is approaching fast, in which blankets are of the greatest utility, I wish you to send as many of them as possible.” Upon this subject of returns, I think it my duty to state to you some facts relative to the demands of this kind from Hortalez. The gentleman, who uses this name,[19] came to me about a year and a half ago in London, as an agent from this Court, and wishing to communicate something to Congress. At our first interview he informed me, that the Court of France wished to send an aid to America of £200,000 sterling in specie, arms, and ammunition, and that all they wanted was to know through which island it was best to make the remittance, and that Congress should be apprized of it. We settled the Cape as the place, and he urged me by no means to omit giving the earliest intelligence of it, with information, that it would be remitted in the name of Hortalez. At our next meeting he desired me to request, that a small quantity of tobacco, or some other production, might be sent to the Cape, to give it the air of a mercantile transaction, repeating over and over again, that it was for a cover only, and not for payment, as the remittance was gratuitous. Of all this I informed Dr Franklin, Chairman of the Committee, by sundry opportunities. At the same time, I stated to Monsieur Hortalez, that if his Court would despatch eight or ten ships of the line to our aid, it would enable us to destroy all the British fleet, and decide the question at one stroke. I repeated this to him in a letter after his return to Paris, to which the answer was, that there was not spirit enough in his Court for such an exertion, but that he was hastening the promised succors. Upon Mr Deane’s arrival the business went into his hands, and the aids were at length embarked in the Amphitrite, Mercure, and Seine. The Minister has repeatedly assured us, and that in the most explicit terms, that no return is expected for these subsidies.[20] I have the honor to be, &c. ARTHUR LEE. [19] Caron de Beaumarchais. [20] In another part of his correspondence, Mr Lee speaks as follows on this subject. “Three months before Mr Deane’s arrival, (in Paris) M. Beaumarchais settled with me in London the sending these supplies of money and munitions of war, by the Cape, under the firm of Hortalez & Co., and that I should apprize Congress of it, which I did by Mr Story and other opportunities, as the gentlemen of the Secret Committee know. Upon M. de Beaumarchais’ return to Paris, he wrote me several times concerning these supplies, mentioning the difficulties which arose in the execution, from the timidity of the Court, but that he was putting it into the mercantile train, which would soon overcome all difficulties. I did not fail to press the despatch of them, and proposed too the sending some ships of war to protect our coast, exactly similar to what we were afterwards instructed by Congress to obtain.