In Sept. (dated 14th) the selectmen of Boston sent a circular to the other towns, calling a convention (_Boston Rec. Com. Rept._, xvi. 263) to consider the declaration of Bernard "that one or more regiments may soon be expected in this province" (original broadside in Mass. Hist. Soc., _Misc. MSS._, 1632-1795). It is printed and explained in that society's _Proceedings_, iv. 387. The convention sat from Sept. 22d to 29th. On the 30th, in the early morning, the British fleet took soundings along the water-front, and in the afternoon a number of war-ships came up from the lower harbor and anchored with springs on their cables. On Oct. 1st the landing took place. The news spread through the land, and the irritation was increased. (Cf. _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, xx. 9; Barry, _Mass._, ii. 370; Loring, _Boston Orators_, 75; _Franklin's Works_, vii. 418.) The question of the expense of quartering troops had been raised by Massachusetts and New York in 1767 (Hutchinson, iii. 168), and a letter of Gage on the subject is in the Shelburne Papers, vol. li. (_Hist. MSS. Com. Rept._, v. 219). Cf. Hillsborough to Governor Franklin in _N. J. Archives_, x. p. 12. The message of the Assembly to Bernard, praying for their removal (May 31, 1769), is in Hutchinson (iii. App. 497).] A contemporary vindication of the movement, and of Herman Husband, the leader, bringing the history of the commotions down to 1769 only, evidently based on material furnished by Husband, was printed in Boston in 1771.[205] Husband himself seems, during the preceding year, to have printed anonymously, giving no place of publication, a narrative of his own, fortified by the letters of Tryon and others, with the remonstrances and counter-statements.[206] [Illustration: This cut from Nathaniel Ames's _Astronomical diary or Almanack_, 1772, Boston, is inscribed "The Patriotic American Farmer, J-N D-K-NS-N, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, who with Attic Eloquence and Roman spirit hath asserted the liberties of the British Colonies in America." Cf. Scharf and Westcott's _Philadelphia_, i. 276. C. W. Peale's portrait of Dickinson (1770) was engraved by I. B. Forrest. Cf. _Catal. of Gallery of Penna. Hist. Soc._ (1872), no. 161; Lossing's _Field-Book_, i. 476. On Dickinson's influence, see "The great American essayist" in the _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, Feb., 1882, p. 117; Sept., 1883, p. 223; Read's _Life of George Read_, 49, 79; Wells's _Adams_, ii. 38; Quincy's _Josiah Quincy, Jr._, 104; Green's _Hist. View_, 370; Lossing's _Field-Book_, i. 476. Cf. letters of Dickinson in _Mem. Hist. Boston_, iii. 22; Lee's _Life of A. Lee_, ii. 293, 296, etc.] The most conspicuous presentation of the American side in 1768 were the famous _Farmer's Letters_, as they were usually called, of John Dickinson.[207] Some of the most important of the documents of the Boston patriots were printed in London under the supervision of Thomas Hollis, long a devoted friend of the colonists.[208]