Benjamin Franklin Papers
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Jonathan Loring Austin to the American Commissioners, 27 October 1778: résumé

Jonathan Loring Austin to the American Commissioners8

ALS: American Philosophical Society

<Amsterdam, October 27, 1778: I will sail for St. Eustatia next Wednesday or Thursday, as no direct passage for America is available. Had I been able I would have told you sooner, so you could send more dispatches. I doubt that Admiral d’Estaing is in the precarious situation reported by the English newspapers. American affairs provoke conflicting opinions in the coffee houses here. I will take good care of your letters for Congress, and will be honored by any further mention of me.9 May all possible success attend your negotiations.1>

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

8Published in Taylor, Adams Papers, VII.

9See the commissioners’ letter to the president of Congress, Sept. 22.

1Austin reached St. Eustatia in February, 1779, and in April had an eventful passage to Virginia, narrowly escaping capture by a British privateer. Compensated by Congress for his services in Europe he returned to Boston at the end of May: Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, XVI, 305.

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