than I am. And I offer you no services,
because I hope you will come as soon as the letter could, which should
command them. Be assured, however, that nobody is more disposed to
render them, nor entertains for you a more sincere and respectful
attachment, than him who, after charging you with his compliments to
Monsieur de Corny, has the honor of offering you the homage of those
sentiments of distinguished esteem and regard, with which he is, dear
Madam, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO JOHN ADAMS.

PARIS, July 1, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--I returned about three weeks ago from a very useless voyage;
useless, I mean, as to the object which first suggested it, that of
trying the effect of the mineral waters of Aix, in Provence, on my
hand. I tried these, because recommended among six or eight others as
equally beneficial, and because they would place me at the beginning of
a tour to the seaports of Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes and L'Orient,
which I had long meditated, in hopes that a knowledge of the places and
persons concerned in our commerce, and the information to be got from
them, might enable me sometimes to be useful. I had expected to satisfy
myself, at Marseilles, of the causes of the difference of quality
between the rice of Carolina, and that of Piedmont, which is brought in
quantities to Marseilles. Not being able to do it, I made an excursion
of three weeks into the rice country beyond the Alps, going through it
from Vercelli to Pavia, about sixty miles. I found the difference to
be, not in the management, as had been supposed both here and in
Carolina, but in the species of rice; and I hope to enable them in
Carolina, to begin the cultivation of the Piedmont rice, and carry it
on, hand in hand, with their own, that they may supply both qualities;
which is absolutely necessary at this market. I had before endeavored
to lead the depot of rice from Cowes to Honfleur, and hope to get it
received there on such terms, as may draw that branch of commerce from
England to this country. It is an object of two hundred and fifty
thousand guineas a year. While passing through the towns of Turin,
Milan and Genoa, I satisfied myself of the practicability of
introducing our whale oil for their consumption, and suppose it would
be equally so, in the other great cities of that country. I was sorry
that I was not authorized to set the matter on foot. The merchants with
whom I chose to ask conferences, met m