In this cryptic letter, Benjamin Tallmadge (1754–1835), writing under his alias “John Bolton,” reports to George Washington (1732–1799) that the Culper Ring’s agents had grown fearful and wished to suspend their dangerous work. Robert Townsend (Culper Jr., 1753–1838) in New York City had declined to continue, and Abraham Woodhull (Culper Sr., 1750–1826) had become “timid,” worried that the boat regularly crossing Long Island Sound had aroused British suspicion. Tallmadge relays Woodhull’s request for a new, trustworthy contact in the city and mentions possible replacements, including a “Mr. Mulligan,” likely Hercules Mulligan, the New York tailor who secretly fed information to the Patriots. This letter vividly conveys the constant fear and fragility that defined espionage in occupied territory. Spying carried the threat of the gallows, and the agents’ anxiety, captured in their reluctance to cross the Sound or maintain regular patterns, reminds readers that these were not invulnerable heroes but frightened people taking enormous personal risks. The letter’s coded names and indirect language illustrate the tradecraft the ring used to protect itself. Paired with the codebook and the other Culper letters in this collection, this document lets readers trace the human drama of the spy ring and consider why secrecy, though it kept agents alive, has also made their contributions so difficult for historians to document.