Sartine to the American Commissioners
Copies: Library of Congress (two), Massachusetts Historical Society
<Versailles, July 15, 1778, in French: Among the English prisoners
on Belle Isle, taken from ships in French ports, are two
who say they are Americans, James Niggins of Charleston,
and John Selby of Baltimore. They want to be freed and sent
home. They were on the Hancock, they say, en route to
Charleston from Nantes when an English privateer took her
and carried them to Falmouth; there, to avoid the press, they
agreed to stay aboard their captor. Please tell me whether you
know them, whether they have approached you, and whether
you think them entitled to obtain their request.>
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