| Description | Paper not signed, dated or addressed, endorsed "Intelligence", "What I have been able to collect from the two French officers by employing every art and all the address I am master of, amounts to what follows,
1st, that they have been over great part of the American continent, particularly at Philadelphia, at New York, Rhode Island, and New England
2nd, that they are particularly acquainted with Putman and Ward
3rd, that they were both present at the affair of Lexington
4th, that they were courted by the rebels to stay amongst them
5th, that there were at least 200 French amongst the troops of the rebels
6th, that the rebel officers in general are perfectly ignorant of their business, and they esteem them men of very moderate, or rather mean parts
7th, that they saw the fortifications of the posts of Roxbury and Cambridge and also the Park of Artillery the rebels have in the neighbourhood of the last place
8th, that during their stay in America, seven French ships masked under English colours came into different ports with ammunition etc,
9th, that the Americans expected French and Spanish officers and engineers, also powder etc, to be carried over from time to time
10th, that the common people in America have been worked up to a pitch of enthusiastick phrensy that is beyond conception
11th, lastly, that it appears to them both, the Americans had no settled, regular, well digested plan, that there exists among their chiefs
For full description see HMC 14th report available in SRO reading room |