Poreau, Mackenzie & Cie. to the American
Commissioners
LS or ALS: American Philosophical Society
<Dunkirk, July 7, 1778, in French: When some Americans and
others appealed to us for support, we asked you for a privateer’s
commission. The Captain you chose seemed deserving
and trustworthy, but found the vessel too small for his large
ideas of glory. A more powerful one would have cost more
than twice the thirty to forty thousand livres we were willing
to risk. He refused us the commission that you meant for us,
and divulged to Coffyn, whom we knew to be trusted by the
British, information that we had confided in you. We were
unaware that Coffyn was an agent of Congress, and do not
believe that you could have given him our letter. We are not
bound by a plan that we did not initiate and that costs more
than we can venture. Please send us the commission, to be
used as described by the one of us who spoke with you. Or
transmit it through the Prince de Robecq. Or give it directly
into the hands of our representative, or of one of the Americans
recommended to us.>
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