10. Boylston was going to France to negotiate a contract to supply American whale oil. On Boylston's sale of oil to the French, see JA to James Bowdoin, 24 March 1786 (
MHi: Bowdoin-Temple Papers, now in Winthrop Papers; printed in MHS,
Colls., 7th ser., 6 [1907]:92–93).