I cannot omit the opportunity of writing you a line by this post. This
letter will, I suppose, find you, in some degree or other, under the
influence of the small-pox. The air is of very great importance. I don't
know your physician, but I hope he won't deprive you of air more than is
necessary.
We had yesterday an express from General Lee in Charleston, South
Carolina, with an account of a brilliant little action between the
armament under Clinton and Cornwallis, and a battery on Sullivan's
Island, which terminated very fortunately for America. I will endeavor
to inclose with this a printed account of it. It has given us good
spirits here, and will have a happy effect upon our armies at New York
and Ticonderoga. Surely our northern soldiers will not suffer themselves
to be outdone by their brethren so nearly under the sun. I don't yet
hear of any Massachusetts men at New York. Our people must not flinch at
this critical moment, when their country is in more danger than it ever
will be again, perhaps. What will they say if the Howes should prevail
against our forces at so important a post as New York, for want of a few
thousand men from the Massachusetts? I will likewise send you by this
post Lord Howe's letter and proclamation, which has let the cat out of
the bag. These tricks deceive no longer. Gentlemen here, who either were
or pretended to be deceived heretofore, now see or pretend to see
through such artifices. I apprehend his Lordship is afraid of being
attacked upon Staten Island, and is throwing out his barrels to amuse
Leviathan until his reinforcements shall arrive.