“Here,” wrote Beaumarchais in the postscriptum, “is what I have thought out relative to my large vessel—_le Fier Roderigue_. I must keep my word given to M. de Maurepas, that my ship is to carry only seven or eight hundred soldiers to Santo Domingo, and that I will return without touching the continent. Nevertheless, its cargo is very valuable to Congress and to me; it consists in ready made clothing for the soldiers, cloth, blankets, etc. It carries an artillery of sixty-six bronze cannons, ... and much other merchandise. “After much thinking, it seems to me that you might arrange secretly with the committee of Congress, to send two or three American corsaires immediately to Santo Domingo. One of them will send its gun-boat to Cape Francis ... then M. Carabasse (Beaumarchais’s agent at the Cape) will go aboard her with M. de Montaut, the captain of my vessel _le Fier Roderigue_. They will arrange together that when my vessel sets out, the American Corsaire will capture it under any pretext he chooses, and carry it off. My captain will protest violently, and threaten to complain to Congress. The vessel will be taken to where you are. The Congress will disavow the brutal act, liberate my vessel, with obliging excuses for the French flag; during the time this takes, you will have unloaded the cargo quickly, and filled the ship with tobacco, and you will send her back to me with just what you have been able to gather together. As the bearer of this, M. Carmichaël, returns directly, you will have time to arrange this manœuver either with the Secret Committee of Congress, or directly with a friendly and discreet corsair. By this means, M. de Maurepas will be disengaged from his promise made to others, I from mine to him, because no one can oppose himself to violence, and my operation will have been successful in spite of all the obstacles which cross my path.... My vessel starts before the 15th of January. It bears orders to wait news from you at Cape Francis. After all that I am doing, the Congress cannot longer doubt, I hope, that the most zealous partisan of the republic in France is your friend “Roderigue Hortalès et Cie.” Commenting upon the above letter, James Parton has written: “Such was Caron de Beaumarchais; unique among merchants and men. Whether it was by those or by other manœuvers that the ship was enabled to reach America, no one has informed us. Certain it is that she arrived safely at Yorktown, Virginia, and was loaded with tobacco for her return. I trust M. de Maurepas was satisfied.” (_Life of Franklin_, Vol. II, p. 271.)