Brigadier General Jacob Bayley to George Washington, 24 May 1781
From Brigadier General Jacob Bayley
Newbury [Vt.] 24th May 1781
Sr
Since my Last som Deserters Came In and Confirms the former accounts of the Enemys Building a Block house or Fort on Masco1 also thier Preperations To attack this Place large number of Battaux are Building at St Johns the French remain very Friendly and that Bread is very Scarce in Canada they Pay at Some Places a guine pr Bushel at others less but none less than Half a guine, we have no assistan[c]e here from any Quarter we have reason To fear this Country will be attacked Soon.2 I am Your Excelencys Humble Servant
Jacob Bayley
ALS, DLC:GW. GW replied to Bayley on 9 June.
1. See Bayley to GW, 14 May.
2. For similar reports of enemy operations near St. Jean, Quebec, see GW to George Clinton, 15 April, n.1; see also Philip Schuyler to GW, 21 May (first letter), and n.2; and Bayley to GW, 27 May. For other reports on operations in Canada, see Schuyler to GW, 14 May, and James Clinton to GW, 22–23 May, n.6.
In an interrogation on 14 June of two prisoners, William Empie and Randal Hewit, Empie indicated that about three or four “3 handed Batteaux” had been constructed at St. Jean that spring. Hewit noted the presence of six boats at St. Jean “for the use of the Shipping” (DLC:GW; see also James Clinton to GW, 15–18 June, n.11, and Bayley to GW, 27 May, n.4). For the persistence of this intelligence, see William Heath to Meshech Weare, 17 Sept., in 5:256–57.