(No 20)

Sir,  Since my letter to you of 27th ulto an account has been printed here, accompanied with Depositions to verify it, of Skirmishes between a Detachment of the Troops under your Command, and different Bodies of the provincial Militia.

It appears, upon the fullest Inquiry, that this Account, which is chiefly taken from a Salem Newspaper, has been published by a Captain Darby [John Derby], who arrived on Friday or Saturday [May 26 or 27] at Southampton, in a small Vessel in Ballast, directly from Salem; and from every Circumstance relating to this Person & the Vessel, it is evident he was employed by the Provincial Congress to bring this account, which is plainly made up for the purpose of conveying every possible Prejudice and misrepresentation of the Truth.

From the Answers he has given to such questions as have been asked, there is the greatest Probability that the whole amounts to no more than that a Detachment sent by you to destroy Cannon and Stores, collected at Concord for the purpose of aiding Rebellion were fired upon at different times by the People of the Country in small Bodies from behind Trees and Houses, but that the Party effected the Service they went upon, & returned to Boston, and I have the Satisfaction to tell you that the Affair being considered in that light by all discerning Men, it has had no other effect here than to raise that just Indignation which every honest Man must feel at the rebellious Conduct of the New England Colonies.

At the same time it is very much to be lamented that We have not some Account from you of this Transaction, which I do not mention from any Supposition that you did not send the earliest Intelligence of it, for we know from Darby that a Vessel with Dispatches from you sailed four days before him. We expect the Arrival of that Vessel with great Impatience, but till she arrives I can form no decisive Judgment of what has happened, and therefore can have nothing more to add but that  I am &ca