Bilbao 29 July 1778
Sir
I have at length got the Liberty of Cap. Allen and his Crew1 who are now here with some more Sailors which have been taken and sett onshore in Spain, I have a Schooner here what is a Remarkable fine Sailor & these people seem disposed to make a Cruize this Summer before they go home therefore I am preparing to Arm the Vessell as a Privateer
—If you can send me a Commission by Return of Post you will oblige me very Much as the Vessell will be Ready by that time and wait only for that—there have been no Arrivals here for some months Past from America consequently No News —The Schooner is Calld the Newbury John Allen Comr. mounts 8 Carriage Guns & 8 Swivels & 30 hands am Sr. your
Jno Emery
If there is no objection be so good as to send A Commission &c wch I will Dispatch2 Augt. 9th. 1778
A Lee
L, MH-H, Arthur Lee Papers, ser. V, no. 27. Addressed at top of page: “Arthur Lee Esqr./Chaillot.”
1. John Allen had been prize master for the Massachusetts privateer schooner Hawke. On arriving at St. Sebastian in Spain, the prize he was captaining, the brig Britannia, was siezed and Allen and the prize crew put in prison. See Arthur Lee to Conde de Aranda, 25 Dec. 1777, NDAR 10: 1145–46; Marston Watson to Benjamin Franklin, 6 Jan. 1778, NDAR 11: 879.
2. The response of the other American Commissioners in France, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, has not been found.