CONTAINING
SEVERAL DEPOSITIONS, &c
(No.97.)
April 22, 1770.
SIR,
THE following circumstances relative to the conduct of the
Bo-
stonians, I take the liberty of communicating to you, since
I
cannot attend you this evening agreeable to your desire. They are
facts that I can swear to, if necessary.
The latter end of October, 1769, I arrived at
Boston, being soon
after the landing of the troops; the numberless insults they received
I could not but take notice of. From my acquaintance with the
sons of liberty (as they term themselves) among whom I lived, I
could easily perceive their disaffection to government, as well from
their unwarrantable proceedings, as the unguarded expressions they
would drop in conversation. Some time before the disturbance bred
by the ropemakers, it was customary with many of the inhabitants
in an evening to arm themselves with pistols, cutlasses, and
blud-
geons, under a pretence that they had been frequently molested by
the soldiers. That on the second and third of March last, before the
general assault of the fifth, one Gray, and another person,
both
ropemakers, met an acquaintance of mine, an high son of liberty,
and told him that they expected to die to-morrow,
they did not care
how soon, as it was in a good cause; for that they, as well as several
of their profession, with the assistance of some noted
North-End
bruisers, were determined the following day to attack the soldiers.
That they (the ropemakers) were well prepared, and certain there
would be bloody work; and concluded with asking him whether he
would not attend as a spectator, advising him to arm himself in case
of the worst; that Gray and his companion were both of them
armed