From Benjamin Franklin to Francis Coffyn, 22 November 1779
To Francis Coffyn
Copy: Library of Congress
Passy, Nov. 22. 1779.
Sir
I imagine Capt. Cunnyngham will be at Dunkerque by the time you receive this. I desire you would furnish him with what Money he may want for his comfortable Subsistance while he Stays at Dunkerque.
Inclosed I Send you a Complaint I received from some of the People of the Black Prince,7 and request you or Mr. Torris, would ease me of Such Trouble, I having really nothing to do with the Payment of those People. I have not heard what was done with the new Commissions, I Sent you, or whether the Cruize of the Black Prince and Princess took place or was laid aside.8
With great Esteem, I have the honour to be &c.
Mr. Coffin
7. Apparently this was the now-missing petition of William Power and others, described below in the Dec. 7 letters of the Black Prince’s captain and officers, Patrick Dowlin et al., and her principal owner, John Torris.
8. On Oct. 15 he had sent Coffyn commissions for the privateers Black Prince and Black Princess, presently outfitting there. Bad weather held them in port until Dec. 21: XXX, 536; Clark, Ben Franklin’s Privateers, p. 103.