The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

134 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [lET. 49.
TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF FINANCE.
Head-Quarters, Dobbs's Ferry, 17 August, 1781.
DEAR SIR,
I have in confidence imparted to you the alteration
of our late plan, and made you acquainted with our intended operations. Besides the provision necessary at
the Head of Elk to carry the troops down the bay, a
very considerable quantity will be wanted in Virginia.
I should suppose three hundred barrels of flour, as
to the Chesapeake, no time was lost in determining what course to pursue. The news came from Count de Barras.
Diary, July 14th. — "Received despatches from the Count de Barras,
announcing the intended departure of Count de Grasse from Cape Francois with between twenty-five and twenty-nine sail of the line, and three
thousand two hundred land troops; on the 3d instant, for the Chesapeake
Bay; and the anxiety of the latter to have every thing in the most perfect readiness to commence our operations at the moment of his arrival,
as he should be under the necessity, from particular engagements with
the Spaniards, to be in the West Indies by the middle of October. The
Count de Barras at the same time intimated his intentions of an enterprise against Newfoundland; in opposition to which both Count de Rochambeau and myself remonstrated, as being impolitic and dangerous under the probability of Rodney's coming on this coast.
", Matters having now come to a crisis, and a decided plan to be determinet on, I was obliged, -from the shortness of Count de Grasse's
promised stay on this coast, the apparent disinclination of their naval officers to force the harbour of New York, and the feeble compliance of
the States with my requisitions for men hitherto, and the little prospect
of greater exertion in future, -to give up all ideas of attacking New
York, and instead thereof to remove the French troops and a detachment
from the American army to the Head of Elk, to be transported to Virginia for the purpose of cooperating with the force from the West Indies
against the troops in that State."
In the letter, which accompanied the despatches above mentioned,
Count de Barras said, that Count de Grasse did not require him to form a
junction with the West India squadron, but left him at liberty to under.take any other enterprise, which he might think proper. In conformity
with this permission, and with the spirit of the original but contingent instructions from the ministers, he proposed an expedition to Newfoundland,
and said he should wish to take with him the land forces, that had been
left at Newport under M. de Choisy. This step was strongly disapproved