The Virginia Gazette

Extract of a letter from the State of Rhode Island.

The Tories, at Newport, in general fare little better than the friends to our cause. I am very certain almost every one of them have soldiers quartered at their houses, are insulted, and abused, if it were possible, in some measure adequate to their deserts. You may be assured they had been inviting, soliciting, and petitioning Mr. Howe to take possession of the island and town a long time before it was done, and we have the greatest reason to believe they were made acquainted with every circumstance, and the time of the troops embarking at New York. The Monday and Tuesday before they arrived, the sexton of the high Jacobitish church (which had been shut up since the resolve of Congress, that prayers for the King, &c. should be omitted in the church service) was employed in cleaning every part of it; and it was whispered about that they should soon perform public worship in its purity. The first Sunday after the British troops had taken possession of the town, Sawney preached from these words, "The Lord hath delivered us, and we are glad."—You may form what ideas you please of this Scotch lad's discourse, but wormwood and gall was too mild for rebels, fire and brimstone not more than they deserved.