To Benjamin Franklin from Gourlade & Moylan, 2 July 1779
From Gourlade & Moylan
ALS:5 American Philosophical Society
L’Orient 2d July 1779
Honord Sir
We beg leave to refer you to the inclosed letter from Cap: Jones respecting the affaires of his fleet6 and we join to this extract from a letter we this day recd from Cap: John Green, for your perusal.7 We are respectfully Hond. Sir Your most obt. & most humble Sts
Gourlade & Moylan
The Honble. Doctor Franklin.
Notation: Gourlade et Moylan L’Orient 2. juillet 1779.
5. In the hand of James Moylan, an American merchant who in late 1778 had become a business partner of the Frenchman Jacques-Alexandre Gourlade; see XXVIII, 209n.
6. Above, July 1.
7. That extract, dated June 25, contained nearly the same information as Green had written to BF on the same date (XXIX, 737–8). But to Gourlade & Moylan, Green also included an account of British forces in New York, which, he claimed, “dont exceed 7000.” This was a considerable underestimate; on May 1 more than twice this number were fit for duty: Mackesy, War for America, p. 270.