Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/185

 day, discovered and burnt by the people of the neigh- bourhood. In consequence of this act, the captain addressed the following letter to the committee of the town of Hampton:

" Otter sloop, Norfolk river, Sept. 10, 1775.

" Gentlemen,

" WTiereas, a sloop tender, manned and armed in his majesty's service, was on Saturday the 2d instant, in a violent gale of wind, cast on shore in Back river Eliza- beth county, having on board the undermentioned king's stores, which the inhabitants of Hampton thought pro- per to seize: I am therefore to desire, that the king's sloop, with all the stores belonging to her, be immediate- ly returned; or the people of Hampton, who committed the outrage, must be answerable for the consequences. I am, gentlemen, your humble servant,

"Matthew Squire."

This letter, with a catalogue of the stores, having been communicated to the committee of Williamsburg, and by them having been laid before the commanding officer of the volunteers of that place, major James Innes, at the head of a hundred men, who courted the enterprise, flew to Hampton to repel the threatened invasion'. Squire, however, satisfied himself for the present, by falling down to Hampton road, where he seized the passage boats, with the negroes in them, by way of reprisal as he alleged, for the stores, &c. taken out of his tender when driven ashore in the late storm; " which boats and negroes," adds Purdie's paper of the day, " it is likely he intends taking into the femg's ser- vice, to send out a-pirating for hogs, fowls, &c. A very pretty occupation for the captain of one of his majesty's ships of war." The next paper announces the move-

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