[Extract]
No. 297

Sir This week went by again and we have had no meeting with the Ministry. I have attempted, however, to enlighten myself positively on what had happened in America, since the papers have been filled for the past week with such circumstantial details concerning an action in Boston that it was difficult finally to think that they were unfounded as they appeared to be. It is however the exact truth, the Council has no information concerning this news and they do not believe it to be worthy of credence.

I discussed this matter in great detail with the person to whom I went, who is attached to the Ministry and whose knowledge and friendship will be, I hope, most useful to me in these circumstances. Without doubt, the majority of the members of the Council reckon more than ever on a discord among the provinces of Northern America. The southern provinces are quite annoyed by the war and especially by the cessation of all trade. Paper money is a source of everyday grumble in public opinion; one must resort to force to bring it into circulation. This important point may become the rock that will thwart all the efforts of the Congress and cause its dissolution: there is even a letter from New York which asserts that this province refuses to pay forty thousand pound sterling levied by the Congress.

The Ministry has been flattering itself in this manner for more than a year, and convinced that the Americans would fear war, it placed itself in a position where it had to start the war without really having the means to wage it with success; but the time has come now when the matter must be settled. The Ministry will come out unscathed in this Parliamentary session, but it should fear the next one. Either conciliation or force must end this American affair in 1776, or else great events will take place in this country which can be abused for awhile, but where an understanding attitude can then be replaced by one all the more terrible for those who owe Great Britain an account for their behavior.

All private opinions always confirm a negotiation with Russia; you hold, Monsieur le Comte, the same view. We differ only on the outcome; I have forwarded the information to you such as it had been given to me; it was my duty to do so in circumstances of this importance; I saw all the dangers, but they would not have warranted my silence. Furthermore, the principle of the thing is essential here, since an alliance with Russia would bring terror to America, raise the stock of the Ministry here, and give England the opportunity, the means and per haps the desire to become less peaceful than it had been heretofore necessary as circumstances had isolated her.

Myld North summoned to his home one of the presidents of the board of the India Company and asked him how many recruits the Company intended to send there this year. The president answered two to three thousand. The Minister told him that he had asked him to stop at his home for this reason, that he had no orders to give to the Company, but that he wished, in the name of the King and in his own na,me, to point out to him that the levy of recruits for the East Indies would prevent one for the service of the King, in view of the fact that His British Majesty had great need of his troops in order to carry with vigor the next campaign against the Americans.

Another project of more considerable importance is about to be carried out: it concerns an establishment on the Mosquito Coast² on the continent of Southern America. The plan of the Ministry is to acquire land from the chief of the inhabitants of this region and to sell or lease it to those who will agree to settle there; thirty or forty thousand settlers are expected to be attracted there. This project may be surprising at first, but its execution will seem more practicable once you consider the collateral aspects.

The land could not be more fertile; it produces sugar comparable in quality to that produced in the islands of the west indies, as well as indigo, cotton, etc. It is rich in food plants of all kinds; European food plants adjust excellently; the animals brought there multiply amazingly; the wood found there, known as Campeche wood, also called Mahogany in England, is a source of valuable trade. The King's son of that country and two other Indian chiefs have been in London for some time and have lodgings at the home of the person who conceived the plan for this establishment. He is a man with great talent, much genius; extensive knowledge and who seems to have a turn for conceiving great undertakings and carrying them out.

. . . it would open a new and most interesting branch of trade and that, especially at the present time, it would make the separation of England from her colonies less detrimental. He insisted most strongly on the political point in view of the location of this establishment; it can in time becom,e the key to the Spanish possessions occupying a central position among them. One can imagine the consequences for this power having the English in such force on that part of the continent; at present, the latter only have a few outposts there for the protection of the governor of Jamaica, which have already inflicted much loss to the Spanish trade.

I enclose a petition from the city of Bristol presented the day before yesterday at the levee of the King of England by Mr. Burke, one of the best supporters of the opposition. It is opposite all the preceding petitions; it rejects means of force; it asserts that only a good conciliation offers a true solution. The Ministry agrees on this point; but where are these possible means of conciliation?

News from the Admiralty and the Ports.

Have been ordered abroad:

Bristol with 50 guns will become a flagspip.

Rumors have it that Jersey with 60 guns will become a hospital ship.

Chatham:
Syren is taking guns and ammunition, etc on board.
Boreas almost completely armed.