TO MONSIEUR HILLIARD D'AUBERTEUIL.

PARIS, February 20, 1786.

SIR, I have been honored with your letter, and the books which accompanied it, for which I return you my hearty thanks. America cannot but be flattered with the choice of the subject, on which you are at present employing your pen. The memory of the American Revolution will be immortal, and will immortalize those who record it. The reward is encouraging, and will justify all those pains, which a rigorous investigation of facts will render necessary. Many important facts, which preceded the commencement of hostilities, took place in England. These may mostly be obtained from good publications in that country. Some took place in this country. They will be probably hidden from the present age. But America is the field where the greatest mass of important events were transacted, and where alone they can now be collected. I, therefore, much applaud your idea of going to that country, for the verification of the facts you mean to record. Every man there can tell you more than any man here, who has not been there; and the very ground itself will give you new insight into some of the most interesting transactions. If I can be of service to you, in promoting your object there, I offer myself freely to your use. I shall be flattered by the honor of your visit here, at any time. I am seldom from home before noon; but if any later hour should suit you better, I will take care to be at home, at any hour and day you will be pleased to indicate.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO DR. BANCROFT.

PARIS, February 26, 1786.

DEAR SIR,-I wrote you on the 21st instant, on the subject

of Mr. Paradise, which I hope you have received.

By the death of Mr. Williams, a copy of my Notes on Virginia got into the hands of a bookseller, who was about publishing a very abominable translation of them, when the Abbé Morellet heard of it, and diverted him from it by undertaking to translate it for him. They will thus appear in French in spite of my precautions. The Abbé engaged me to make a map, which I wish to have engraved in London. It is on a single sheet, twentythree inches square, and very closely written. It comprehends from Albemarle Sound to Lake Erie, and from Philadelphia to the mouth of the great Kanawha, containing Virginia and Pennsylvania, a great part of Maryland, and a part of North Carolina. It is taken from Suell, Hutchins, and Fry and Jefferson. I wish the favor of you to make two propositions for me, and to inform me of the result. 1. To know from one of the best engravers how much he will ask for the plate and engraving, and in how short a time after he received the original can he furnish the plate, done in the best manner; for the time is material, as the work is in the press. 2. To know of Faden, or any other map merchant, for how much he will undertake to furnish me 1,800 copies, on my sending the map to him, and in what time can he furnish them. On this alternative, I am to have nothing to do with the engraver, or any person but the undertaker. I am of opinion, he may furnish them to me for nothing, and fully indemnify himself by the sale of the maps. Though it is on a scale of only an inch to twenty miles, it is as particular as the foursheet maps from which it is taken, and I answer for the exactness of the reduction. I have supplied some new places, though the first object which induced me to undertake it was to make a map for my book. I soon extended my view to the making as good a map of those counties as my materials would admit; and I have no doubt but that in the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 600 copies can be sold for a dollar apiece. I shall finish it in about a fortnight, except the divisions in the counties of Virginia, which I cannot do at all till I can get Henry's map of Virginia. This I must trouble you to procure for me, and send immediately by the diligence; and also give me

information on the premises as soon as possible. You will perceive that time will press. I hope the circumstances of this affair will plead my pardon for the trouble I am giving you. The expense of procuring and sending the map shall be replaced, and an infinitude of thanks attend you. Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

P. S. I do not propose that my name shall appear on the map, because it will belong to its original authors, and because I do not wish to place myself at the bar of the public.

TO THE COUNT DE VERGENNES.

PARIS, February 28, 1786.

SIR, Circumstances of public duty calling me suddenly to London, I take the liberty of mentioning it to your Excellency, and of asking a few minutes' audience of you, at as early a day and hour as will be convenient to you, and that you will be so good as to indicate them to me. I would wish to leave Paris about Friday or Saturday, and suppose that my stay in London will be of about three weeks. I shall be happy to be the bearer of any commands your Excellency may have for that place, and will faithfully execute them. I cannot omit mentioning, how pleasing it would be to me to be enabled, before my departure, to convey to the American prisoners at St. Pol de Leon such mitigation of their fate as may be thought admissible.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the highest respect and esteem, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble

servant.

TO THE HONORABLE J. JAY.

PARIS, March 5, 1786.

SIR,-The several commissions to which Congress were pleased to appoint Colonel Humphreys Secretary of Legation, being

shortly to expire, and a French packet offering him a convenient passage in the month of April, he proposes to avail himself of that occasion of returning to his own country, and of then presenting his respects and thanks to Congress, as a member of the several commissions with which his office was connected. I think it my duty to bear testimony to his ready, able, and faithful discharge of all its duties; and I beg leave, through you, to present this testimony to Congress, and to assure them that his talents and disposition are such as they may repose themselves on with security, should they think to avail our country of them on any future occasion. I have the honor to be, with the highest respect and esteem, Sir, yours, &c.

TO JOHN JAY.

LONDON, March 12, 1786.

SIR,-The date of a letter from London will doubtless be as unexpected to you as it was unforeseen by myself a few days ago. On the 27th of last month, Colonel Smith arrived in Paris with a letter from Mr. Adams, informing me that there was at this place a minister from Tripoli, having general powers to enter into treaties on behalf of his State, and with whom it was possible we might do something under our commission to that power; and that he gave reason to believe he could also make arrangements with us for Tunis. He further added that the minister of Portugal here had received ultimate instructions from his court, and that probably that treaty might be concluded in the space of three weeks were we all on the spot together. He, therefore, pressed me to come over immediately. The first of these objects had some weight on my mind, because, as we had sent no person to Tripoli or Tunis, I thought if we could meet a minister from them on this ground, our arrangements would be settled much sooner, and at less expense. But what principally decided me. was the desire of bringing matters to a conclusion with Portugal

before the term of our commissions should expire, or any new turn in the negotiations of France and England should abate their willingness to fix a connection with us. A third motive had also its weight. I hoped that my attendance here, and the necessity of shortening it, might be made use of to force a decisive answer from this court. I therefore concluded to comply with Mr. Adams's request. I went immediately to Versailles, and apprised the Count de Vergennes that circumstances of public duty called me hither for three or four weeks, arranged with him some matters, and set out with Colonel Smith for this place, where we arrived last night, which was as early as the excessive rigor of the weather admitted. I saw Mr. Adams immediately, and again to day. He informs me that the minister of Portugal was taken ill five or six days ago, has been very much so, but is now somewhat better. It would be very mortifying, indeed, should this accident, with the shortness of the term to which I limit my stay here, defeat what was the principal object of my journey, and that, without which, I should hardly have undertaken it. With respect to this country, I had no doubt but that every consideration had been urged by Mr. Adams which was proper to be urged. Nothing remains undone in this way. But we shall avail ourselves of my journey here, as if made on purpose, just before the expiration of our commission, to form our report to Congress on the execution of that commission, which report they may be given to know, cannot be formed without decisive information of the ultimate determination of their court. There

is no doubt what that determination will be; but it will be useful to have it; as it may put an end to all further expectations on our side the water, and show that the time is come for doing whatever is to be done by us for counteracting the unjust and greedy designs of this country. We shall have the honor, before I leave this place, to inform you of the result of the several matters which have brought me to it.

A day or two before my departure from Paris, I received your letter of January-. The question therein proposed, "How far France considers herself as bound to insist on the delivery of