1. For the declaration and the letter, both sent as enclosures in Dumas' letter of 2 Oct. (above), see van Berckel to the Commissioners, 23 Sept. and note 2 (above).

2. This word was interlined, for insertion at this point, above a word that was deleted and is illegible.

3. In a letter to Dumas of 22 Sept. (see Dumas to the Commissioners, 30 Oct., note 5, below), Benjamin Franklin indicated that JA and Arthur Lee had proposed that he undertake a mission to The Hague in the hope of cementing an alliance with the Netherlands and requested Dumas' advice. Dumas replied on 16 Oct. (PPAmP: Franklin Papers), indicating that the time was not yet ripe for such an effort and that it would be better if he remained the conduit for American initiatives. No later letter from Dumas to either Franklin or the Commissioners indicates any change in that opinion. That and the absence of a reply by van Berckel to this letter or any mention of it in any from Dumas, the logical means of transmission, makes it likely that this letter was a new proposal by Arthur Lee that was not approved by the other two Commissioners and, therefore, was never sent.