[Braintree] Sepbr. 21 1774 [i.e. 1776]
[Extract]
...The Portsmouth Ship has been waiting for Guns these six weeks. Had an unkle of ours and several other merchants I could mention had the care of her I dare say she would have long ago had Guns. Private adventurours can get Guns even for large Briggs. ー The Boston formerly the Zechary Baily which was taken as a prize. and bought by private persons has been fitted out, her Guns made and purchased long since the other ought to have saild.2
So it is we dream away opportunities by misplaceing Buisness.
1. Butterfield, ed:; Adams Family Correspondence, II, 129-30.
2. The Zachariah Bayley, taken by the Massachusetts privateer sloop Yankee and condenined in admiralty court July 30, 1776, was purchased by Paul Dudley Sargent and others of Boston. She was renamed the Boston and commissioned September 24, under the command of Captain William Brown. She was armed with 22 guns, and had a crew of 210 men. New-England Chronicle, July 11, 1776, and Mass. Arch., vol. 5, 100.
