Baltoe, Jany 8, 1777
[Extract]
I do not know that I have been so vex'd with myself for some time, as I am for not informing you that the secret [committee] has bo't a fast sailing vessel which is now ready to sail for Nantes, and is only detain'd for a certain acct of our General's success.2 Faulty as I am you must give me some little credit when I tell you it proceeded from my not doubting your getting the information from the secret Commee who are not able to answer the letter they recd on the subject of trade without your assistance, they have received volumes from Pliarne & Compy who must think strangely of you if they do not get satisfactory answers to them which I am sure they will not do as the answer I saw deliver'd could not contain the tenth part of it, which lead to the enquiry whether you had been informed of the vessels going, or not. Besides the dispatches that will go by the above schooner we have others prepared for Buchanan's ship which it is expected will sail today or tomorrow. We have not heard a word of pirates on this Coast, if any appear, you shall be most assuredly advised as soon as the acct reaches us.
1. New York Historical Society Collections (1878), 407-10.
2. Schooner Jenifer, Captain Larkin Hammond.