From Diary of the American Revolution, Vol I. Compiled by Frank Moore and published in 1859.
May 18. –We hear from Halifax, that the people have at last shown they have spirit. It seems the agents for procuring forage for the expected regiment of dragoons had taken without consent of the owner, and were shipping for Boston, a great quantity of hay, upon which the people set fire to, and wholly destroyed it; and when that work was finished, they attempted the like by the king’s magazines, which they several times fired, but they were extinguished by the people from the ships of war lying there, who made a brisk fire on the people, and prevented them from effecting their design. The fugitives from Boston are gone for Halifax, but the people say, no d–d Tories shall be allowed to breathe in their air, so that those d–ls can’t find a resting place there, which was the only place on the continent that they even dared to hope they might stay in.1
1 Holt’s Journal, May 18, and the Virginia Gazette, June 24.