On the 1st of June his Excellency the President² received Advices of a Fleet of 40 or 50 Sail being at Anchor about six Leagues to the Northward of Sullivans Island. Accounts of the Arrival of Sir Peter Parker's Fleet in N. Carolina, and that it, was destined either for Virginia or this Province, having been received about three Weeks before, put it beyond a Doubt that this was his Fleet. Next morning the Alarm was fired, Expresses having been sent ordering the Country Militia to Town; the Fortifications were all visited by his Excellency and General [John] Armstrong, and Preparations for the most vigorous Defence ordered. In the Evening a Man of War, thought to be a 20 Gun Ship, beat up to Windward and anchored off the Bar; next Day she was joined by a Frigate, and on the day following, June 4, by upwards of 50 Sail of Men of War, Transports, Tenders, &c. We have since learned that the Men of War were the Bristol of 50 Guns, on board of which the Commodore had his Flag; the Solebay, Capt. [Thomas] Symonds, 28; Syren Capt [Tobias] Furneaux, 28; Active, Capt. [William] Williams, 28; Actaeon, Capt. [Christopher] Atkins, 28; Sphinx, Capt. [Anthony] Hunt, 20; Ranger Sloop of 8; Thunder Bomb of 6 Guns and 2 Mortars, one of them 13 Inches and the other 11; an armed Ship called the Friendship, of 18 Guns, with some smaller Vessels. The same day Capt Mowat arrived from North-Carolina, with an Express from General [Charles] Lee, informing that the Fleet had left North-Carolina, and that he would be here as speedily as possible, with several Continental Regimen.ts, to our Assistance.