I am extremely desirous of having a state of these matters so as to know what dependence can be made on the funds, which are at our command. You would, therefore, confer upon me a very particular obligation by transmitting the best statement in your power. I mentioned to your Excellency in a former letter, that I would write to you on the subject of your salary, more particularly than I then did, but I have since spoken and written to Mr Livingston with relation to those matters, and he will, I expect, write to you and to all our foreign Ministers very fully.
We have not yet heard anything of the Alliance, and therefore conclude, that she must have been delayed in Europe. I hope this may have been the case, for if she sailed on the 1st of March, according to my orders, she must have met with some unfortunate accident. I hope soon to hear from your Excellency. Indeed I persuade myself, that in the very critical situation of affairs at present, we cannot be long without receiving very important intelligence.
In my letters of the 28th of March, and 8th of April, I informed you of my drafts on you to the amount of five hundred thousand livres. I have since that time drawn sundry other bills, all of which you have been duly advised of, or will be so by this conveyance.
I am now to inform you, that his Excellency, the Minister of France, has given me assurances on the part of his Court, that five hundred thousand livres per month, during the year 1782, will be paid on my drafts, making in the whole six millions. He has also suggested to me the expedient of drawing twelve sets of exchange on Dr Franklin, our Minister Plenipotentiary, in favor of my banker, so that the money may be in his hands monthly at my order. In consequence therof, I now enclose to you twelve bills of exchange on Dr Franklin, all at thirty days' sight, and each for half a million. When these bills arrive you will present so many of them for acceptance, as that at the end of the thirty days the amount shall be equal to the monthly payments above mentioned. As for instance, if these bills should arrive in July, you will present seven of them for acceptance, because by the time the thirty days have elapsed there will be due so many of those monthly payments. But in this, as well as in other matters of arrangement with the Court, you will take the advice of Dr Franklin and govern yourself accordingly.