New Orleans, August 26, 1777
[Extract] Most Excellent and Dear Sir:
I received Your Excellency's estimable letter of 1 June of this year,2 in which yon were pleased to explain the sentiment caused you by the notice of the seizure of the English boats on the Misisipy [Mississippi], and how little you expected this action in the midst of the deep peace and good harmony which prevailed between our two nations . . . before I apprehended the English Boats, Spanish ones were seized on the Lake [Pontchartrain] by the English war sloop West Florida . . .
I would gladly answer all the points in Your Excellency's esteemed letter if it were not a repetition of what I have answered already to the Gentlemen Commissioners of Your Excellency,3 who in their name and that of your nation have made the same representations, and which I have answered; all will come to Your Excellency's attention and I hope that you will be satisfied. . . .
1. AGI, Santo Domingo, Legajo 2547, 641-42, LC Photocopy. The two governors had exchanged charge and counter-charge about smuggling and interferring with their respective nationals and vessels on the Mississippi and lakes in the New Orleans area.
2. AGI, Santo Domingo, Legajo 2547, 633-40, LC Photocopy.
3. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Dickson and John Stephenson, members of the West Florida Council, carried Governor Chester's June 1 letter to New Orleans and opened a correspondence with Governor Galvez. Dickson and Stephenson made a lengthy report to Governor Chester on the results of their mission, September 29, 1777, PRO, Colonial Office 5/631. A copy is in UFL.
