To Alexander Hamilton from John Holker, 21 October 1779
From John Holker1
Lewes [Delaware,] October 21, 1779. “… I begin to suppose the Count will not be here so soon, I am affraid he must have suffered in some storm to the Southward; I hope & more Sincerely wish it is not the Case & that he will still appear [in] time enough to execute some plan of utility to the Common Cause.…”
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Holker was French consul to the United States. In this letter, written from Delaware, he is reporting to H on D’Estaing’s failure to appear off the Delaware Capes. At the time that the letter was written, H and Brigadier General Du Portail were on the New Jersey coast on a mission to meet D’Estaing. Their journey had taken them from Washington’s Camp to Philadelphia and then to Lewes, on the Delaware Capes. Fearing that they would miss D’Estaing at the last named place, they then went to Great Egg Harbor on the New Jersey coast.