Chantilly, March 6, 1777
[Extract]
The inclosed is extracted from a very sensible Memoir sent to Congress by a French Artist and which may avail us greatly in the construction of our Provincial Frigates. It is intended for the use of our Navy board to whom I should have written if the Express were not waiting for my dispatches 2 . . .
By a letter from our Agent in Martinique 7th January I consider the war between Spain & Portugal as certainly commenced thus in South America, and learn that Doctor Franklin arrived safe at Nantes the 6 December & went directly to Paris.
1. Samuel T. Freeman Catalogue, Rare American Historical Autographs, The Collection of Frederick S. Peck (Philadelphia, 1947), No. 148.
2. This memoir, which Lee intended for the Virginia Navy Board, is probably the same enclosed in his letter of March 1, 1777, to Robert Morris.
