Item note: This is a group of letters "mainly from French civilians... writing to members of their families, to friends, or to business partners, in the dependent Swedish colony of St. Bartholomew... At this stage of a mainly naval war the English were gaining the advantage at sea and communication between the French islands was becoming difficult... [the letters] were going, by private arrangements, in American ships bound for New York and Philadelphia with sugar from the French islands. On arrival, letters were being transferred to outward-bound American merchantmen. The longer way round was the shortest way home... It is clear, from the dates on these letters, that nearly all were intercepted on their way to St. Bartholomew, at about the same time..." (Skrine)The letters are discussed, and some quoted in translation, by Walter Skrine in "Guadeloupe Correspondence 1800-1801," Philatelist, Dec. 1966, p. 66-69, 101-105.