[Extract]
No. 17
The first division of Hessian troops, composed of eight thousand men arrived in Portsmouth day before yesterday. Some of them will be transferred onto new vessels because these troops are too crowded on those which brought them here. The troops gathered in Glasgow were to embark yesterday, and those that had been waiting in the area of Portsmouth for some time will board ship tomorrow.. Before the end of next month England and Ireland will be completely uncovered and at the mercy of the good faith of their neighbors.
I managed to obtain a copy of the letter from the purchaser of Congress in Philadelphia to Messrs. Montaudoin, merchants in Nantes, such as it was given to the Captain of the ship brought to Bristol by her own crew which was composed only of 4 Scotch sailors, 4 Irish and one English. There was not a single American on board, which was most careless in my opinion. The Frenchman who is the object of so much talk embarked early last February in Philadelphia on a ship in ballast which Congress had chartered for this purpose after changing her crew and giving command to a French Captain who speaks Dutch. I assume she has reached France by now. The Ministers here have not said a word about it and I do not believe that it was only to make conversation that M. de Paul spoke to you about it, My Lord.
The Office of the Navy has not confirmed in their entirety the news from Portsmouth relative to the three ships that I had the honor to mention to you in my last dispatch. But they gave us the information that the Worcester and Non-Such of 64 guns had received the order to go on cruise. One is a guard ship in Portsmouth and the other in Plymouth. The news concerning the Worcester were confirmed in Portsmouth from whence we received intelligence that this ship had taken 250 men in supplement from the other guard ships and was to sail day after tomorrow with two frigates, still unknown, in order to establish her cruise along the Coast of the Islands West of Great Britain. It is considered a favorable station to surprise the American ships bound for the French or Spanish Ports. We are waiting for the confirmation from Plymouth with respect to the orders given to Non-Such. As for Marlborough and Royal Oak of 74, our correspondent in Portsmouth told us on the 25th instant that these ships seemed to be destined to cruise in the Channel during the summer.