Portsmouth Septr 10th 1777.
Sir
As I have had no invoice of the Articles Supplied by Livingston and Turnbull I must request you to furnish me with the particulars and prices of those Articles which are comprehended in the "Sundries" mentioned in your Account — else I shall be unable to fix the prices when the Slops are served out and must of course suffer the Accounts to run into Confusion. — with respect to the Old St Georges Ensign which Captain Park [Matthew Parke] Says "you refuse to deliver". — as it was a Trophy taken from a Tory in Canso for having the impudence to keep it flying at his House at the time while I had the Command of that harbour2 — and as nothing else was taken from the shore that Cruize — I did not I confess consider it as prize Goods — but took it from the Providence on Board the Alfred to Hoist Occassionally. — without thinking of charging it. — but if I have been and am still mistaken — that circumstance I apprehend will not Justify the witholding a necessary Article which cannot be procured here. — were the times less difficult I should not deign to mention far less to Hoist Such a dirty old rag which if it really is prize Goods ought strictly Speaking to have been returned to the State of Rhode Island where it was first Imported: — Mr Seaward and Mr [Louis Daniel] Charrier comes to Boston to procure a few articles for the Ranger of which they bring memorandums — if they meet with the necessary Assistance so as to enable them to return here immediatly they will find the Ship in readiness to depart. — I am Sir [&c.]
J.P.J.
1. Papers of John Paul Jones, 6643-44, LC.
2. See Volume 7, 80, 935-37.