Jacques, Louis, and Laurent Le Couteulx and Company to John Jay, 3 October 1780

Cadiz 3d . October 1780.

Our Supplies for the American Sailors amount to this Day to R le p. 1978 12 L 2 We will continue to render them every Service in our Power, but will confess you ingenuously, that if you don–€™t furnish us with an order from Congress, by which you impower us to oblige all American Captains who come here to take a certain quantity of People, Vizt. In proportion to their bulk, frank of passage, and afterwards so many more, in paying them a certain Sum for their Provisions, we advance nothing. As all the Captains who come here never fail of good motives for not taking any of their fellow Countrymen without paying them a Passage, which forces us to let the People go on board of Neutral Vessels, and instead of fulfilling your views of sending them back, as soon as possible, it is means that they get still farther from it, and great many engage in the English Service. 3