13th May.
I very much admire your last letter to Mazarredo, as I have done all the former.
27th May.
I like your letter so much better than mine, of which I enclose a copy, that I desire you will send it on immediately.
Ville de Paris, 30th May 1797.
It is impossible for any man to have acquitted himself with greater ability than you have done during the time you commanded the blockade; for which I return you my best thanks. Your last letter to Mazarredo is a masterpiece; and you will perceive, by the enclosed copy of my letter to him, in answer to his comment on our suspicion about the seamen from Trinidad, that I profited by your hint relative to the prisoners landed at Lagos. Your lash on the destruction of the Spanish ships he bears with Spanish stoicism: nous verrons.
The following communication from Sir James Saumarez to the commander-in-chief will elucidate the foregoing extracts:
(Secret.)