George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[55] of their neighbors, and there were statesmen in Eng-

Chap. I.} 1778.

land who wished for peace, in order that their country might speak with authority on the Bosphorus and within the Euxine.

Of the three northern powers, Russia was for the United States the most important; for Great Britain with ceaseless importunity sought its alliance: but its empress put aside every request to take an active part in the American contest, and repeatedly advised the restoration of peace by the concession of independence. Her heart was all in the Orient. She longed to establish a Christian empire on the Bosphorus, and wondered why Christians of the west should prefer to maintain Mussulmans at Constantinople. Of England, she loved and venerated the people; but she had contempt for its king and for his ministry, of which she noticed the many blunders and foretold the fall. On the other hand, she esteemed Vergennes as a wise and able minister, but did not love the French nation.¹

In Gustavus the Third of Sweden, the nephew of Frederic of Prussia, France might expect a friend. The revolution of 1771, in favor of the royal prerogative, had been aided by French subsidies and the counsels of Vergennes, who was selected for the occasion to be the French minister at Stockholm. The oldest colonizers of the Delaware were Swedes, and a natural affection bound their descendants to the mother country. The adventurous king had the ambition to possess a colony, and France inclined to gratify his wish. His people, as builders and owners of ships,