hend an unfavorable answer to my request, that
the military effects from the public arsenals should be granted on
credit. The expense of these articles will make a considerable
deduction from our pecuniary resources. Your Excellency will observe
that the same difficulties exist with respect to these objects, as
with regard to the manufactures of cloth, the great deposits of them
all being situated in the interior country, remote from the sea. The
cargo of the Marquis de Lafayette, that of the Indian, (including the
additional purchases, which I have directed to be made in order to
complete her tonnage) and the supplies collected at Brest, or on their
way thither, will nearly include the most essential articles of the
Board of War's estimate. The purchases in France are made under the
direction of an Intendant in the War Department. Those in Holland are
made by M. de Neufville & Son, whom I employed because they appeared
to possess the confidence of our Minister Plenipotentiary in that
country.

I found great difficulties and delays likely to attend the plan of
casting howitzers of English calibre in France. The scarcity of
materials, the great danger of a want of precision in the proportions,
and the facility with which we cast shells in America, induced me to
substitute six inch howitzers of French calibre, to those demanded by
the Board of War. This size, in the opinion of the most experienced
artillerists, is preferable to the larger, their effects being the
same, and their inferior size rendering them much more manageable, as
well as less expensive of ammunition. A certain number of shells will
accompany the howitzers, but it will be necessary that the Board of
War should give immediate orders for making a larger provision of
them. Their dimensions may be taken from those with the French
artillery under General Rochambeau.

The same reasons as those above mentioned, determined me to substitute
the French twelve-inch mortar to the thirteen inch of English calibre,
as there was no other way of procuring them but by having them cast,
and the same observation is to be made with respect to their shells as
with respect to those of the howitzers. A store-ship, freighted by
government, is to proceed under convoy of the frigate on board which I
shall sail, and will be charged with such supplies as can be collected
in time at Brest.

As soon as I shall have accomplished all that requires my presence
here, which I flatter