TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
Paris, June 15th, 1778.
Gentlemen,
I find I was mistaken in saying in my last, of the 9th, that twenty thousand fusils had been shipped from Nantes and Bordeaux; upwards of ten thousand remain unshipped, at Nantes. Upon the strength of the promised remittance from our friends in Spain, and near one hundred thousand remaining in my hands, I have desired the Gardoquis to continue shipping blankets and strong shoes from Bilboa; twenty thousand livres worth of drugs, and salt to be shipped by Mr Cathatan of Marseilles; a thousand suits of soldiers’ clothes from Bordeaux, by Mr Bonfield; and six hundred fusils, of the Prussian make, from Berlin, that you may judge on arming a corps with them whether they are preferable to others.
My brother writes me from Vienna in a late letter, that Colonel Faucit is using the utmost endeavors to raise German recruits; but from the present state of things, I do not imagine he can succeed; and the North, that is Russia and Denmark, are not likely to give our enemies any assistance. As far as I can judge, their efforts against us, except a sort of piratical war, are exhausted. The same ministry continues. The House of Bourbon is certainly united against them. They have the same imbecility of council. Their enemies increase in proportion to the diminution of their means. The decay of their commerce, the distress of their people, the rapacity of their public officers, and the load of their debt and taxes, promise soon to bring upon them the most deplorable distress, and prevent them from being any longer a formidable enemy.
The flotilla is not yet arrived. The enclosed copies of Captain Jones’ letters, and one[37] from the majority of his crew, make me apprehend, that the Ranger will share the fate of the Revenge. We have done all in our power to bring him and his officers into order, but hitherto in vain.
I have the honor to be, &c.