P. S. His Excellency the Admiral desires, that on the arrival of the pilots at the Hook, where they will find his fleet, they would make a signal with a white flag, either on board their boat, if they have one, or from the shore, formed in a triangle. Mons. Chouen, who will wait on you with a letter from the Admiral, sets out suddenly, and may want money to bear his expenses on his further journey. Mons. Gerard desires he may be supplied on his account, with any sum to the amount of twenty thousand livres.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Philadelphia, 28th July, 1778.
Sir,
I had the honor of receiving on the 4th of March last, in a letter from Mr Lovell, (a copy of which I now enclose,[12]) the orders of Congress, announcing my recall, and directing my immediate return.
This was the first and only intimation I ever received of the resolutions of Congress on the subject; I immediately complied with it, and left Paris the 1st of April, with hopes of arriving in season to give Congress that intelligence, which in the order for my return, they express their want of.
Unfortunately my passage has been much longer than I expected, and I but now begin to find myself recovering from the fatigues of it; yet my desire of giving Congress, as early as possible, an account of the state of their affairs in Europe, when I left France, as well as the peculiar situation in which my recall has placed me personally, has induced me to address them through your Excellency, to solicit for as early an audience as the important business in which they are engaged will admit of.
I have the honor to be,
With the most sincere respect, &c.