It is our desire that you accept no Bills nor pay any money out of the funds which are or may be in your hands to the credit of us three jointly without our joint order. As it has been the practice to address Letters upon the business of the Commission to Mr. Deane we desire that you will send to us all the Letters you receive so directed, and not give them to any private person. We have the honor to be &c.

Being too much indisposd to come to Passi this morning, and thinking the subjects of the enclosd Letters of pressing importance; I have sent you what I think shoud be written. You will make such Alterations as you think proper.1 But if the subordinate Servants of the public continue to obey or not obey our Orders as they please—to act as they will, without taking our orders—to involve us in debt at their pleasure—and give us no account of the expenditure of large Sums of public money committed to them—we may expect the worst consequences both to the public and ourselves. I have the honor to be with the greatest esteem Gentlemen yr. most Obedt. Servt.

Paris, 18 May 1778. printed: JA, Diary and Autobiography , 4:102; ordered printed by the congress as a broadside (illustration facing p. 99). This letter was signed by Adams and Franklin because, according to Arthur Lee in his Letterbook (PCC, No. 102, IV, f. 7), “this Intelligence 131was sent to the Commissioners from M. de Sartine by M. de Chaumont who came accompanied by Dr. Bancroft and the two Commissioners at Passi having signed the above Letters they were sent away without communicating them to Mr. Lee who was signing the Bills for borrowing money in Holland. Mr. Adams informed him of it [thursday].” The two Commissioners requested that French naval commanders be notified of the impending departure of eleven British warships for North America.

Although the Commissioners' information concerning the imminent departure of Vice Adm. John Byron's fleet was accurate, the warning was premature. Contrary winds and indecision caused by uncertainty about the destination of Comte d'Estaing's fleet, which had left Toulon on 13 April, delayed Byron's sailing until 9 June. Even then, Byron's arrival in American waters was delayed by the severe storms encountered on his passage, which scattered the fleet. The first vessel arrived at New York on 30 July, and Byron himself, at the end of September (Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775–1783, Cambridge, 1964, p. 196–202, 212; Mahan, Navies in the War of Amer. Independence , P.58–59).

The Commissioners were apparently unaware of the delay until they received “advices from London” dated 5 June, which erroneously reported that Byron's squadron, which had sailed from Portsmouth on 20 May, had put into Plymouth and been ordered not to proceed to America. Actually, the ships from Portsmouth were only a reinforcement for Byron's fleet, which was based at Plymouth. Nevertheless, on 10 June, the day after Byron had sailed, the Commissioners incorporated the new information into a circular letter directed to “any Captain bound to America” ( Diary and Autobiography , 4:135; Mackesy, War for America, p. 200–201). For later intelligence on British naval operations, see letters to the Commissioners from Francis Coffyn of 18 and 19 June (both below).