nely 2 regulars deserted at
night on cambridg side.[183]

[Footnote 181: Generalissimo.]

[Footnote 182: On the previous day, General Putnam,
with a strong detachment, broke ground at Cobble
hill, where the M'Lean Asylum now stands. The
object was to erect batteries for the purpose of
cannonading Boston. It was expected the British
troops would sally out of the city and attack them,
and that expectation caused Washington to issue the
order for _all_ the troops to be ready for action
at a moment's warning.]

[Footnote 183: Frothingham says, "Two British
sentinels came off in the night to the detachment"
of General Putnam.]

the 24. Nothing hapned very remarkable this day that I know of.

the 25. This morning Captain Pond inlisted several men for the next
campaign; o you nasty Sloven how your Book Looks.[184]

[Footnote 184: This remark refers to several blots
of ink which disfigure the page of his Journal on
which he was writing.]

the 26. Being Sunday it was Stormy Nothing remarkable this day.

the 27. Nothing very remarkable hapned this day.

the 28. Nothing very Strange onely Peperiss curacle came out of Boston
that old tory Dog.

the 29. Nothing remarkable onely one of our Privateers took a prize
richly Laden.[185]

[Footnote 185: That was the British storeship
_Nancy_, captured off Cape Anne, and carried into
that harbor, by Captain John Manly, commander of
the American armed schooner _Lee_, one of the six
vessels fitted out at Boston under the direction of
Washington, before Congress had yet taken any
measures to establish a navy. So valuable were the
stores of the _Nancy_, that Washington supposed
General Howe would immediately make efforts to
recover her, and he had an armed force sent to Cape
Anne to secure them. There were two thousand
muskets, one hundred thousand flints, thirty
thousand round shot for one, six, and twelve
pounders, over