"In Provincial Congress, Watertown, April 26, 1775.
"Sir: From the entire confidence we repose in your faithfulness and abilities, we consider it the happiness of this colony that the important trust of agency for it, in this day of unequalled distress, is devolved on your hands, and we doubt not your attachment to the cause and liberties of mankind will make every possible exertion in our behalf a pleasure to you; although our circumstances will compel us often to interrupt your repose, by matters that will surely give you pain. A singular instance hereof is the occasion of the present letter. The contents of this packet will be our apology for troubling you with it.
"From these you will see how, and by whom, we are at last plunged into the horrors of a most unnatural war.
"Our enemies, we are told, have despatched to Great Britain a fallacious account of the tragedy they have begun; to prevent the operation of which to the public injury, we have engaged the vessel that conveys this to you, as a packet in the service of this colony, and we request your assistance in supplying Captain Derby, who commands her, with such necessaries as he shall want, on the credit of your constituents in Massachusetts Bay.
"But we most ardently wish that the several papers herewith enclosed may be immediately printed and dispersed through every town in England, and especially communicated to the lord-mayor, aldermen, and council, of the city of London, that they may take such order thereon as they may think proper. And we are confident your fidelity will make such improvement of them as shall convince all, who are not determined to be in everlasting blindness, that it is the united efforts of both Englands that can save either: but that whatever price our brethren in the one may be pleased to put on their constitutional liberties, we are authorized to assure you that the inhabitants of the other, with the greatest unanimity, are inflexibly resolved to sell theirs only at the price of their lives.
"Signed by order of the Provincial Congress,
"Joseph Warren, President, P. T.
"A true copy from the original minutes,
"Samuel Freeman, Sec. P. T."
The depositions relative to the commencement of hostilities are as follows:—
"Lexington, April 25, 1775.
"We, Solomon Brown, Jonathan Loring, and Elijah Sanderson, all of lawful age, and of Lexington, in the county of Middlesex, and colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, do testify and declare that, on the evening of the 18th of April, instant, being on the road between Concord and Lexington, and all of us mounted on horses, we were, about ten of the clock, suddenly surprised by nine persons, whom we took to be regular officers, who rode up to us, mounted and armed, each having a pistol in his hand, and, after putting pistols to our breasts, and seizing the bridles of our horses, they swore, if we stirred another step, we should be all dead men, upon which we surrendered ourselves. They detained us until two o'clock the next morning, in which time they searched and greatly abused us, having first inquired about the magazine at Concord, whether any guards were posted there, and whether the bridges were up, and said four or five regiments of regulars would be in possession of the stores soon. They then brought us back to Lexington, cut the horses' bridles and girths, turned them loose, and then left us.