A French Report on St. Augustine in the 1770s

The original of this unsigned undated report is preserved in the French War Archives at Vincennes in the Memoires Historiques series, carton 1681, document 6. It is most probably the work of a French officer who arrived in Charleston late in 1777 and was subsequently captured by the British and held prisoner at St. Augustine. The importance which the author assigns to St. Augustine as a blockading base would indicate that neither Charleston nor Savannah had fallen to the British at the time the report was written. A report on Charleston in the same handwriting (document 7) can be dated as late 1778 or 1779, and it is possible that both of these reports were originally solicited by the French government when it was considering openly supporting the American colonies