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Baltimore, February 12, 1776.
SIR: Before this, no doubt, you have heard of the ill fate of the schooner Nancy, at St˙ Eustatia. I have as yet no letters from my Captain or supercargo. I daily expect to hear from them; as soon as I do, shall advise you. As to the vessel' s being taken, that account is confirmed different ways, which I am sorry for. I have provided a cargo of flour some time ago, expecting the schooner in, and had no doubt of her bringing ammunition, which would have got me a permission to have loaded her out on my own account. I have a good deal of money due me from St˙
Croix, a Danish Island, near to St˙ Eustatia. If your honourable Council would give me liberty to send a schooner I now have here, to that place, where I have a number of correspondents, which I know to be true friends to our cause, and will go any lengths to serve us with such things
as we may want, I would load her with three or four thousand red-oak staves, some flour, and Indian meal, and corn, and send her immediately to St˙ Croix, where my Captain, with the assistance of my friends there, would get all the powder that could be got in that island, and could go
over to St˙ Eustatia leave my vessel at St˙ Croix; purchase such goods as I wanted; order powder, &c˙, if to be got,
and take it to St˙ Croix in a small craft, where it might, with great safety, be put on board my vessel. The money that is due me there, and the cargo I would send out, would, I think, buy near two thousand pounds value of a back
Sir, you will please excuse me troubling you, as you are the only gentleman of the Council I have the honour to be acquainted with.
Pray favour me with an answer by the first opportunity, and you will much oblige, sir, your very humble servant,
WILLIAM NEILL.
To the Honourable Charles Carroll, a Member of the Council of Safety.
William Neill to Charles Carroll
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cargo. So eligible is this plan to me, that I have laid it before you, that if you give me permission, I will risk it all on my own account, and will give all the arms, ammunition, &c˙, I may get in, the first offer of all, to the Council of Safety. Should you be afraid, that by granting me this permission, you would be troubled with many other applications, it need not be known to any, but that she goes on account of the Province.