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Private correspondence of Benjamin Franklin
Private correspondence of Benjamin Franklin Author:Benjamin Franklin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: channel, but they are all now in port without having effected any thing. The junction was late, and the length of time the Brest squadron was at sea, (equal to a... more »n East India voyage,) partly on the hot Spanish coast, occasioned a sickness among the people that made their return necessary: they had chased the English fleet, which refused the combat. The sick men are recovering fast since they were landed; and the proposed descent on England does not yet seem to be quite given up, as the troops are not withdrawn from the ports. Holland has not yet granted the succors required by the English, nor given an answer to the requisition presented by Sir Joseph Yorke. The aids will be refused; and as the refusal must be disagreeable, it is postponed from time to time. The expectations of assistance from Russia and Prussia seem also to have failed the English, and they are as much at a loss to find effective friends in Europe as they have been in America. Portugal seems to have a better disposition towards us than heretofore. About thirty of our people taken, and set on shore on one of her islands by the English, were maintained comfortably by the governor during their stay there, furnished with every necessary, and sent to Lisbon; where, on inquiry to whom payment was to be made for the expense they had occasioned, they were told that no reimbursement was expected; that it was the queen's bounty, who had a pleasure in shewing hospitality to strangers in distress. I have been presented thanks by the Portuguese ambassador here in behalf of the congress: and I am given to understand that probably, in a little time, the ports of that nation will be as open to us as those of Spain. What relates to Spain I suppose Mr. Lee informs you of. The sword ordered by Congress for the Marquis de la Fayet...« less