To His Excellency Abner Nash, Esquire, Captain General, Governor & Commander-in-Chief of the State of North Carolina,
The Petition of the Subscribers Humbly Represents,
That your Petitioners are informed that a Flag will proceed from this to Charles Town in a few days, in which your Petitioners had Expectation to be sent in Exchange for an equal Number of Citizens of the United States, or to return again in case such an Exchange could not be effected. But as your Petitioners have not been informed of the determination of the Governor and Council on their former Petition, they are fearful the Prayer was not granted.
Your Petitioners therefore most humbly pray, & they ask as a matter of favour from your Excellency, that in case they cannot be proposed for an exchange by the present Flag now intended
for the Southward, that they may be indulged to remain on Parole in the Town of New Bern, where they have contracted a small acquaintance, & where their Life in all probability will be most agreeable to them.