256 EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



With these sentiments I shall remain for ever with the highest 



reverence and profound respect, Gentlemen of Your Honours, the most 



obedient and very humble servant, 



FLEURY MESPLET. 



No. 36. 



Papers of the Continental Congress, p. 351. 



I, t'ne underwritten, do hereby certify that sometime in the month of 

 May 1776, Mr. Fleury Mesplet came to Montreal, in order to set up a Print- 

 ing Office. That some time in the rilonth of June then next following (the 

 time when the American troops evacuated that place), persons were 

 employed by the British Governinent in order to watch very closely the 

 said Fleury Mesplet, which they did for the space of eight days, afterwards 

 he was taken wit'n all his workmen and confined for twenty-six days. 

 That at the expiration of that period, the said Fleury on the earnest solicita- 

 tion of his friends, was released, but still very closely watched and deprived 

 of all the means to make his escape out of the province. That on the 

 third of June 1779, he, the said Fleury was again apprehended on suspicion, 

 and sent to the jail of Quebec, w'nere he was kept confined for the space of 

 three years and a half, consecutive, and was not released until the happy 

 event of the peace took place. 



March, 31st, 1785. 



JH. PERINAULT. 



Philadelphia, ss 



Personally appeared Joseph Perinault, at present of the City of 

 Philadelphia Gent, and made oath according to law that the foregoing 

 certificate contains t'/ie whole truth respecting the matter therein contained 

 and expressed, sworn at Philadelphia, the 1st March, 1785. 



Coram. JOHN MILLER. 



No. 37. 



Papers of the Continental Congress, p. 351. 



During my stay last winter and spring in Canada I frequently heard 

 Mr. Mesplet's name mentioned as one of the sufferers in the American 

 cause during the late war, and that he had been confined at Quebec upwards 

 of three years and not liberated until peace. I also understood from several 

 well disposed to the American Revolution (as well at Quebec as Montreal) 

 fhat Mr. Mesplet was considered as an American and had given proofs of 

 his attachment to the Indépendance of the United States. 



Phil., March 31st, 1785. 



ISAAC MELCHOR. 



No. 38. 



Papers of the Continental Congress, p. 352. 



We, the subscribers, certify to all whom it may concern, that Mr. 

 Fleury Mesplet, printer in the city of Philadelphia, has set off from t'.ie said 

 city for Montreal in Canada, in the month of March, 1776, in the capacity 



