Silas Deane had been the first American agent abroad, reaching Europe in July, 1776. Franklin and Arthur Lee arrived in France in December of that year, the former in the brig _Reprisal_, which was the first American man-of-war to visit the eastern hemisphere. Seldom has there been a ship whose safety meant so much; for upon Franklin’s great social and political influence was to depend the aid of France, and upon this aid, American independence. The _Reprisal_ had taken several prizes which she had carried into Nantes, and the reception of these and the many to come later into French and Spanish ports caused strong protests from England to which these governments had to give heed. The commissioners were to purchase or hire eight line-of-battle ships as well as a frigate and two cutters, but their endeavors fell far short of such a program. Nevertheless, all things considered, aid in money, and particularly in much needed army stores, was forthcoming to a surprising degree, and the name of Beaumarchais in France and that of Gardoqui in Spain, who acted at Bilbao as Beaumarchais’s agent, deserve lasting remembrance by Americans. In 1778 Deane was replaced by John Adams, who, accompanied by his son, John Quincy, then eleven years old, sailed from Boston on February 15th in the frigate _Boston_, and reached Bordeaux on April 1st. Naval interests, after Deane’s recall, were taken over chiefly by Franklin. The war had lasted three years, but now in this year of 1778 it was to take a new development. The immediate cause was the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga on October 17, 1777. The chain of causes was, as already mentioned, the resistance offered on Lake Champlain the previous year (1776) by the flotilla under Arnold, the transfer of the main part of the British force from New York to Philadelphia when it should have been employed to support Burgoyne, and the too leisurely movement of Clinton up the Hudson with a large portion of the 8,000 men left at New York. Clinton captured the forts at the Highlands, but he was too late to save Burgoyne, who surrendered the day after the British army burned Kingston. The surrender was a fitting nemesis for such an act. A greater strategic failure than was this campaign on the part of the British is not recorded in history, nor has there ever been one with more momentous consequences. It convinced the French Government, smarting under its loss of Canada in the treaty of 1763, that there was now a fair chance of American success, and on February 6, 1778, was signed the treaty of alliance which brought the ships the aid of which was so vital to our success. Two months later, April 13, 1778, Vice-Admiral Charles Henri Theodat d’Estaing du Saillans, generally known to us as the Count d’Estaing, sailed from Toulon with twelve battleships and five frigates. Two of these ships were of 80 guns, six of 74, three of 64, and one of 50. The naval story of our