“Paris, July 18, 1776.
“I have the honor to inform you that for a long while I have formed the project of aiding the brave Americans to shake off the yoke of England.... I have spoken already of my plans with a gentleman in London (Arthur Lee), who says he is very much attached to America; but our correspondence since I left England has been followed with difficulty and in cipher; I have received no reply to my last letter, in which I fixed certain points of this great and important affair. Since you are clothed, Monsieur, with a character which permits me to have confidence in you, I shall be very well satisfied to recommence, in a more certain and regular manner, a negotiation which till now has been barely touched....”
Silas Deane replied:
“Paris, Hôtel Grand-Villars, July 20, 1776.
“Monsieur:
“Conformably with your demand in our interview yesterday, I enclose a copy of my commission and an extract of my instructions, which will give you the certitude that I am authorized to make the acquisitions for which I addressed myself to you....
“In regard to the credit which we demand and which I hope to obtain from you, I hope that a long one will not be necessary. A year is the most that my compatriots are in the habit of asking; and Congress having engaged a great quantity of tobacco in Virginia and Maryland which will be embarked as soon as ships can be procured, I do not doubt but considerable returns in nature will be made within six months, and the whole be paid for within the year. I shall press Congress for this in my letters. Nevertheless, events are uncertain, and our commerce is exposed to suffer; but I hope that whatever comes you will soon receive sufficient returns to be enabled to wait for the rest. In case that any sum whatever remains due after the expiration of the accepted credit, it is of course understood that the usual interest will be paid you for the sum.
“I am with all the respect and attachment possible, your, etc.
“Silas Deane.”
In his reply to this letter Beaumarchais after accepting the conditions offered by the agent of Congress ends thus: