To the Committee of Safety for Massachusetts

v2:450

Portsmouth, New-Hampshire, April 30, 1775.

There is much probability that the last mail from England for General Gage passed through Northampton, eastward or northward, yesterday about twelve o' clock. It may be that it may pass up the river as far as Northfield, before it steers its course from the sea-shore. Probably its direction may be to Portsmouth or Salem. No one will judge that if will attempt to enter Boston directly. No doubt the bearer will be several times shifted before its arrival to the place of destination. The people of Northampton yesterday knew nothing that there was any suspicion of the mail' s passing by land. The circumstances which make up the evidence that a traveller who passed this Town yesterday was the bearer of the mail, are too many to be mentioned. He undoubtedly came from Hudson' s River to Northampton, whether in a direct or oblique course, is not yet made certain. The suspected bearer, who was at Northampton, does not altogether answer the description given in the New-York letter of the probable bearer from them, but many think it more likely that they would attempt to get the mail along by some acquainted up the river, in the County of Cumberland, than by Oliver De Lancey, Jun.

Quere. Whether it is not expedient to search every suspicious person passing as far northward as any road leading from Connecticut River to Portsmouth,