Letter from Colonel Howe to the Virginia Convention

v4:251

December 13, 1775.

We have scouting parties down the Bay, to give intelligence of the arrival of any vessels, or any other event, either to our advantage or otherwise. From the officers commanding those parties, we have received certain intelligence that a man-of-war, either of thirty-six or forty guns, is within the Bay, and on her way to this place, with a large brig, supposed to be a store-ship, both full of men. This may probably give us something to do, and I hope we may execute it properly.