ion of our
affairs here for some time past, induced me not to do myself the honor
of addressing you, until I could inform you in what manner our
difficulties were likely to have a period. Indeed, during this
interval, my time was so much engaged by the bills of exchange
accepted by Mr Jay, and the conversations I held with, and the visits
I was obliged to make to the various persons interested in this
affair, that I had very little leisure left for other occupations.

On the 27th of February, I expressed my apprehensions for the fate of
our accepted bills, although I could not but hope, that either this
Court or that of France, would interfere in time to relieve us from
this cruel mortification. Whether this Court withheld its aid, from
expectation that the French Ambassador was secretly instructed to
assist us, as on a former occasion, in case of extreme necessity;
whether their wants, which are pressing, occasioned their indecision;
or whether it was produced by the secret influence and artifices of
ill disposed persons, I will not pretend to say; but the fact is, that
notwithstanding the frequent representations of Mr Jay, and as
frequent good offices of the French Ambassador, the Minister did not,
until the day before Mr Jay found himself under the absolute necessity
of protesting the bills, authorise verbally the Count de Montmorin to
inform Mr Jay, that if M. Cabarrus persisted in his former intentions
of making the necessary advances, he would see him repaid in ten or
twelve months, to the amount of forty or fifty thousand current
dollars. It must be observed that this consent was given the day after
M. Del Campo had been informed by M. Cabarrus, at his own house, of
the terms on which he would make the advances in question. These terms
were different from those he had frequently repeated to Mr Jay and
myself, and which Mr Jay made known to the Minister; but I believe the
conversations with the latter, had excited apprehensions of his not
being reimbursed even in the time he had originally proposed.

These apprehensions were augmented by finding that the French
Ambassador was not authorised to extricate us from our distress,
although the Court of France was apprized of our situation. I early
remarked these fears, and endeavored to remove them by every means in
my power. I was clearly of opinion, however, that after the
conversation, above mentioned, with M. Del Campo, no reliance could be
placed on his assistan