1. In his letter to North Carolina governor Richard Dobbs Spaight of this date, Knox acknowledged the receipt of Spaight’s letter to GW of 31 Jan., and then wrote: “Under the circumstances of your having possessed yourself of the L’amee Margueritte formerly the sloop Providence it is to be regretted that my second letter of the 13th January should have been written as it is not improbable that in pursuance thereof you may have relinquished her, for from consideration of public importance, which have occurred since the writing of that letter it would have been desireable that the said vessel should have been restored to her former owners.

“If therefore she should still be in your actual possession it is the instruction of the President of the United States that upon a full ascertainment of her having been captured by the illicit privateer the Vanqueur de Bastille after the fifth day of June last that you cause her to be restored to her Master or owner at the time of her capture or to the agents of the British Government, who may apply duly authorized for that purpose.

“If however you should have relinquished the actual possession of her in pursuance of my said letter of the 13th January it is not desired or intended that you should now retake possession of her. But in this case it is to be explicitly understood that she is not to have asylum in our ports unless she divests [her]self of all warlike equipments” (Nc-Ar: Governors’ Letterbooks). For two letters from Knox to Spaight of 13 January, see n.1 of Spaight’s second letter to GW of 8 February.

Knox’s letter to South Carolina governor William Moultrie has not been identified.