_Answer._ Her laying so long at L'Orient was first occasioned by the mutinous disposition of the officers and men, who refused to raise the anchors till they should receive wages and prize money. I did not conceive they had a right to demand payment of wages in a foreign country, or anywhere but at the port they came from, no one here knowing on what terms they were engaged, what they had received, or what was due to them. The prize money I wished them to have, but as that could not soon be obtained, I thought it wrong in them to detain the vessel on that account, and as I was informed many of them were in want of necessaries, I advanced twentyfour thousand livres on account, and put it into Captain Jones's hands to relieve and pacify them, that they might go more willingly. But they were encouraged by some meddling passengers to persist. The King would have taken the prizes and paid for them, at the rate _per gun_, &_c._ as he pays for warlike vessels taken by his ships, but they raised a clamor at this, it being put into their heads, that it was a project for cheating them, and they demanded a sale by auction. The Minister, who usually gives more when ships are taken for the King than they will produce by auction, readily consented to this when I asked it of him, but then this method required time to have them inventoried, advertised in different ports, to create a fuller concurrence of buyers, &c. Captain Jones came up to Paris to hasten the proceedings. In his absence, Captain Landais, by the advice of Mr Lee and Commodore Gillon, took possession of the ship and kept her long, writing up to Paris, waiting answers, &c. I have often mentioned to Congress the inconvenience of putting their vessels under the care of persons living perhaps one hundred leagues from the port they arrive at, which necessarily creates delays, and of course enormous expenses, and for a remedy I have as often recommended the appointment of consuls, being very sensible of my own insufficiency in maritime affairs, which have taken up a vast deal of my time, and given me abundance of trouble, to the hinderance, sometimes, of more important business. I hope these inconveniences will now be soon removed by the arrival of Mr Palfrey.