[Philadelphia] August 10th. 1778.1
[Extract] Dear Sir
Your favor of July 24th. is now before me2 . . . .
Our letters from the Count d’Estaing and General Sullivan are quite encouraging; but a report prevails that Lord Howe being reinforced is in pursuit of the French Squadron. I hope however that the latter3 will be well in the harbor of Newport before the former reaches the Island. I do not wish to have any engagement without a considerable superiority on the side of our Allies.
The encouragement which is given by the Count d’Estaing to Privateers, I should think was sufficient to make them ply in the track of his fleet. You did not appear, (to2 know) (by 1your letter)4 what he had declared—which is, that prizes taken in sight of his squadron shall belong entirely to the captors.5 I am quite chagrined that we have not a force of ships ready to join the Count immediately—4 or 5 days are of immense importance, may the fate of Rhode Island may depend upon 24 hour’s preparation on our part. The French fleet begins to grow sickly, to want the refreshment of an encampment for a few weeks—I notice your remarks upon the Navy Board but you know times and seasons are to be matched here and I do not find that your ideas would thrive at the period, if I was to strive to cultivate them. I will not miss any right occasion I assure you. Mr D has had no formal conversation with C—--ss6 but I expect something of the kind soon—but it is a difficult matter to communicate any thing to you on that head without being minute and exposing myself to disagreeable chances of the fate of my letters. The French have not a proper naval force in the West Indies to enable the General of Martinique7 to begin operations in that quarter agreeable to instructions sent to him from Europe. I suppose you would choose to reduce Halifax before you undertake the English West India Islands. Good night Dear Sir
J.L.
Transcript, DLC, Peter Force Papers, Series 7E. Notation at head: “James Lovell to Wm. Whipple.”
1. Lovell did not give his location but as a delegate to Congress from Massachusetts he was in Philadelphia at the time of this letter.
2. Whipple’s letter has not been found.
3. That is, the French fleet commanded by Vice-amiral comte d’Estaing.
4. The words in parentheses and the superscript numbers presumably indicate that these words were written as marginal notations and the numbers indicate the order in which they appeared.
5. See Conrad-Alexandre Gérard, French Minister to the United States, to Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress, 14 July, above.
6. Lovell was referring to hearings held in Congress concerning the activities of Silas Deane as American Commissioner in France. Those hearings began on 15 Aug.; JCC 11: 799.
7. That is, the governor of Martinique, François Claude Amour, Marquis de Bouillé.
