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Account of the plundering of the Islands by the British

v3:88

New-York, August 16, 1775.

The following is the best account we are able to collect of the late expedition of the piratical Regular traitors to the English Constitution and the British Colonies, in plundering Fisher' s, Gardiner' s, Plumb, and Block Islands, of Stock, Provisions, &c.

The design of the Regulars to plunder these islands having been communicated to the inhabitants and proprietors by the Congress of New-York, and other intelligences, as early as Tuesday, the eighth instant, there was time to have taken off all the stock, and some was actually taken off; but some differences having arisen between the proprietors and the Committees, concerning the expense of the business, before any thing could be determined the ships of the enemy appeared in sight. Despatches were immediately sent to alarm and assemble the people on the Connecticut and Long-Island shores, who, notwithstanding the utmost haste they could then make, were too late to prevent the execution of the felonious design of the enemy; who, on Friday, the eleventh instant, approached Gardiner' s Island, with the following vessels and forces, viz: seven transport ships, two brigs, two men-of-war, one snow of ten guns, one armed schooner of seventeen men, and two hundred Regulars, as reported by the sailors, landed on the island, and, assisted by ten villanous Tories from Southold, &c˙, took off the following stock, &c.:

By the account of Benjamin Miller, the overseer, one thousand sheep, thirty hogs, thirteen geese, three calves, one thousand pounds of cheese, and seven tons of hay, were taken off, and much damage done to gardens, fences, fowls, &c. When they went away, they left on the table half a guinea and a pistareen.

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