Long vulnerable to attack from Indians and the French, Massachusetts and its towns have stockpiled munitions over the decades. During the summer months of 1774, colonists feel the full force of Parliament's punitive measures and the dismay of being ruled by a governor who is also General of His Majesty's Troops in America. Surreptitiously, colonists begin to withdraw their towns' gunpowder from a central storage facility, the Provincial Powder House at Charlestown. On 1 September, acting on information from loyalist William Brattle, Gage proceeds swiftly and quietly to remove the remaining provincial stores to the safety of Castle William. Throughout the countryside, alarmed colonists swarm toward Charlestown. The next day thousands gather in Cambridge, eager to exact revenge and give further notice that they will not tolerate the Intolerable Acts.