Nantes Decemr 4. 1777.
[Extract] Honble: Gentlemen
(No 96)
I have at present to inform you of the arrival of the Frigate Ranger Capt. Jones with the Duplicates of the Dispatches I sent you by Mr Austin.1 This Ship left portsmouth the 1st of November but brings not a syllable in addition to what we have had, and as Capt Jones tells me that his Dispatches were on board before Mr Austin sailed, I conclude that the Expence of a Courier Express may be saved, and accordingly shall keep them a day or two in expectation of a private hand. If I am disappointed in this I shall then send off a man and horse.—If you do not intend that Capt Jones shall immediately sail I shall be glad to send my men on board of his Ship as I am afraid of uneasiness among them so little Room is there for them on board the Dolphin. Capt Jones made two prizes2 in his way hither, but they are not yet arrived here. . . . I am [&c.]
J Williams J
L, ViU, Lee Family Papers. Addressed: "The Honourable/The Commissioners of the/United States." Docketed: "Mr Jona Williams/Nantes Decr 4/1777/ (No 96)." The paragraph not printed deals with debts of the Congress to two French officers.
1. Jonathan Loring Austin, sent by the Massachusetts Board of War, left Boston on 31 Oct., arrived at Nantes on 1 Dec., and reached the Commissioners at Passy on 4 Dec. with news of the American victory at Saratoga and the British capture of Philadelphia. Francis Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, 6 vols. (Washington: 1889), 1: 630-31.
2. Brigantines George and Mary.
