you mention.  I fear there is little of it, and that not capable of being long kept.  You are surely not uninformed, that Congress required the greater part of this article to be sent northward, which has been done.  I hope, by this time, you receive supplies of beeves from our commissary, Mr. Eaton, who was sent three weeks or a month ago, to exhaust of that article the counties below, and in the neighborhood of Portsmouth; and from thence, was to proceed to other counties, in order, as they stood exposed to an enemy.

The arrival of the French West India fleet (which, though not authentically communicated, seems supported by so many concurring accounts from individuals, as to leave scarcely room for doubt,) will, I hope, prevent the enemy from carrying into effect the embarkation they had certainly intended from New York, though they are strengthened by the arrival of Admiral Rodney, at that place, with twelve sail of the line and four frigates, as announced by General Washington to Congress, on the 19th ultimo.  The accounts of the additional French fleet are varied from sixteen to nineteen ships of the line, besides frigates.  The number of the latter has never been mentioned.  The extracts of letters, which you will see in our paper of this day, are from General Washington, President Huntington, and our Delegates in Congress to me.  That from Bladensburg is from a particular acquaintance of mine, whose credit cannot be doubted.  The distress we are experiencing from want of leather to make shoes, is great.  I am sure you have thought of preventing it in future, by the appointment of a commissary of hides, or some other good regulation for saving and tanning the hides, which the consumption of your army will afford.

I have the honor to be, with all possible esteem and respect, Sir,

your most obedient

and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER XXVII.—­TO GENERAL GATES, October 15, 1780

TO GENERAL GATES.

Richmond, October 15, 1780.

Sir,

I am rendered not a little anxious by the paragraph of yours of the 7th instant, wherein you say, ’It is near a month since I received any letter from your Excellency; indeed, the receipt of most that I have written to you, remains unacknowledged.’  You ought, within that time, to have received my letter of September the 3rd, written immediately on my return to this place, after a fortnight’s absence; that of September the 11th, acknowledging the receipt of yours which covered drafts for money; that of September the 23rd, on the subject of batteaux at Taylor’s Ferry, wagons, maps of Virginia, wintering the French fleet in the Chesapeake, our new levies, and provisions from our lower counties; and that of October the 4th, in answer to yours of September the 24th and 27th.  I begin to apprehend treachery in some part of our chain of expresses, and beg the favor of you, in your