[Extract]
Dear Sir I have received your several Favors of the 6th, 12 & 16 June & note their Contents, am obliged to you for the list of the Names of the Captains appointed for the Several Ships; I am glad to hear the money is upon the Road for the Troops & Ships ー that for the Ships is much wanted, & the Continental Troops had grown so uneasy for want of their pay that General Ward had applyed to our General Court for the loan of some Money, which we were about to furnish him with, as soon as it could be struck off, for you must know our Treasury has of late been drained so much to pay for Salt petre that it had got quite empty & we have been oblidged to make an Emission of One hundred Thousand pounds for a present Supply...I hope in your next to receive orders for Enlisting the men for the Ships, and also an order for what provisions I may want on the Commissary General or his Deputy ー pray forward the Cannon as soon as possible and every further direction that may be necessary, The Ship that is launched may be ready for Sea in a fortnight if we had the Guns & orders for Enlisting the Men ー I hope Capt McNeil [Hector McNeill] & Mr [John] Brown will be here Soon, I like the names of the Ships Well, Mrs Cushing also highly approves of them, she proposed long ago that one of them should be named either the Hancock or The Lady Hancock ー
...since My last we have taken Three more Transports with About 300 Men & which the Council have sent them to Springfeild Worcester Concord & Taunton, with liberty to the Sheriff to dispose of them among the Several Towns in the respective Counties if they Incline to go out to Labour ー We had Ten some say Eleven Sail of large Ships in the Bay Yesterday, one of them appeared to be a frigate & the rest Transports, but what they are we Cannot at present Tell, hope we shall soon have possession of them in Nantaskett Harbor where we have two large Ships laying as decoys, a Battery with Abt 300 Continental Troops at Long Island Head & General [Benjamin] Lincoln with a number of Men at Nantaskett ー I remain with great respect [&c.]
