avor
to obtain favorable terms of reception, is within the line of my duty.

My journey into this part of the country has procured me information
which I will take the liberty of communicating to Congress. In October
last I received a letter dated Montpelier, October the 2d, 1786,
announcing to me that the writer was a foreigner, who had a matter of
very great consequence to communicate to me, and desired I would
indicate the channel through which it might pass safely. I did so.

I received soon after a letter in the following words, omitting only
the formal parts. [_A translation of it is here given._]

"I am a native of Brazil. You are not ignorant of the frightful slavery
under which my country groans. This continually becomes more
insupportable since the epoch of your glorious independence, for the
cruel Portuguese omit nothing which can render our condition more
wretched, from an apprehension that we may follow your example. The
conviction, that these usurpers against the laws of nature and humanity
only meditate new oppressions, has decided us to follow the guiding
light which you have held out to us, to break our chains, to revive our
almost expiring liberty, which is nearly overwhelmed by that force,
which is the sole foundation of the authority that Europeans exercise
over American. But it is necessary that some power should extend
assistance to the Brazilians, since Spain would certainly unite herself
with Portugal; and in spite of our advantages for defence, we could not
make it effectual, or, at least, it would be imprudent to hazard the
attempt without some assurance of success. In this state of affairs,
Sir, we can with propriety look only to the United States, not only
because we are following her example, but, moreover, because nature, in
making us inhabitants of the same continent, has in some sort united us
in the bonds of a common patriotism. On our part, we are prepared to
furnish the necessary supplies of money, and at all times to
acknowledge the debt of gratitude due to our benefactors. I have thus,
Sir, laid before you a summary of my views. It is in discharge of this
commission that I have come to France, since I could not effect it in
America without exciting suspicion. It now remains for you to decide
whether those views can be accomplished. Should you desire to consult
your nation on them, it is in my power to give you all the information
you may require."

As, by this time, I had been ad