[Pamphlets. American history]

212
about supplying Nantucket & we must get leave of the
Committee of Safety at Cambridge for every article we
intend to put on bo'ard for you-this will render the difficulty of supplying you much greater than it has beenhowever I should hope that you will not be obliged to
tarry lonnger than August; and if necessity obli^ges you
to decamp sooner you can at any time leave the Island
without any difficulty.
Sunday, P. M. Well, my dear, I am heartily glad you
are not here just at this time; you would, I know, be
most terribly alarmed. We had an appearance yesterday
of a most prodigious smoke, which I f)und was exactly
in the direction of Charlestown and as we knew our men
were entrenching on Bunker Hill there, we supposed the
Town was on fire, and so in fact it proved, for in the
evening (that is last cvenit:g) we were told the Regulars
had landed at Charlestown under cover of the smoke
firom ye buildings they had set tire to, and forced the
Entrenchments on the Hill and had beat our men off with
loss, & this mornin(g our intelligence was that 400 of our
men were killed & the Regulars had pursued our men as
far as Winter Hill; (tho' we just now learn that the Regulars still keep possession of Bunkers Itill, & that our
men are entrenched upon Winter Hill) & that there is
a probability of further action soon, and that our loss
amounts only to about 150 killed. Amoing the missing
is Dr. Warren who it is said commanded a Regiment;
Col.0 Bridge of Billerica is said to be among( ye slain, and
Col. G[arcldne]r of Cambridge had one of his thig'hs shot
off. The commotion here was so consicleral)e, thoulgh
none of our men went to ye Battle (as the northwest part
of the Province and not the sea coast were called upon
the occasion) that we had but; one meeting house open in
ye morning,,-and this afternoon while some were at
meeting and others talking over Aye action of yesterday,
we were alarmed with an appearance of smoke at Marblehead, which broke up ye meeting, & the people Nwith their
engoines & buckets went over to extinguish the fire, and I
amongf the rest, tho' I should have been glad to have been
excused on account of the prodigious heat of the weather,