Perth Amboy 26 July 1776
[Extract]
Sir, I find by intelligence from our Guards at So Amboy that some Shallops five in number that passed us yesterday from Fish Kill were full of Soldiers, who appeard on Deck after getting round Billips Point into Princes Bay ー As the Shallops passed our Feild Peices played on them ー but with little effect ー the Enemy returnd the Cannonade briskly during the Space of an hour with four, Six and Twelve Pounders ー One of our Militia was killed and two wounded but not dangerously ー Two more Shallops passed this morning and one remains up the Sound, in view ー The Fly Sloop of War Capt Edger2 lyes at Brunswick ー I ordered her down yesterday on the apperance of the Shallops ー but she is not yet fallen down the River ー I am collecting all the Craft, of which a return will be transmitted ー Genl [Nathaniel] Heard is out on examining the Creeks...3
1. Washington Papers, LC.
2. The Continental sloop Fly, Captain Hoysteed Hacker, commanding.
3. Ibid., on the same afternoon Mercer wrote again to General Washington noting that six ships "have come into the Hook" and that a deserter from the Asia claimed "IO Ships arrivedFoure Days ago."