1. Jay refers to his 2 Jan. letter, above. For the October 1785 letters and their fate, see note 3 to that letter.

2. Ellipsis in MS.

3. Jay refers to JA’s 29 July letter with which JA enclosed his letters to the Marquis of Carmarthen of 14 and 27 July, and perhaps also that of 29 July. In the first JA proposed a declaration clarifying the meaning of the 1783 Anglo-American armistice; with the second he enclosed a draft of such a declaration; and with the third he enclosed a draft Anglo-American commercial treaty (vol. 17: 223–236, 245–247, 270–274, 280–282, 283–284). Jay acknowledged receiving the 29 July 1785 letter in his of 14 Oct. and stated that it was then before Congress; and Richard Henry Lee approved of the draft treaty in his 23 Oct. letter (same, 17:510, 534). But no mention has been found in the Journals of either the 29 July letter or Jay’s report on its enclosures.

4. The enclosed copies of a 4 Jan. 1786 report by Charles Thomson have not been found, but for that report, also sent to JA by Rufus King, see King’s 1 Feb. letter, and note 1, above.

5. With this letter in the Adams Papers is a copy of Jay’s 31 Jan. report concerning Massachusetts’ effort to obtain the restoration of or payment for property seized from Boston merchants at the evacuation of Boston in March 1776, for which see Samuel Austin’s 23 Dec. 1785 letter, and note 1, above. With Jay’s report are two other documents, designated Nos. 1 and 2, that may have been among the 22 documents that Jay enclosed with his 22 Feb. 1786 letter, the other twenty of which have not been found (Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789 description begins The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from … 1783, to … 1789, [ed. William A. Weaver], repr., Washington, D.C., 1837 [actually 1855]; 3 vols. description ends , 2:515–516). The two documents are copies of the 4 Nov. 1785 letter signed by James Bowdoin instructing the Massachusetts delegates to present the matter to Congress and the 22 Oct. petition to the General Court from the Boston merchants John Rowe, Samuel Austin, Samuel Partridge, and Samuel Dashwood. For those two documents, the text of Thomas Bulfinch’s petition to the General Court, and a list of the nineteen other documents enclosed with Jay’s 22 Feb. 1786 letter, see Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789 description begins The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from … 1783, to … 1789, [ed. William A. Weaver], repr., Washington, D.C., 1837 [actually 1855]; 3 vols. description ends , 2:518–525.

6. Under the command of Capt. John Green (1736–1796), the Empress of China made a second voyage to Canton (now Guangzhou), departing New York City on 1 February. The Hope, Capt. James Magee (1750–1801), and the Betsey, Capt. Neal McHenry, set sail three days later from the same port. The Empress likely arrived in early August. The Canton, Capt. Thomas Truxtun, left Philadelphia in late Dec. 1785, and entered Canton harbor around 1 Sept. 1786. For the arrival of the Hope, see note 7. Carrying large quantities of ginseng, spices, and silks, three of the ships returned to America in May 1787, but no record of the Betsey’s voyage has been found (Smith, Empress of China description begins Philip Chadwick Foster Smith, The Empress of China, Philadelphia, 1984. description ends , p. xvii, 236, 249; Ferguson, Truxtun description begins Eugene S. Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation: The Life of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, U.S. Navy, Baltimore, 1956. description ends , p. 66–67, 73, 77, 272, 273; New York Daily Advertiser, 2 Feb. 1786). On 2 Jan. 1786 Congress granted a sea letter to the Canton and did so for the Hope and Betsey on 26 and 31 Jan., respectively (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, D.C., 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 30:1, 27–28, 30).

7. Samuel Shaw (1750–1794) and Thomas Randall (d. 1811) served together in Gen. Henry Knox’s artillery regiment during the Revolution, and they sailed as supercargoes on the Empress of China’s first voyage to Canton in 1784. Shaw was appointed first consul to China in Jan. 1786, and President George Washington renewed his commission six years later. Randall, formerly Truxtun’s partner in a Philadelphia mercantile firm, was appointed vice-consul; both diplomatic positions were unpaid. They sailed from New York City on the Hope and reached China on 15 Aug. 1786 (ANB description begins John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes, and Paul Betz, eds., American National Biography, New York, 1999–2002; 24 vols. plus supplement; rev. edn., www.anb.org. description ends ; Smith, Empress of China description begins Philip Chadwick Foster Smith, The Empress of China, Philadelphia, 1984. description ends , p. xvii, 6, 60, 234, 236; Ferguson, Truxtun description begins Eugene S. Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation: The Life of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, U.S. Navy, Baltimore, 1956. description ends , p. 73, 272).

8. AA2 took over the decoding from WSS at this point. For the encoded passages Jay used the nomenclator code that he sent to JA on 13 April 1785, for which see vol. 17:xiii, 23–24.

9. Col. Isaac Sears (1730–1786), a New York merchant and Son of Liberty who socialized with JA at the Continental Congress in 1774, sailed on the Hope in an effort to restore his lost fortune with profits from the sale of Chinese ginseng and other goods. Sears died of fever aboard ship and was buried on French Island in Canton harbor (vol. 4:169; JA, D&A description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 2:111, 158; Ferguson, Truxtun description begins Eugene S. Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation: The Life of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, U.S. Navy, Baltimore, 1956. description ends , p. 73–74; ANB description begins John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes, and Paul Betz, eds., American National Biography, New York, 1999–2002; 24 vols. plus supplement; rev. edn., www.anb.org. description ends ).

10. John Wingrove, an English merchant and prospective consul, reached America in late 1785 with letters from JA recommending him as an experienced East Indian trader (vol. 17:413, 431). Wingrove proposed to Congress that it create an American East India Company, but his proposal was declined on 31 Jan. 1786. According to Rufus King’s letter of this date (Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ), Congress believed that “commercial intercourse between the United States and India would be more prosperous if left unfettered in the hands of private adventurers, than if regulated by any system of a national complexion,” but the decision also reflected Congress’ determination not to appoint noncitizens to office (Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Paul H. Smith and others, Washington, D.C., 1976–2000; 26 vols. description ends , 23:131–132; JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, D.C., 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 30:35).