to this place brought over two officers who left at the Bar to go to New Bern, they are both Highlanders, one named McDonnel the other McCloud.2 They pretend they are on a visit to some of their countrymen on your river but I think there is reason to suspect their errand of a base nature. The Committee of this town have wrote to New Bern to have them secured. Should they escape there I hope you will keep a good lookout for them. I doubt not the prudence of the Gentlemen with you will have suggested the necessity of securing the Highlanders and that proper measures have been adopted for that purpose. . .
1. Saunders, comp., Records of North Carolina, X, 116, 11 7.
2. Brigadier General Donald MacDonald and Major Alexander MacLeod, the leaders of the Highlanders and Regulator force subsequently totally defeated at Moore's Creek Bridge, February 27, 1776.
