[Extract]
It may perhaps be asked in England ー what [is] the Admiral [Samuel Graves] doing? I wish I was able to answer that question satisfactorily. But I can only say what he is not doing.
That He is not supplying the troops with sheep & oxen the dinners of the best of us bear [me]ager testimony ー the want of broth in the Hospitals bears a more melancholy one.
He is not defending his own flocks & herds, for the enemy has repeatedly and in the most insulting manner, plundered his own appropriated islands.
He is not defending the other islands in the harbour; for the enemy landed in force, burned the lighthouse at noon day, & killed & took a party of marines almost under the guns of two or three men of war.
He is not employing his ships to keep up communication & intelligence with the servants & friends of Government at different parts of the Continent, for I do not beleive Genl [Thomas] Gage has received a letter from any correspondent out of Boston these six weeks.
He is surely intent upon greater objects you will think ー supporting in material points the dignity & terror of the British flag ー & where a number of boats have been built for the rebels, privateers fitted out, prices carried in, the King's armed vessels sunk, the crews made prisoners, the officers killed ー He is doubt ー less enforcing instant restitution & reparation by the voice of his Cannon, and laying the towns in ashes which refuse his terms ー Alass! He is not ー The British thunder [is] diverted or controlled by pitiful attentions & quaker-like scruples; & under such influence Insult [and] Impunity, like Righteousness & peace, have kissed each other.
I should have hesitated in giving an account that may appear invidious, had not the facts been too notorious to expose me to that censure, & my feelings in this great cause too sensible to observe them without some impatience.
