[Extract]
Received 6 August 1775
What I have been able to collect from the two French Officers, by employing evry art, and all the address I am master of, amounts to what follow's . . .
That during their stay in America, seven French Ships, marqued under English colors, came into Different ports with ammunition &ca, and that these Ships would have risqued an engagement rather than submit to be visited by a small ship of war, had they been met by one.
That The Americans expected French & Spanish Officers & Engineers, also Powder &ca, to be carried over from time to time, in small numbers, & in small quantitys, not only by ships directly from England & our West Indies, but by French & Spanish Ships from their Islands, such ships to appear to be American property, & to be mann'd chiefly with American sailors, that the European courts may not be detected, should such ships be taken.
