Score of Provisions that they would not extend their term
of service to the ist of January 1776."

Other letters to Hale from New London friends,
among them one from an officer absent on furlough,
speak freely of the anxieties of those watching the
progress of the reenlistments, and the home reception
that would be given to any leaving the army.

Another letter from Saltonstall reads as follows:

===============NEW LONDON, Decr. 18th 1775=====
=====DEAR DIR===============

I wholly agree with you in y??. agreables of a Camp Life,
and should have try'd it in some Capacity or other before
now, could my Father carry on his Business without me.
I proposed going with Dudley, who is appointed to Commn.
a Twenty-Gun Ship in the Continental Navy, but my
Father is not willing, and I can't persuade myself to leave
him in the eve of Life against his consent...

Yesterday week the Town was in the greatest confusion
imaginable; Women wringing their Hands along Street,
Children crying, Carts loaded 'till nothing more would
stick on, posting out of Town, empty ones driving in, one
Person running this way, another that, some dull, some
vex'd, more pleased, some flinging up an Intrenchment, some
at the Fort preparing ye Guns for Action, Drums beating,
Fife's playing; in short as great a Hubbub as at the confusion
of Tongues; all of this occasioned by the appearance
of a Ship and two Sloops off the Harbour, Suppos'd to be
part of Wallace's Fleet,--When they were found to be
Friends, Vessels from New Port with Passengers ye con-
sternation abated...??

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