[Extract]
No. 57

My Lord, I have received dispatch number 38 with which you honored me, dated the 28th of the month.

You are now sure that there was no action on Long Island before the 20th of August. Our news extends no further. It is very possible and much to be hoped that later news will arrive in France sooner than here.

Starting from the time of the arrival of the Hessians pn Staten Island, August 12 and calculating the time necessary as much to refresh troops tired from a long crossing as to arrange all of the campaign equipment so as to be under canvas upon unloading, it is not thought that any large action can occur before the month of September. It is probable that General Howe will want to start off with all of his strength, and in this case, 20 days are not too much for him to prepare for action. You will even see later, My Lord, that this is not enough to execute the plan of attack upon which it is said that the English general has decided.

Never has such a small island had so many ships assembled around it. At the departure of the last ship, there were no fewer than 500 sail there. Many people, upon hearing this, flatter themselves that the very view of this fleet will throw the enemy army into fear and confusion.

However, it does not appear that General Howe himself judges the situation in this way, since his last letter no longer makes any mention of the hopes he had in the preceding one about the favorable disposition of part of the colonies and of the numerous partisans of the Government. The troops have arrived and he now concerns himself only with the means of starting the operations of the campaign without loss of time.

The Americans can form no obstacle to it. Not yet having any fleet, they are necessarily on the defensive. It is even generally expected that, unable to resist such a large army of regular troops supported by a numerous fleet, they will be chased out of New York. The object of the English general is not to buy this victory too dearly. To do this, he intends to force them to abandon their fortifications without striking a blow, and here is the plan of operations which people are giving. Lord Cornwallis with a detached corps is supposed to go around Long Island, enter the Sound, and land at New Rochelle. This operation would require time, for many different winds are required to execute it. General Clinton will land on Long lsland to carry the American outposts, and General Howe with the main part of the army is supposed to go up the Hudson to land in the area called West-Chester at a point corresponding, as much as possible, with the landing point of Lord Cornwallis on the other part of the coast. The two frigates which had sailed up the Hudson river, from which they were chased, yet stayed there long enough to reconnoiter the state of the defenses of this coast and make a satisfactory inventory of them.

And so there is the American army surrounded from everywhere and obliged to leave its fortifications to fight, that is, to be completely defeated. No one is examining whether General Howe would be exposing himself to being taken between two camps, for all the enemy forces are not shut up in the dead end of New York.

Such are, My Lord, the ideas upon which those persons who have not lost the habit of underestimating the enemy are nourishing themselves.

The first event can destroy all these conjectures, and we are awaiting any event with impatience. Other people assure everyone that the fate of New York must have been decided August 22nd. But I hardly pay attention anymore to these day to day conjectures and I will only believe well and duly witnessed facts. One certain one is that the American privateers have already in the course of this campaign gotten hold of 38 merchant ships returning to the West Indies. The last three, of whom we got word today, were taken by a privateer called the Revenge.² The price of insurance for ships coming from Jamaica is 20 Guineas p 0/0 and 18 for those coming back from the other Islands.

The lack of provisions which is starting to be felt in Canada forced General Carleton to free his prisoners, who numbered about 800. He also sent off the Indians who had sided with him, saying that he did not want to wage a war of that kind. The Government, which looks askance at this maneuver, feels that he took too much upon himself on this occasion. Provisions and munitions are being sent to Quebec without let-up. One hundred thousand pounds sterling have just been sent off to the same destination ona ship named the Union. Although it is armed with 16 cannons and eight swivel guns, they are not only insuring it, but giving 3 p 0/0 bonus.

A merchant of Bordeaux writes to his correspondent here that there are presently in that port 6 American vessels which arrived with cargoes of flour and which are preparing to arm in order to cruise at the entrance to the Channel.

... I had a trustworthy person ask the Comptroller of the Navy if there was any intention of impressing sailors soon, and he answered that there was no question of this. The secretary of the Admiralty, to whom thesame question was put by one of the main ship constructors answered that no use would be made of this recourse for the American war and that before considering Pressing he had to construct several more vessels of 74 guns for the Admiralty.