Gentlemen,

In consequence of the information received from Captain [Isaac] Sears, relative to the suspicion that some part of the cargo of the ship Beulah, had been unladed before she quitted this coast, the Committee of Observation for this town, met this evening, and made enquiry respecting the affair; and thereupon have to inform you, that it appears to them that a boat belonging to this town, did last Monday morning sail from New York to Sandy-Hook; that on Tuesday evening [March 7] she returned here. Two of the witnesses examined were the boatmen and the person who we suspect engaged the boat, who refused to be sworn, but from their behaviour, and what they said on examination, and other circumstances, we believe that this was the boat seen to be hovering about the Beulah, and took Mr. John Murray out of the ship, and that goods from said ship were landed by the said boat at Staten Island. We are not able at present to furnish you with any further particulars: The Committee will make further enquiry into this matter, and if any thing further appears, we will give you immediate information; ー in the mean time we thought proper to give the above early intelligence, to furnish you with a clue in all probability of making more important discoveries on Staten Island, where we think the goods were undoubtedly landed, at the East end or in the Kills.  by order of the Committee