[Plymouth] Decr 2. — Salt is now at 10/ Ster. p bush: flour at about 6 dollars p Ct wt woolens & Linnens are scarcely to be had — & yet This miserably deceived People are made to believe they can Support an independency — Bread corn has got to a price wch was hardly ever Known in times of the greatest dearth & yet there were scarcely ever better crops — what will it be next Spring? The time when this Province — (State I mean — I beg pardon — ) used to receive some hundreds of Thousand bushells of grain from the Southern provinces — There is now an order for draughting every fourth man to releive the army, whose term of service is within a few days of expiring — What a miserable figure must such a new-raised raw undisciplined unprovided body of people make, when opposed to experienced veteran Troops, well provided with every thing necessary to live in the feild & commanded by Officers & a General who have acquired the Knowledge & Skill in the Art of war by long Service, & by being engaged against the best troops in the world; excepting the British — Their Infatuation is beyond all example — God have mercy upon them, & open their Eyes. —