In December, 1777, the Committee of Foreign Affairs proposed to the Commissioners at Paris the most extensive naval expedition planned for the Continental fleet during the Revolution. The plan was to be carried out by two or three of the frigates which the Marine Committee were sending to France. These, being well manned, were early in February, 1778, to be despatched to the French island of Mauritius in the Indian ocean, where they should refit and replenish their stores. The frigates should next proceed to the Coromandel Coast, a twenty days’ sail from Mauritius. Here they should intercept the enemy’s China ships, and also distress the internal trade of India. The prizes could be sold in Mauritius and the proceeds sent to Paris by bills of exchange. Gorée was recommended as a better port of call than the Cape of Good Hope, where there was danger to be apprehended from British vessels. In the same letter the Committee wrote that “another beneficial attempt may be conducted along the coasts of Africa. The French and Dutch settlements, and perhaps the Portuguese, will purchase the prizes, and give bills on Europe.”[346] No reply was made by the Commissioners relative to the proposed East Indian expedition until in July, 1778, when Arthur Lee wrote to the Committee of Foreign Affairs that the Commissioners considered the plan “impracticable at the present.” “Better order,” he said, “must be established in our marine, and the ships’ companies better sorted, before it will be safe to attempt enterprises at such a distance, and which require a certain extent of ideas in the captain and entire obedience in the crew.”[347] One must agree with Lee’s conclusion, although more weighty objections to the complicated plan of the Committee might be adduced.
FOOTNOTES:
[314] For convenience the term “Naval Office” will be used in this chapter. It will be understood of course that there existed no “Naval Office” apart from the Office of the American representatives at Paris, in whom were vested diplomatic, naval, and commercial duties.
[315] Ingraham, Papers relative to Silas Deane, 67.
[316] Wharton’s Diplomatic Correspondence and Ford’s Letters of William Lee are the best sources for the work of these agents.
[317] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence II, 595, Adams to Commercial Committee, May 24, 1778.
[318] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence II, 191, 200, Deane to Committee of Secret Correspondence, November 6, November 28, 1776.
[319] Collections of New York Historical Society, Deane Papers, II, 122; Journals of Continental Congress, May 9, 1778.
[320] Ingraham, Papers relative to Silas Deane, 141-49.
[321] Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, III, 802-03; IV, 26, 33; Hale’s Franklin in France, I, chapter XVI, Privateers from Dunkirk.