The Virginia Gazette

British deserters, we learn, are daily coming in to our several ports: while we aim for their encouragement, at using them well, let us not exceed, let us be cautious: Many of them we have already experienced, are villains; and some, very probably, are encouraged to come out and mix with us, to serve the base purposes of the enemy. One of those who lately murdered Capt. Hopper, was a British deserter, who had been used well at his house. A correspondent judiciously observes, "That as many, or all, of those British who desert to us, are either farmers or mechanics, let them be sent to persons of approved political principles and good morals, who will employ them in their respective professions, pay them wages, and look well to them; but by no means suffer them to roam at large through the country, or go near our camps. If they have been bad, this line of conduct may reform them, and make them useful members of society, or keep them from being pernicious. If they are idle, and will not accept of employment, they are to be suspected, and treated as pernicious vagrants."