Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from John Bondfield, 23 September 1779

From John Bondfield

ALS: American Philosophical Society

Bordeaux 23 Sep 1779

Sir

I have the Honor to forward by the Express going with the dispatches receivd by the same Conveyance the Inclosed packets arrived last Evening by Cap Benin(?) from Boston he saild from that port the 25 August, he reports that by a considerable reinforcement arrivd at Ponobscot our People were oblidged to destroy their Shiping and abandon the attempt against that establishment to the Enemy.1

Our Ships the Governer Livingston & Mary Fearon are arrived in Virginia the Chasseur as advised in my former is taken and sent into New York.

I have the Honor to be with due respect Sir Your most Obedient Humble Servant

John Bondfield

To His Excellency Benj Franklin Esq

Notation: Bondfield John 13. Sept. 1779.

1The Sept. 24 issue of the Courier de l’Europe (VI [1779], 196–7) carried a British account of their recent victory and a list of seventeen burned, captured, or sunk American ships (including the number and weight of their cannon). A similar list in WTF’s hand (with one addition and two deletions) bears BF’s notation, “Marine of America” (APS).

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