To George Washington from Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 12 August 1780
From Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Newport. August 12th 1780
Sir
I have no new intelligence to give to your Excellency, a Man of war and Two Frigates are stationed on a cruise, before us, and every day succeed one another. The rest of the fleet is anchored at the point of Long-island. Flag[s] from the admirals have been sent and have crossed one another, it was about Prisonners to be exchanged.1 Admiral Graves has made a Prise much richer than the three we took,2 it was an East-india man3 Called The Farges, at the south of the Madeira islands coming From the Isle de France and richly laden.4 Arbuthnot commands the fleet. They say that the Ships we fought with, were five men of war just coming from Jamaica to Join Admiral Rodney.5 Two of them were 74. 2. were 64. one fifty and a Frigate[.] One of the 64, I hope, will not be of great use to them. Admiral rodney, after all these junctions, will have 32. men of war, And Mr De Guichen will have 45, upon his arrival to Jamaica.6 I am, with respect Sir, Your Excellency’s Most obedient and humble Servant
Le Comte de rochambeau
LS, DLC:GW.
1. See Ternay to GW, 10 August.
2. While crossing the Atlantic en route to Newport, warships of the French expeditionary force captured three prizes: a British privateer on 18 June, a small British merchant ship on 20 June, and another British merchant vessel on 4 July (see , 20, 23–24).
3. An East Indiaman was a type of armed merchant ship belonging to one of the East India companies of the European countries.
4. In the eighteenth century when it was part of the French Empire, the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius was known as the Isle de France.
5. On 20 June, the warships of the French expeditionary force engaged a British naval squadron returning to Jamaica from Bermuda (see , 21–22).
6. The combined Franco-Spanish fleet under the command of French rear admiral Guichen was expected to attack Jamaica, but instead sailed north to Havana and Cap Français (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 7 Aug., and n.1 to that document).