Providence, Rhode-Island

v3:98

Providence, Rhode-Island, August 12, 1775.

A gentleman from Goldsborough, at the eastward, informs, that about the middle of July, two armed vessels, one of eight, the other of four carriage guns, were sent by Admiral Graves on a piratical cruise to the eastern parts of the Massachusetts, and venturing too far up Machias River, the inhabitants of that place attacked them in a sloop they had fitted for that purpose, and took them both, without losing a man. The Machias people have now three armed vessels, which they took from the enemy; the largest of them is supposed to be worth £800 sterling. About the same time, five sloops, that had been sent by General Gage for wood, were taken by the inhabitants of Majabigwaduce, a small new settlement, not far from Fort Pownall; and as there was some reason to fear that the fort, which stood at the head of Penobscot Bay, might be taken by the King' s Troops, and made use of against the country, the people in that neighbourhood dismantled it, and burnt the block-house and all the wooden work to the ground. The prisoners taken at Machias, and at Majabigwaduce, about forty in number, were on their way to Cambridge when the gentleman who brings this account came away. Among them is Captain Ichabod Jones, an infamous tory, who went down in the first armed vessel that was some time ago taken at Machias.