[Hartford, Conn., 14 May 1778]
Whereas the Marine Committee have requested his Excellency the Governor that a Suitable Packet be provided in this State for the purpose of carrying Dispatches to France Resolved that his Excellency be desired to give the necessary orders to have the Spy1 got immediatly in Readiness for that purpose and to proceed thereon accordingly2
passd. in the upper House Test George Wyllys
(May 1778)
Secrety
Concurrd. in the lower House Test Benja: Payne Clerk
DS, Ct, Connecticut Archives, 1st Series, vol. 10, no. 220.
1. Connecticut Navy schooner Spy, Capt. Robert Niles, commander.
2. Spy sailed about 11 June 1778 and reached Brest, France, in twenty-two days. Niles became the first American officer to deliver to Benjamin Franklin copies of the Treaties of Amity and Commerce with France as ratified by the Continental Congress. See Governor Jonathan Trumbull to American Commissioners in France, 29 May, below. He was captured twice on his return voyage, arriving home in Connecticut on 17 July 1779. Hoadly, Public Records of the State of Connecticut, 2: 372.
