part would have been unnecessary.

I forbear burthening these despatches with copies of the various
letters I have received and written on this subject, as well because,
as they relate to transactions in Holland and France, with the public
agents and Ministers in those countries, they are not properly within
my province, as because they contain nothing of sufficient importance
to make it necessary for me again to send further copies.

You will be pleased to observe, that my last letter to the Minister
was dated the 9th of October, and that there is a paragraph in it
soliciting his speedy attention to the affairs on which he had
promised to write to me. I received no answer. Some weeks elapsed and
the same silence continued.

I consulted the Ambassador of France, as to the propriety of my going
to the Escurial, and endeavoring to prevail upon the Minister to
proceed in our affairs, observing that the measures of Spain, with
respect to us, might be important if not to this, yet to the next
campaign, and that the sooner they were decided, the better enabled
Congress would be to regulate their future operations. He was of
opinion, that as the Minister had promised to give me notice of the
time when he would be able to transact these affairs with me, it would
be most prudent to wait with patience somewhat longer, and not by an
appearance of too great solicitude, to give him uneasy sensations. All
things considered, this advice appeared to me discreet, and I followed
it.

Thus the month of October produced nothing but expectation, suspense,
and disappointment.

About this time M. Gardoqui mentioned to me a singular ordinance which
occasioned, and is explained in the following letter from me to the
Minister, viz.

"Madrid, October 28th, 1781.

"Sir,

"M. Gardoqui informs me, that his Majesty was pleased in the month of
March last to order, 'that when a prize taken by a French or Dutch
vessel should arrive in a port of Spain, the Marine Judge of the
District should reduce to writing the evidence of the capture, and
deliver it to the French or Dutch consul, (as the case might be) to be
by him transmitted to the Admiralty, from whence the commission of the
captors issued in order that the legality of the capture might there
be tried; and further, that the sentence which might there be passed
should, on being duly certified to the aforesaid judge, be executed
under his dire