SILAS DEANE.

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TO THE COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.

Paris, 6th November, 1776.

Gentlemen,

The only letters I have received from you were 4th and 5th of June
last, five months ago, during which time vessels have arrived from
almost every part of America to every part of France and Spain, and I
am informed of letters from Mr Morris to his correspondents, dated
late in July. If the Congress do not mean to apply for foreign
alliances, let me entreat you to say so, and rescind your resolutions
published on that head, which will be but justice to the powers of
Europe, to whom you gave reason to expect such an application. If I am
not the proper person to announce your Independency, and solicit in
your behalf, let me entreat you to tell me so, and relieve me from an
anxiety, which is become so intolerable that my life is a burthen. Two
hundred pieces of brass cannon, and arms, tents and accoutrements for
thirty thousand men, with ammunition in proportion, and between twenty
and thirty brass mortars have been granted to my request, but the
unaccountable silence on your part has delayed the embarkation some
weeks already. I yesterday got them again in motion, and a part are
already at Havre de Grace and Nantes, and the rest on their way
thither, but I am hourly trembling for fear of counter orders. Had I
received proper powers in season, this supply would before this have
been in America, and that under the convoy of a strong fleet; the
disappointment is distracting, and I will dismiss the subject, after
taking the liberty to which a freeman and an American is entitled, of
declaring, that by this neglect the cause of the United States has
suffered in this and the neighboring Courts, and the blood that will
be spilt through the want of these supplies, and the devastation, if
any, must be laid at this door.

Captain Cochran having arrived at Nantes, I sent to him to come to me.
He is now with me, and by him I send this with a packet of letters. He
can inform you of the price of American produce in Europe, the very
advance on which will pay you for fitting out a navy. Rice is from 30
to 50 livres per cwt., tobacco 8d and 9d per lb., flour and wheat are
growing scarce and rising, masts, spars, and other naval stores are in
demand, and the more so as a war with Great Britain is considered as
near at