TO M. DE SARTINE.
Passy, November 16th, 1778.
Sir,
We have the honor of your Excellency's letter of the 6th of this month, but as the memoir of the French surgeon, which your Excellency proposed to transmit to us, was by some accident omitted to be enclosed in your letter, we are ignorant of his case, and consequently unable to inform your Excellency whether it is in our power to afford him any relief. If your Excellency will have the goodness to send us the memoir, we will answer your letter without delay.
In the meantime we may acquaint your Excellency, that the United States have not adopted any precautions for sending succors to their subjects imprisoned in England. We have ventured, without orders or permission from the United States, to lend small sums of money to persons who have escaped from irons and dungeons in Great Britain, to bear their expenses to Nantes, L'Orient and Bordeaux. But we have sent no succor to them while in England, except a small sum of money, put into the hands of Mr Hartley, to be disposed of by him for the relief of such as should most want it.
We shall consider every Frenchman, taken by the English on board of American vessels, in the same light as if he was an American by birth, and entitled to the same assistance from us as Americans are in the same situation.
We have the honor to be, &c. &c.
B. FRANKLIN,
ARTHUR LEE,
JOHN ADAMS.