France was at this period (1777) made a basis for the fitting out of Continental vessels and privateers, and for the supply of men in a way which would be far from possible to-day. Captain Lambert Wickes of the Continental brig _Reprisal_ and Gustavus Conyngham of the Continental lugger _Surprise_ and cutter _Revenge_, both of which latter were bought and fitted out by our commissioners in France, were two of those most active and prominent in the operations on the British coast. Their names have come down to this day as specially brave and adventurous men. The former had cruised very successfully on our own coast and in the West Indies in 1776, and had been the first, as mentioned, to carry a ship of the regular navy to Europe, December, 1776, though privateers had preceded him. Two prizes taken into Nantes caused strong protests from Great Britain. The treaty of Utrecht, 1713, expressly closed the ports of either power to the enemies of the other, so that the British case had a very sound basis. Vergennes unquestionably, before our alliance, had to hold a course favoring the Americans which was full of difficulties. The details of the diplomacy of the moment cannot be entered upon. Suffice that the _Reprisal_ refitted went to sea early in 1777, and brought in five prizes to add to Vergennes’s difficulties. The British Ambassador, Stormont, demanded their release. He was answered that both captor and captured had been ordered to leave port and were probably already at sea, to which Stormont was later able to make reply that the _Reprisal_ was undergoing repairs at Lorient, and that the five prizes had been sold. The questions were bandied to and fro between the American commissioners, the French Minister, and the British Ambassador, with the result that the _Reprisal_ received orders not to cruise near the French coast, but apparently the prizes remained in the hands of the purchasers. On May 28th Wickes sailed in the _Reprisal_ from St. Nazaire with the Continental brig _Lexington_, Captain Henry Johnson, and the cutter _Dolphin_, Captain Nicholson, all under Wickes as senior officer, for a cruise through the Irish Channel. They were back in St. Malo on June 27th, having captured twenty prizes, of which three were released and seven sunk. In July the commissioners were obliged to give orders that the _Reprisal_ and _Lexington_ should return directly to America, for which the _Dolphin_ had already sailed as a packet, and to cruise no longer in Europe. They left in September; when only two days out the _Lexington_ was captured. The _Reprisal_ was lost on the Newfoundland Banks, but one man being saved. The loss of her enterprising captain was keenly felt and deplored.