be done? I must again try and borrow a little, and, as
usual, recur to you. Thank God, no new bills arrive; if they did, I
should refuse to accept them; only a few straggling old ones now and
then appear.

"Would not the Court of France, on your representing this matter to
them, enable you to put an end to this unhappy business? Thirty
thousand pounds sterling would do it. I am sure the evils we should
experience from the protest of these bills would cost even France a
vast deal more. You see my situation; I am sure I need not press you
to deliver me from it if in your power.

"I cannot yet believe, that all the assurances of this Court will
vanish into air. I still flatter myself that they will afford us some
supplies, though not in season. I think we might very safely offer to
repay the French Court the proposed sum in America, for surely
Congress would not hesitate to prefer that to the loss of their
credit.

"I enclose a newspaper, which gives us reason to indulge the most
pleasing expectations. God grant they may be realised. I have a letter
from Mr Gerry, dated at Marblehead the 9th of October. He was then in
daily expectation of hearing that Lord Cornwallis and his army were
our prisoners. He describes the last harvest as very abundant, and the
general state of our affairs as very promising; much more so, indeed,
than ever they have been.

"I am, &c. &c.

JOHN JAY."

This letter was conveyed by a courier of the French Ambassador. I did
not choose, by putting it in the post office, to give this Court an
opportunity of knowing that I was endeavoring to obtain a credit for
the sum in question, lest that circumstance might become an additional
motive with them to withhold their assistance.

In short, Sir, the whole month of November wore away without my being
able to advance a single step. M. Del Campo's illness afforded a
tolerable good excuse for delay during the latter part of November,
and the first three weeks in December.

On the 1st of December I found myself without any answer from Dr
Franklin, with many bills to pay, and not a farthing in bank. M.
Cabarrus, fortunately for me, was willing as well as able to make
further advances, and to him I am indebted for being relieved from the
necessity I should otherwise have been under, of protesting the bills
due in that month.

The Court removed from the Escurial to Madrid without having best