Baltimore 2 January 1777
Sir
You are to proceed with all the dispatch in your power with the Schooner Jenifer under your command to Nantes in France; on your arrival there, you are to apply to Mr. Thomas Morris if he should be at that port, if he should not, your application must be to Messrs Pliarne, Penet & Co. who will furnish you with the necessary cash for your journey to Paris, for which place you must set out immediately and deliver your dispatches to Messrs. Deane, Franklin, & Lee, and wait their orders; when they discharge you, you are to return with the utmost diligence to America, & put into the most convenient port to the Southward of the Delaware.1 We think Chincoteague, or some other on the back of the Eastern Shore, the most likely for avoiding men of War and would therefore have you attempt getting into one of those ports; when arrived you must leave the schooner under the command of your mate, and bring the dispatches yourself to Congress, wherever it may be Sitting.
You are before you set out for Paris, to consult with Mr. Morris, or the above Gentlemen, whether your vessel will not be most likely to escape the enemy by sending her to some other port to meet you on your return; if this should be their opinion, you are to give orders to your mate accordingly. You are also to deliver your pig iron to the order of those Gentlemen, and take from them such a quantity of military stores as will ballast your vessel. The Safe delivery of the dispatches, with which you are entrusted, & the obtaining answers to them, are matters of such immense consequence to the continent that We cannot too strongly recommend to you the avoiding all vessels, that you may see, either outward bound or on your return. You are also to avoid as much as possible, falling in with the Headlands & Islands, as it is most usual for Men of War to cruize off such places.
The Dispatches will be delivered to you in a Box, which you must put into a bag with two shots, that in case of falling in with an enemy, from which you cannot escape, you may be prepared to sink them which on Such an event's happening, we earnestly insist on your doing. We wish you a good voyage and safe return and are,
Yr. Most Humble Servts,
B. Harrison
R.H. Lee
File copy, Papers of Continental Congress, item 79, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
1 Larkin Hammond, a captain in the Maryland navy, sailed from Baltimore in the Jenifer on January 9 and delivered his dispatches to Silas Deane on March 14 1777. See Morgan, Naval Documents, 7:189, 633n; and NYHS Collections 20 (1887): 23.