Gentlemen

I expect you have heard of the two prizes brought in here, and may think strange that we were not in the way; we seem to be damned unlucky, for that day we were heaving down, the vessels came from the eastward close along shore, they only had to go about two miles over the bar and bring them both in; fortune favoured them in every respect, for they went out with the wind to northward, and as soon as they got on board the ship, the wind came round to the seaward so that they come right on before the wind, for there was not a man on board that could put the ship on stays. That it is damned hard to think that we have cruised so long and got nothing, to see a thing that has not been a league from the land, but been a thumming along shore, go out and bring in two prizes before our eyes, and could not have any hand in it.² On the 14th instant at daylight we saw a sail in the offing, we gave her chase, at 8 came so nigh that we discovered her to be a ship of war; we were then about 6 or 7 leagues from the land, with the wind off shore. When we saw what she was, we hauled our wind and stood from her, she then gave chase; at meridian we got into this inlet, when we crossed the bar, the ship was in about a mile of us; we saved ourselves and that was all. On the 17th I received the things that you sent by Lieut. Thew; then on the 18th, hauled into the creek; 19th, hove down, which was the day the prizes were brought in. We have now got all on board, and out of the creek; have a little wood and water to get, which I shall do as soon as possible. On the 19th at night, we had six men deserted from Fire island; our own boat was secured so that I was under no apprehension of their getting off the island; but there was a party of soldiers on the other end of the island with a whale boat; they went there and took the boat from along side the tent, and went off with her; their names are, Thomas Butler, Richard Gildersleve, Ebenezer Conkling, Solomon Kitcham, Jonathan Armstrong and Elisha Reeves. Butler is a short mulatto looking fellow, married to one Michael Shruns' or Thrums' daughter at the sign of the Black Horse in Bowre Lain. Conkling, Kitcham and Gildersleeve, all belong to Huntington, and have gone home I hear. Reeves and Armstrong belong to Southold. Butler, I expect, may be found in New-York; and if the Congress or Committee of Safety writes to the committees of Huntington and Southold, they may all be taken, for if they are permitted to desert, and take no notice of, we shall not be able to keep a man; for every affront they will go off. If they have any thing to complain of about their treatment, I am ready to answer for it. I am, gentlemen [&c.]