Bonhams to auction 18th century French general's plan to invade Britain with American `sauvages'
3 Oct 2009, 1536 Hrs

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London, Oct.3 A French general is said to have thought of a scheme to bring over an American force of 10,000 to defeat Britain at the end of the 18th century.

Projet d'une Descente en Angleterre pour l'Année 1779 is part of a sale of books on October 6 at auctioneers Bonhams as part of a lot of books.

It was drawn up by Charles-François Dumouriez when he was the commander at Cherbourg, reveals a report by The Times.

The document, which bears a pencil note saying it came from the papers of General Barthélemy Scherer, briefly Minister of War, says it would be easy to take the Americans across the Atlantic, and suggests if they landed in Ireland "they would be guaranteed success".

With a corps of just 500 Native Americans, right, the document notes: "It is impossible to imagine the terror that would strike the British on seeing them".

The scheme, which is sufficiently detailed to include discussion on the likely deployment of British forces, and the supplies, ships, horses and artillery needed, also considers what would happen if there were a shortage of Native Americans: "Even if the Bostonians could not assemble this number of savages, they could dress up and paint themselves," it says. "These phantoms would be enough, by their mere appearance, to cause mass desertions amongst the British."

It is not known how the Americans reacted to the proposal - if they ever knew.

In 1779 a Franco-Spanish attempt was mounted to invade the Isle of Wight, taking advantage of the British fleet spread between America and the West Indies, but the force was blown off course. (ANI)

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