To Benjamin Franklin from Georges-Louis Le Rouge, 21 February 1782
From Georges-Louis Le Rouge2
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Paris 21 fev: 82
Monsieur,
Je Supplie Ve: Excellence de me faire mander si elle a Connoissance d’un ouvrage qui traitte de l’histoire des guerres actuelles de l’amerique ou lon pourroit le trouver. C’est pour M. le Comte de Segur3 qui me le demande.
Si Ve: Excellence pouvoit me faire venir de Londres par occasion touttes les Cartes et plans que Sr: Faden a publié depuis le 1er Janvier 1780. elle me feroit le plus gd: plaisir et a tous nos vrai curieux. Plus deux exemplaires d’une Carte en 2 feuilles contenant les C[ôtes] et provinces orientales de l’amerique septent par andrews de 1777. S’est vendu chez Dury Marchand de Cartes. Il est mort ce Dury mais la Veuve tient.4 Ma reconnoissance sera sans bornes.
Je suis avec respect de Votre Excellence Le tres humble et tres Obeisst Serviteur
Le Rouge geographe
rue des augustins
Addressed: A Son Excellence / Monsieur le Docteur / Franklin Plenipotane: / des provinces unies de / l’amerique / a Passy5
2. The cartographer whom BF had met in September, 1780, and who engraved BF’s chart of the Gulf Stream: XXXIII, 297–8, 336; XXXIV, 89, 473, 477–8. See also Ellen R. Cohn, “Benjamin Franklin, Georges-Louis Le Rouge, and the Franklin / Folger Chart of the Gulf Stream,” Imago Mundi: the International Journal for the History of Cartography, LII (2000), 124–42.
3. Louis-Philippe, comte de Ségur, son of the marquis de Ségur, minister of war: Bodinier, Dictionnaire. The count was preparing to go to America to join Rochambeau. BF gave him several warm letters of recommendation in early April.
4. William Faden, Geographer to His Majesty and the Prince of Wales, was a cartographer and map publisher best known for his North American Atlas (1777). Peter Andrews engraved maps for the Atlantic Pilot (1772). Andrew Dury (d. 1778) published, engraved, and sold maps, and had advised Digges on where to procure maps requested by BF: XXXI, 193. For all three see R. V. Tooley, Dictionary of Mapmakers (Tring, Eng., 1979). For Faden, see also R. V. Tooley, Maps and Map-Makers (rev. ed., London, 1987), pp. 56, 114.
5. WTF used the address sheet to make lists for what appears to be an upcoming dinner party. The menu consisted of: “Buttock of Beef & Cabbage / Turkey boil’d & Oister Sauce / Ham / Chickens with Eggs / Rabbit Smother with oignons / Roast Pork / Calves Head / Plumb Pudding / Pancakes / Punch / Beer / Mustard / Bread & butter.” A second list, presumably of invited guests, included: Lafayette, abbé Morellet, d’Estaing, Sarsfield, abbé de La Roche, and Caillot. Elsewhere on the page, WTF sketched a profile of a face.