Extract of a Letter to a Gentleman in Scotland

v4:1166

All the well-affected to Government betook themselves to the shipping, where they are in great safely, and well provided. Lord Dunmore, having foreseen the event, had laid plentifully in of all sorts of provisions. He has given orders to fortify Tucker' s Point, where bake-houses and mills are fast erecting. Several vessels are taken from the Rebels, loaded, from the northward, with salt, flour, and grain. The Roebuck, with General Clinton, and a tender, are arrived safe. The tender is to proceed for Cape-Fear, in North-Carolina, in order to raise volunteers, thousands of whom are ready to join the King' s troops on being properly accoutred, and provided with arms and ammunition. The Rebels are in the deepest distress, being divested of clothes, ammunition, and lodgings; and, from their not keeping themselves clean, they are overrun with vermin, which, in the Summer season, must breed much sickness. Great numbers of them are already in their hospitals; and, at the least calculation, seven hundred of them are killed, wounded, sick, and taken prisoners. They are, however, desperate to the last degree, and intrenching themselves backward to secure their retreats. The back settlers would, willingly, supply Lord Dunmore with fresh provisions, but have no means of conveying them, except what the negroes forage in the night time. All the Highland emigrants are most friendly to Government.