Nicholas Brown & Co. to Mason, Benjamin; June 17, 1765
Letter, dated June 17, 1765, from Nicholas Brown and Company to Benjamin Mason, a merchant in Newport. The Brown had recently received reports that Esek Hopkins had lost all but one of his hands on the African coast; the reports apparently originated with a Captain Morris, who had just returned to Newport from Africa. In this letter, the Browns ask Mason to seek out Morris and to gather information about "when Captain H. was last seen or heard from + all the finer [details] of his Voyage." A month later, the Browns received a letter from Hopkins contradicting the reports.