[Extract]

The reason that induced Capt Newman to be so precipitate in demanding The prisoners ² without waiting for Your Excellencys instructions, was a Report that was circulated in L'Orient, & supposed to be pretty well founded that Wickes had received orders to quit the Port in 24 hours ー Had this been the case, there was no other expedient left to save 77 British subjects from being carried to America, & possibly prevailed on to serve against their Country being daily sollicited to enter by the Officers of the Reprisal.

Another Consideration was that by depriving Wickes of such a numb(er] of hands, he would find it next to impossible to Man his own ship & all the prizes. When I left L'Orient the 5 prizes were all unmoored, and Wickes gave out that he intended to dispatch them immediately to America but we suspected the men to be ordered into some other port in France or into Quiberon Bay —

We could not learn precisely how Wickes had reported the vessels, but it was Assumed that only one of them, wc arrived before us (the Polly & Nancy, Kentisbear) had been entered as a Prize, and the other 4 wete reported as forced in by stress of weather —