Dear Sir,

I was yesterday favoured with yours of the 24 of July and am greatly obliged to you for your kind offer of an apartment at Clarks Hill.¹ My being ordered to Barbados is the occasion of my not being able to pay my personal respects to you, and in my present situation it is impossible for me to say when I am to expect that happiness. I am very sorry the service will not permit me to send you a frigate or a Convoy in September. You very justly take notice of the weakness of my squadron, which will be so much diminished when I have furnished a Convoy for April² that I shall not have enough left to collect the Convoys from the different Islands. Thus situated your good sense will point out to you the impossibility of complying with your request. There are but three Convoys for the year; but last year, as well as this, application was made for a fourth which was complied with by Admiral Young’s³ sending a single ship, which separated from her Convoy long before they reached the British sea. No ship, in peace or war, in my opinion, ought to sail for Europe after the 1st of August, as the risk becomes very great in a winter’s passage with deep laden ships that can neither rise to, or run from, a large sea; nor is it possible for a Convoy at that season of the year to avoid a separation. The only use therefore that I can find for one is merely a cloak for insurance. Whenever it is in my power, you may be assured I shall use every exertion for the protection of the Islands and their commerce, and convince you how much I am, &c.,

Barbados.
15 August 1778.