Tea Leaves / Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to / the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year / 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction, / notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

by Francis S. Drake

Answer.

Gentlemen: We shall not deliver up Captain Hall's bill of lading, nor pay the freight of the teas until we can receive them.

[Copy.]	Francis Rotch.
	James Hall.
	Thos. & Elisha Hutchinson.
	Richard Clarke & Sons.
	Benjn Faneuil, Junr.

[Copy.]

At Castle William, in New England,

11^th Dec^r., 1773.

QUESTIONS PROPOSED BY JAMES BRUCE,

Master of the ship Eleanor, burthen about 250 tons, now lying in the harbour of Boston, in New England, with part of her cargo, from London, consisting of one hundred and fourteen chests of tea, consigned to Messrs. Richard Clarke & Sons, Tho^s. & Elisha Hutchinson, Benjⁿ Faneuil and Joshua Winslow, of said Boston, Merchants.

Question 1^st, by Capⁿ Bruce, to the Consignees aforesaid, in behalf of Himself and Owners.

Gentlemen: I am now ready to deliver the tea consigned to you on board my ship, and beg to know if you, gentlemen, are ready and willing to receive it, as I can produce the requisites usual and necessary for landing or delivering the said teas alongside the ship, either by yourselves, your agents or assigns; and as my cargo of lumber is ready for shipping on discharge of the said tea, I demand an immediate and positive answer to my question.