Yesterday a party from the shore dined with the commodore in compliment to us, and in the evening we had a little concert. Our harmony, however, had near been interrupted by a Dutch colonel, a furious patriot, who was enraged to the last degree of indignation, that the commodore should heap civilities on the bitter foes of the Batavian republic. Every Englishman was a dangerous person; and those very circumstances which precluded suspicion, ought to awaken the most vigilant caution. If we were not actually spies, situation and opportunity might make us; and he did me the honour to insinuate, that the more than common share of curiosity and observation which I appeased to possess, alarmed him greatly. The illiberality of this person was not confined to the insinuations which I have already mentioned; or virulent abuse of the English nation through the medium of French and Dutch ballads, but he attempted to wound us where the means of defence were less in our power — by drawing a conclusion destructive of female character, from the circumstance that I wore
