This Board being duly informd by the Board of War that the Ships & Vessels in Service of this State on the Expedition to Penobscot are ready to proceed to Sea upon the proper Signals being given from the Frigate Warren, you are requested to give the necessary order to Captain Salstonstal as soon as may be. In the Name & Behalf of the Council I am &c TO MESHECH WEARE.1 [MS., Massachusetts Archives.] STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY COUNCIL CHAMBER July 28--1779 SIR It having been suggested to this Board that a Vessel belonging to the subjects of his Catholick Majesty has been plunderd on the high Seas by the Captain of a Vessel from Liverpole, suspected to be Capt George Hewet of the Prize Brig Adventure lately brot into this Port--And the Board being informd that Cap Evans of Portsmouth & his Mate who arrivd here a few days ago & are since gone to that town can give Information touching the same-- It is the Request of this Board that the Honorable the Council of New Hampshire will be pleasd to cause a strict Examination to be made into a Report which is of great Importance to the United States, as the aforesaid Act of Pyracy is said to have been committed under American Colours. I am in the name &c TO ARTHUR LEE. [R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 226-228, under date of August 1, 1777.] BOSTON, Aug. 1st, 1779. It was not till the last week that I received your favour from Nantes of the 6th of March. Our friend Mr. Lovett sent it to me from Philadelphia. I resent the treatment you have met with in America with all the feelings of friendship. Among your enemies you may depend upon it there are some of the worst kind of men. I cannot help entertaining a violent suspicion that they are the enemies of their country. I am sure that they cannot at present do a more vital injury to the great cause of America than by raising the popular jealousy and clamour against its earliest, most able, and persevering friends. This they are endeavouring to do not only with regard to you but others; and they are masters of so much sophistry as to deceive some who, as I think, are not so wary and suspicious of them as they ought to be. Mr. -------- in the opinion of some of his own party, was injudicious in his publication of the 5th Dec. last. They are at least constrained to say it, whether they think so or not. It is the opinion of the best men, I know, that he has done more mischief than it will ever be in his power to atone for. I never had but one opinion of this man since the year 1774, when I first knew him, and that is, that he is commercial and interested. I believe he has for a twelvemonth past, thought it his interest to throw us into divisions and parties, and that he has been as influential in effecting it as any man in America. Interested men, men who are united in politics and commercial combinations are and must be his advocates. Perhaps the persons whose names you mention in the last part of your