I think it my duty to trouble you with these few lines concerning the papers that Mr. Deane has committed to my Charge & which I promised to deliver into your hands, had I found you in the Congress as Mr. Deane informed Me— You will use certain liquid (that Mr. Deane told me you had) upon the Margin of the printed Sheets so as to make legible what Mr. Deane has wrote; should it not have it’s proper ^effect^ which I am afraid of as the Letters were put into a Tin Box in a Barrel of Rum which was eat through & I am afraid has damaged them, the enclosed Letter is of the same Contents and I hope will make up whatever deficiencies may be in the margins—

according to Mr. Deane’s orders you will please to seal up the printed papers and send them to Mrs. Deane1 after you have read and considered them with Attention— I lived at Paris in the same house with Mr. Deane & had the Pleasure of being particularly intimate with him so that I became in some measure his Confident. Could I flatter myself with the hopes of your Correspondence I should be happy to inform you or answer you any Questions concerning the most of Mr. Deane’s transactions the last summer which he performed with the Warmth of the most zealous of Patriots—my coming by the ^Way^ of Westindies is the reason of the date of your Letter being so old— I was taken with General Du Coudray within fifteen Leagues of Cape Ann by the Greyhound frigate but made a most singular escape from them—

I shall go off for the Camp in a few days where I hope to have the pleasure of a letter from you directed to the Care of Mr. Clemt. Biddle deputy Quarter Master.2 ’Till then I remain your sincerest humble servant