From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 18 September 1779
To Vergennes
LS:9 Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Library of Congress
Passy, Sept. 18. 1779.
Sir
I send herewith to your Excellency a Translation of the Invoices of the Goods desired, with the Original.10 The Packet Boat which brought our Dispatches will be ready to depart for America next Week, but shall wait your Orders. She is a fast Sailer being built expressly for the Business; and the Captain11 is a trusty Person who will take good Care of any Letters you may think fit to charge him with.
It will be of great Importance that I should inform the Congress by this Opportunity what Success is like to attend their Application.
I am, with the utmost Respect, Your Excellencys, most obedient & most humble Servant.
B Franklin
M. Le Cte. de Vergennes.
9. In WTF’s hand.
10. The invoices were those which the committee for foreign affairs had sent BF on July 16, above. They included a list of materials for a 74-gun ship of the line building at Portsmouth, N.H. (the America: XXVIII, 623n), a similar list for a 36-gun frigate (a copy of which is at the Hist. Soc. of Pa.), a list of clothing desired for the navy (a copy of which is at the APS), and a list of items to be imported for the board of war and ordnance (a copy and French translation of which are at the Hist. Soc. of Pa.). All of these are at the AAE. For a more detailed description of them see Smith, Letters, XIII, 229n.
11. Simeon Samson of the Mercury.