UNITED STATES WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. - Manuscript entitled "Pr - Lot 32

UNITED STATES WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. - Manuscript entitled "Prise de 4 navires de Bordeaux, arriéré de la Marine. Ce décadi 20e pluviôse, l'an 2d [8 février 1794]... Réclamation définitive, à la Convention nationale." 13 pp. 1/2 in-folio. Claim submitted by a certain Benavent, a Parisian businessman specializing in maritime trade, on behalf of himself and his associates, including the Bordeaux shipowner "Pedesclaux" (undoubtedly for "P. Desclaux", i.e. the important Pierre Desclaux). He explained that he had been asked by Secretary of State for the Marine Sartine to help the "Anglo-Americans" engaged against England, but that this request had been made to him unofficially ("mysteriously & in the secrecy of the Minister's cabinet", since in 1777 France had not yet signed a treaty with the United States). He recalls having had several vessels armed by the aforementioned Pedesclaux, four of which were taken on their return by the English: the Réfléchi, the Basque, the Ami de Williambourg, & the Aimable Marianne. He claims to have been ruined by the affair, and has yet to receive compensation. ATTACHED: BOUDIER DE VILLEMERT (Pierre-Joseph). Manuscript entitled "L'Ami des femmes". 1766. In-8 square, about thirty leaves in a paperback notebook.