[Extract]
Gentlemen

We send you herewith, the draught of a Frigate, by a very ingenious Officer ² in this Service, which appears to Us peculiarly suitable for Our purpose, ahd We are in hopes of being able to ship Cordage and Sail Cloth, & Anchors &c Sufficient for Five or Six such Frigates, by the time you can have them built.

Though deprived of any intelligence from you since the first of last November, & without remittances leaves us in a Situation easier to be conceived than described. The want of intelligence affects the Cause of the United States in every department; such Accts of Our Affairs [as] arrive in Europe at all, come thro the hands of Our Enemies, & whether defeated or Victorious we are the last who are acquainted with Events which ought first to be announced by Us. We are really unable to account for this Silence, and while We are affected by the unhappy Consequences of it, must intreat the honorable Congress to devise some method for giving us the earliest and most certain intelligence of what passes in America.

The Ship ³ by which this is sent, is Loaded with Cloathing, and Cordage, and Duck, not having a full Cargo of the former. We ordered Mr Williams who acts for Us at Nantes to compleat [it] with the latter, for which We have obtained a Short Credit. Mr Williams will write You by this Opportunity. he has been of great Service to Us at Nantes, & it is but justice to say that his knowledge of business, probity, Activity & Zeal for the Interests of his Country, with the good Opinion justly entertained of him by Gentlemen in Business at Nantes, render him Very serviceable in Our Affairs there, & proper to be employed in Commercial Transactions.

It gives Us pain to be obliged to say, that the conduct of Mr [John Philip] Merkle is intirely the reverse. he left the Vessel he came over in at Bordeaux on Expence in December last; has sent no Orders to her since. he passed thro Paris in January for holland, or rather spent a Month in the City, on his journey, where, as well as at Bordeaux, his character is marked by low debauchery, incompatible with the Gentleman or the Man of Business. Persons of such a Character giving themselves out for Agents of Congress, and producing Contracts in support of their Pretensions, hurt the Commercial reputation of the United States, and can be of no Service in any shape whatever.