Of the very early deeds of these privateers only meagre details are found recorded, but it appears that Washington, when he found the troops under his command, in the fall of 1775, were well-nigh absolutely destitute of powder, determined to supply them from the transports that were continually bringing munitions of war to the British forces in Boston and to the British ships in the harbor. Accordingly, he caused several small vessels to be armed and sent afloat in Massachusetts Bay and along shore to intercept the transports. He did this without waiting for authority from the Congress, and the vessels sailed as Massachusetts cruisers. [Illustration: _From the copy at the Lenox Library._] Of the number sent, it is said that all but one proved to be manned by incapable officers or mutinous crews, which is not quite true, but the one, the schooner _Lee_, of eight small guns, Capt. John Manly, redeemed any failure of the rest by the capture of the brigantine _Nancy_, already noted. “This was an ordnance ship,” says Dodsley’s “Annual Register,” of London, for 1776. She “contained, besides a large mortar upon a new construction, several pieces of fine brass cannon, a large quantity of small arms and ammunition, with all manner of tools, utensils, and machines necessary for camps and artillery, in the greatest abundance. The loss of this ship was much resented in England.” As a matter of fact, she carried 2,000 muskets, 8,000 fusees, 31 tons of musket bullets, 3,000 solid shot for twelve-pounders, and two six-pounder cannon, besides gunpowder, etc. The mortar was of thirteen-inch calibre, and afterward exploded. She was brought into Cape Ann Roads on November 29, 1775. On December 8th the _Lee_ took three more transports that were less valuable to the Americans, but the loss hurt the British rather more. For, insignificant as were the vessels captured when considered as a part of the whole fleet employed against the colonies, one need only glance at the state of affairs in Boston to understand why the loss of one ordnance ship was “resented in England,” and why the taking of three other transports was a still more serious matter. Boston was cut off from the back country. All supplies had to come from over the water. “Toward the end of the season Government went to a vast expense in sending out provisions and necessaries of all sorts,” says the British authority just quoted. “The want of fresh provisions had caused much sickness there. ... No less than 5,000 oxen, 14,000 of the largest and fattest sheep and a vast number of hogs were purchased and sent out alive.” They also sent out coal and even kindling wood, not to mention vegetables. But the winds were against them. The live stock died on board before they got away from the home coasts, “so that the channel was everywhere strowed with the carcasses of these animals.” The vegetables “fermented and perished.” On top of all these losses the capture of even such small