Madrid 31, July. 1778.
[Extract] Duplicate No 45 My Lord
In a Conversation yesterday with M Floridablanca,1 he mentioned to me his having remitted to M. Escarano2 two Subjects, more of Discussion than of Complaint. One was the Demand threatned to be made upon the Governour of Louisiana, by the Governor of Florida relative to a Vessel carried into New-Orleans by the Americans.3 He thought the Manner in which this Demand was made, rather violent, considering that the Spanish Governour had given great Proofs of his Friendship and Humanity by his Reception of the British Subjects who had been driven out of fort Mischak4 on the Missisipi. . . .
Grantham
P.S. I have received Your Lordship’s N. 13 mentioning the Arrival of M. Almodovar—5 G.
Copy, UkLPR, SP (Foreign) 94/206. Docketed:”Madrid 31 July 1778/Lord Grantham/(N 45) Duplicate/ Rd 11 Octr from the/Spanish Ambassador/Original nor received.”
1. José de Moño y Redondo, Conde de Floridablanca was the Spanish Minister of State.
2. Franciso de Escarano, the Spanish Chargé d’Affaires to Great Britain.
3. The threat by Gov. Peter Chester of British West Florida against Gov. Don Bernardo de Gálvez of Spanish Louisiana concerning the capture of ship Neptune by a party of Americans commanded by Capt. James Willing is discussed in the letter of Gálvez to Don Diego José Navarro, 14 Apr., in NDAR 12: 110–14.
4. That is, the British fort at Manchac, West Florida. On the capture of the fort, see Minutes of the Governor’s Council of West Florida, 2 Mar. 1778, in NDAR 11: 490–92; on the protection afforded by the Spanish to the British residents of that area see Alexander Rose to Col. John Stuart, 5 Mar. 1778, and Gov. Don Bernardo de Gálvez to Don José de Gálvez, 11 Mar. 1778, in NDAR 11: 526–27 and 606–8.
5. Pedro de Luxan y Silva, Marqués de Almodóvar was the new Spanish ambassador to England. He took up his post on or about 17 July.
