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them steady. He supposes, therefore, that you must put them into post-chaises, two and two, which will make a long train upon the road, and be a very expensive conveyance;" but as they will eat nothing at the inns, you may the better afford it. When they come to Dover, he is sure they are so like life and nature, that the master of the packet will not receive them on board without passes; which you will do well therefore to take out from the secretary's office, before you leave London, where they will cost you only the modest price of two guineas and sixpence each, which you will pay without grumbling, because you are sure the money will never be employed against your country. It will require, he says, five or six of the long wicker French stage coaches to carry them as passengers from Calais to Paris, and a ship with good accommodations to convey them to America, where all the world will wonder at your clemency to Lord N; that having it in your power to hang or send him to the lighters, you had generously reprieved him for transportation.

To GENERAL BECKWITH.

Discouraging his going to the United States, under the expectation of being employed in its armies.

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Having assured you verbally that I had no authority to treat or agree with any military person, of any rank whatever, to go to America, I understand your expressions, that "you will take your chance if I think you may be useful,” to mean that you will go over without making any terms with me, on a supposition, which you also mention, that my recommendation will be regarded by the congress, and that you shall thereupon be employed in our armies.

2

Whoever has seen the high character given of you by Prince Ferdinand (under whom you served) to Lord Chatham, which I saw when in London, must think that so able an officer might have been exceedingly useful to our cause, if he had been in America at the beginning of the war. But there is a great difficulty at this time in introducing one of your rank into our armies, now that they are all arranged and fully officered; and this kind of difficulty has been found so great, and the congress has been so embarrassed with numbers of officers from other countries, who arrived under strong recommendations, that they have been at above 100,000 livres expense to pay the charges of such officers in coming to America and returning to Europe, rather than hazard the discontent, the placing them to the prejudice of our own officers who had served from the beginning, would have occasioned. Under these circumstances, they have not merely left me without authority, but they have in express terms forbid me to agree with, or encourage by any means, the going over of officers to America in expectation of employment. As to my recommendation, whatever weight it might have had formerly, it has in several instances been so improperly employed through the too great confidence I had in recommendations from others, that I think it would at present be of no importance if it were necessary; but after that above mentioned of so great a general, and so good a judge of military merit as Prince Ferdinand, a character of you from me would be impertinence.

Upon the whole, I can only say, that if you choose to go over and settle in our land of liberty, I shall be glad to find you there on my return as a fellow-citizen, because I believe you will be a very good one, and respected there as such by

the people. But I cannot advise or countenance your going thither with the expectation you mention.

With great esteem,

I have the honor to be, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

To SIR EDWARD NEWENHAM, BART. DUBLIN.
Respecting Irish emigration to the United States.

Sir,

Pussy, May 27, 1779.. I should sooner have sent this passport, but that I hoped to have had the other from this court in time to send with it. If you should stay a few days in England, and will let me know how it may be directed to you, I can send to you per post.

I received some time since a letter from a person at Belfast, informing me that a great number of people in those parts were desirous of going to settle in America, if pass ports could be obtained for them and their effects, and referring me to you for future information. I shall always be ready to afford every assistance and security in my power to such undertakings, when they are really meant, and are not merely schemes of trade with views of introducing English manufactures into America, under pretence of their being the substance of persons going there to settle.

I admire the spirit with which I see the Irish are at length determined to claim some share of that freedom of commerce, which is the right of all mankind, but which they have been so long deprived of by the abominable selfishness of their fellow-subjects. To enjoy all the advantages of the climate, soil, and situation in which God and nature have placed us, is as clear a right as that of breathing; and can never be justly taken from men but as a punishment for some atrocious crime.

The English have long seemed to think it a right which none could have but themselves. Their injustice has already cost them dear, and if persisted in, will be their ruin. I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.

TO GENERAL GATES.

Chevalier de Ramondis-Capitulation of Saratoga-Dis

DEAR SIR,

sensions in America.

Passy, June 2, 1779.

I received your obliging letter by the Chevalier de Ramondis, who appears extremely sensible of the civilities he received at Boston, and very desirous of being serviceable to the American cause: his wound is not yet right, as he tells me there is a part of the bone still to be cut off. But he is otherwise well and cheerful, and has a great respect for you.

The pride of England was never so humbled by any thing as by your capitulation of Saratoga: they have not yet got over it, though a little elevated this spring by their success

against the French commerce. But the growing apprehension of having Spain too upon their hands, has lately brought them down to an humble seriousness that begins to appear even in ministerial discourses, and the papers of ministerial writers. All the happy effects of that transaction for America, are not generally known: I may some time or other acquaint the world with some of them. When shall we meet again in cheerful converse, talk over our adventures, and finish with a quiet game of chess?

The little dissensions between particular states in America

! Oct. 17, 1777.

he had been among us. The circumstances give the account a great appearance of authenticity. And if one may judge

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be separated from each other, the son steered his course for Norway, where he supposed he should meet his father; but on his arrival there, he found he was gone to Greenland, a country lately discovered, and little known to the Norwegians, but which was settled by Eric Rufus, a young Norwegian nobleman, in the year 992, and before the eleventh century, churches were founded, and a bishopric created at Garde, the capital of the settlement. Biarn determined to follow his father, set sail for Greenland; although,' says Angrim, he had nobody on board who could direct him in the voyage, nor any instructions to guide him: so great was the courage of the ancient mariners. He steered by his observation of the stars, and from a remembrance of what he had heard of the direction in which the place he was in search of lay. During the three first days, he stood to the west, but the wind varying to the north, and blowing strong, he was forced to run to the southward. The wind died away in about 24 hours, when they discovered land at a distance, which, as they approached, appeared flat and low, and covered with wood; for which reason he would not go on shore, being convinced that it was not Greenland. They then stood to the north-west, and observed a bite of the sea which formed an island, but did not put in there. After some days they arrived safe in Greenland. In the summer of 1002, Biarn, accompanied by Lief the son of Eric Rufus, who had disco vered Greenland, set out on a voyage to the land he had before seen, but after sailing about in various directions, they returned without any success. They however wintered in a place where the temperature of the air was mild, and the land fertile, producing fine grapes, from which they named it Vineland. The following year, a ship was sent out to push the discovery still further, but being overtaken by a storm, she was much damaged, and returned.'

"The Norwegians continued to visit Vineland yearly, and by this means partly established themselves as a colony there. This appears to be a fact well attested, but to settle the geography of that country is not so universally agreed upon. To succeed in an inquiry of this kind, we should know what part of America lies nearest to Green land, and by what nations it is inhabited,

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