“Resolved: that Captain Derby be directed and he hereby is directed to make for Dublin, or any other good port in Ireland, and from thence to cross to Scotland or England, and hasten to London. This direction is given so that he may escape all enemies that may be in the chops of the Channel to stop the communication of the Provincial Intelligence to the agent. He will forthwith deliver his papers to the agent on reaching London.
“J. Warren, Chairman.
“P. S.—You are to keep this order a profound secret from every person on earth.”
The letter which Captain John Derby carried with his dispatches read as follows:
“In Provincial Congress, Watertown,
“April 26, 1775.
“To the Hon. Benjamin Franklin, Esq., London:
“Sir: From the entire confidence we repose in your faithfulness and abilities, we consider it for the happiness of this Colony that the important trust of agency for it, on this day of unequalled distress, is devolved on your hands; and we doubt not your attachment to the cause of the 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 single 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 horrours 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 publick 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 Common 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 must save either. But whatever price our brethren in 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,
“Jos. Warren, President pro tem.”