in both directions, and a musket ball fired by Joseph Bucklin hit Dudingston in the groin, and as he fell, the attackers boarded the schooner, and took over the vessel. The crew of the schooner was overtaken, bound, and put on shore, while Dudingston was attended to by Dr. John Mawney. A milestone had been reached; this was the first British blood shed in the American War for Independence. After removing the crew, the captors set fire to the vessel, and then returned to Providence. A report was sent by a crew member to Montagu, who then forwarded a copy to Wanton with the request to apprehend the offenders. Wanton then issued his proclamation, offering 100 pounds reward for evidence sufficient for conviction of the guilty parties. An active correspondence then ensued between Wanton, the Admiral, and Lieutenant Dudingston, with an account of the event sent to Lord Hillsborough. An escaped slave who was with the expedition gave names of some of the men involved to Admiral Montagu, who then forwarded this deposition to Wanton, requesting that the instigators be questioned. Wanton, instead of obeying the request, took depositions invalidating the testimony of the slave. When news reached England, George III issued a proclamation offering a reward of £1000 each for either of the leaders of the expedition, and £500 for each of the other involved parties. Wanton, along with others from neighboring colonies, was commissioned to inquire into the report upon the facts. The perpetrators of the Gaspee incident were well known, and among the most prominent citizens of the colony. Some of the younger and more rash of the accomplices had openly boasted of the events, while the ship still smoldered off the shore. Wanton and the other Rhode Island leaders were successful in subtly hampering the progress of the investigations, and amid all of the communications, commissions, claims, and counter claims, the court could not obtain enough direct evidence to indict a single person. Approach to war At some point during Wanton's tenure as governor the inhabitants of Providence urged the General Assembly to prohibit the importation of black slaves into the colony. They further wanted black slaves born in the colony to be freed at a certain age. These were "in a measure" adopted by the Assembly. In early 1773, a movement to unite the colonies was underway. Resolutions advising the appointment of inter-colonial committees of