56 A. E. Verrill — Relations betioeen Bermuda and the 



A little later* there is a record of the arrival of "eight half 

 barrels of powder" shipped from Bermuda by Henry Tucker, 

 " Chairman of the Deputies of several Parishes of Bermuda." It 

 is recorded as having belonged to Capt. John Cooper of North 

 Carolina, and was intended for the use of that colony. There is no 

 reason to suppose that this was not a private shipment. 



It has often been said that the arrival of the gunpowder from 

 Bermuda enabled Washington to recapture Boston on March 17, 

 following. I have not been able to find any reliable evidence of 

 this. It appears that Congress supplied Washington's army at that ^ 

 time with gunpowder from any and every available source. Proba- 

 bly the Bermuda gunpowder was put into the general supply. 

 Doubtless some of it, if not all^ reached Washington's army, at 

 Cambridge, as there was ample time, but I have found no record of 

 its arrival. 



Just before the arrival of the small supply on the "Lucy," a 

 much larger quantity had been ordered sent to General Washington 

 from Philadelphia. 



The Continental Congress on Aug. 1, iVTojf "Resolved, that out 

 of the powder belonging to the continent now in this city, five tons 

 be sent to General Washington in the speediest and safest manner 

 by the delegates of the colony of Pennsylvania," and that " out of 

 the next that arrives " 1,000 lbs. should be allotted to New Jersey, 

 and " out of the same parcel " one ton should be reserved for N. 

 Carolina, to be lodged in the " magazine of New York," if not 

 required by Gen. Washington or Gen. Schuyler. Perhaps this lot 

 that was soon expected was the Bermuda guni)0wder. If so, the 

 storing of part of it in the New York magazine would indicate that 

 it was taken directly to New York from Bermuda. 



It is claimed by the descendants of St. George Tucker,J who came 

 to Virginia several years previously (1771) and took an active part 

 in the cause of the colonists, that he was active in securing the gun- 

 powder. But precisely what he actually did do seems to be 

 unknown. He may have helped to make the plans for the seizure. 



* See New Eiig. Hist, and Gen. Records, vol. 1, No. 4, p. 441, Oct., 1896. 



f Journals of the Continental Congress, ii, p. 238, ed. 1905. 



t See the article by J. T. McLaughlin, .)r., his great-grandson, in The Rojah 

 Gazette, March 15, 1904, reprinted from The New York Evening Post, March 5, 

 1904. p. 8, in reply to an article by Mr. C. E. Hayward, Feb. 20, 1904, Supple- 

 ment, 13. ] . Mr. Hayward stated that the powder was put aboard of two Ber- 

 muda vessels ofif the North Rocks. This is a very doubtful tradition. 



