Papers of John Adams, volume 6
1778-06-08
Agreeable to the directions of the Honorable Marine Committee, We have provided the Scooner Dispatch, Corbin Barns Master, for the purpose of Conveying to you some Packetts of Great Importance; which are to be forwarded to you through the Council of this State.1 We have therefore only to wish them Safe to 195your hands, and to desire that your Orders may be given to furnish the Captain, with such Supplies as may be necessary to provide for his return, and to defrey his Expences there, Among which by Contract is a months pay, to be Advanced to himself and Crew, and a Gratification to him of One hundred—dollars, in lieu of primage,2 he would have been intitled to on a Merchant Voyage. We presume the Council will give you the American Intelligences. We shall only Transmit you by this Oppertunity the Gazzettes published here Since our last3 and beg leave to Subscribe ourselves with the Greatest respect Your most Obedt: humble Servts.
In accordance with orders dated 5 May from the Marine Committee, the Navy Board prepared the Dispatch for sea so that it might carry additional copies of the ratified Franco-American treaties to France (Charles Oscar Paullin, ed., Outletters of the Continental Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty, 2 vols., N.Y., 1914, 1:234). The Committee for Foreign Affairs, under a letter dated
Letters, ed. Ballagh, 1:407), sent the packets containing the treaties to the Massachusetts Council, which in turn sent them on to the Commissioners under a covering letter dated 9 June (PPAmP: Franklin Papers).
The allowance made by the shipper to the master and crew for the loading and care of the cargo.
Presumably that of 9 April (
Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S.
, 1:393).