From Benjamin Franklin to Vergennes, 25 July 1778
To Vergennes
ALS: Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères
Passy, July 25. 1778.
Sir,
We have just received another Copy of the Ratification. We understand the Congress have sent five by so many different Conveyances.9 The Vessel now arriv’d left Boston the 16th June. There was then no News there of Count D’Estaign.1 I send enclos’d a Letter from Dr. Cooper to me, the latest Newspaper, and an Account of the Cargo of the Duchesse de Grammont, of whose safe Arrival we have now first the good News.2 I am, with great Respect, Your Excellency’s most obedient humble Servant
B Franklin
[In the margin:] Mr. Adams and myself were at Versailles to day, with an Intention to pay our Respects to your Excelly. but receiving Notice while there of the Arrival of Dispatches for us, we hasten’d back to see if there was any News of Importance.
M. le Comte de Vergennes
9. Six copies were sent, of which at least four had arrived by July 29: JCC, XI, 463; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, II, 673.
1. The vessel was the schooner Dispatch: XXVI, 600–1; Taylor, Adams Papers, VI, 315. D’Estaing’s fleet reached the Delaware Capes on July 8: see RB to BF, above, July 14 and W.M. James, The British Navy in Adversity: A Study of the War of American Independence (London, 1926), p. 97.
2. Cooper’s letter is above, June 1 (XXVI, 562–6). The Duchesse de Grammont was one of the ships sent by JW (XXV, 494 n); her cargo list, at the AAE, reads as follows:
Etat du Chargement du Navire la duchesse de Grammont
arrivé a Portsmouth dans la nouvelle Hampshire le commencement de Juin 1778.
13,433 Habits de Soldats complets
13,000 paires de Bas
80,000 Livres pesant de Cuivre
32 Futailes de pierres a fusil
2 petite pieces d’artillerie de Fonte
1500 Fusils de Rampart
775 musquetons | pour la Cavalerie | |
800 paire de stolets | ||
1400 paire de Fonts | ||
100 Cartouches | ||
100 Pelles | ||
176.200 Bouchons de Liège distribues parmi les Fusils etc. |
Le tout pour le Compte du Congress dont le prémier achat en France est d’environ 800.000 Livres Tournois.