Be pleased, sir, to accept the assurance of the warm and respectful affection with which I have the honour to be, &c.
P.S. Some American officers, just come from New York, assure me that a frigate has, arrived with important despatches from the English government. Don Juan de Miralles, who has been long established at Philadelphia, and who knows M. d'Aranda, died at Morristown; he was buried with much honour.
FROM GENERAL WASHINGTON.
(ORIGINAL.)
Morristown, May, 1783.
My dear Marquis,—Your welcome favour of the 27th of April came to my hands yesterday. I received it with all the joy that the sincerest friendship would dictate, and with that impatience which an ardent desire to see you could not fail to inspire. I am sorry I do not know your route through the State of New York, that I might with certainty send a small party of horse, all I have at this place, to meet and escort you safely through the Tory settlements, between this place and the North River. At all events, Major Gibbs will go as far as Compton, where the roads unite, to meet you and will proceed from thence, as circumstances may direct, either towards King's Ferry or New Windsor. I most sincerely congratulate you on your safe arrival in America, and shall embrace you with all the warmth of an affectionate friend, when you come to head-quarters, where a bed is prepared for you. Adieu till we meet. Yours, &c.~{1}
Endnote:
1. General Washington expressed, in several letters, the pleasure he felt at M. de Lafayette's return. (See his letters of the 13th and 14th of May.) The 16th of May, the congress declared, by a public resolution, that "they consider his return as a fresh proof of the disinterested zeal and persevering attachment which have justly recommended him to the public confidence and applause, and that they receive with pleasure a tender of the further services of so gallant and meritorious an officer."—(Journal of Congress, May 20th.)
It was afterwards resolved that the commander-in-chief, after having received the communications M. de Lafayette had to make to him, was to take the proper measures which were most likely to forward the success of the plan they had in view. The communications related to the expected arrival of a French squadron and land forces. The plan in contemplation was to make some attacks, especially on New York.