N^o. 56.

My Lord,

I have received the Honour of your Lordship's N^o. 22.¹

I enclose to your Lordship an Office, marked N^o. 1. which I sent to M. Florida blanca upon hearing that the Vessell mentioned in it had put into the Port of Coruña under false Pretences; and upon my first Notice of a Prize carried into Bilbao by one Hebbert. I have likewise spoken to him upon it, and he promised to write immediately with regard to both Cases; asserting that he had yet received no Information concerning either.

My several Letters ever since the Date of Cunningham's Entrance into Ferrol, will have shewn your Lordship how constantly attentive I have been to that Object, by speaking and writing upon it to M. Florida blanca: And the Office, N^o. 2, which I now enclose for your Lordship’s Information, was sent to him after I had spoken to him on the Subject of it. For tho’in our Conversation he had promised to take particular Steps to stop so daring a Proceeding as Cunningham's, yet I thought it necessary to appeal to him in writing in order to refer to every part of the Case, and to his repeated Assurances.

No Argument has been omitted on my Side to convince him how necessary it is, that the Governors should execute the orders he has sent, if he had any Intention to be thought in earnest about them. and upon my referring to some fresh orders issued in France, which He treated as great concessions in that Court, I added, that such measures might become very necessary here, and would be expected, if those, already taken, were not better executed.²

I need not repeat the Circumstances of Cunningham's last Entry into the Coruña, as I recapitulate them in the enclosed Office, N^o. 2., to M. Florida blanca.—The Governor of Galicia, Don Felix O'Neale, allowing the Ammunition & Provisions to be taken out of the Prize, is a Proof of his not having, as he pretended, suspended all Proceedings 'till Orders from Court: And I have represented his Conduct, which has been so partial, in the strongest Light to the Minister.

I have mentioned in my Office the Attention, which I was sure would be given to all Matters of Complaint from hence, because a fresh one has been made to me.—It is of a Ship, laden at the Coruña with Provisions for Porto Rico, being taken by a Letter of Marque from S^t. Christopher's, carried into the Island of Anguilla, there set free by the Commissary, and retaken by another Letter of Marque Ship from S^t. Christopher's, carried in there and condemned. From the Information which I have received, I believe the Vessell was laden at Bilbao, & was really carrying Provisions to Porto Rico.³

I shall continue, as I have hitherto done, to represent to the Minister every Instance of the elusive Practises of the American Agents, and press him to consider them seriously in a liberal Manner without resting on the misrepresentations of interested Parties, or the bad Apologies of Governors and other inferior Officers.

By my last Advices from Ferrol, I learn that the S^t. Isabel, and the Soledad Frigate had sailed for Cadiz: And by different Accounts from Bilbao I find, that there were no American Vessels or Prizes in that Port, except that commanded by Hebbert and his Prize. I have the honour to be [&c.]

P:S: I have just received together two Offices from M: Florida blanca, in answer to those which I have mentioned in this Letter, & have only just Time to enclose to y^r Lordship a Translation of them⁴—G.