A vessel was already arrived from Halifax
to Nantucket to take off some of those who proposed to remove; two
families had gone on board and others were going, when a letter was
received there, which had been written by Monsieur le Marquis de la
Fayette to a gentleman in Boston, and transmitted by him to
Nantucket. The purport of the letter was to dissuade their accepting
the British proposals, and to assure them that their friends in
France would endeavour to do something for them. This instantly
suspended their design: not another went on board, and the vessel
returned to Halifax with only the two families.
In fact the French Government had not been inattentive to the
views of the British, nor insensible of the crisis. They saw the
danger of permitting five or six thousand of the best seamen existing
to be transferred by a single stroke to the marine strength of their
enemy, and to carry over with them an art which they possessed almost
exclusively. The counterplan which they set on foot was to tempt the
Nantuckois by high offers to come and settle in France. This was in
the year 1785. The British however had in their favour a sameness of
language, religion, laws, habits and kindred. 9 families only, of 33
persons in the whole came to Dunkirk; so that this project was not
likely to prevent their emigration to the English establishments, if
nothing else had happened.
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