To James Madison from William Jarvis (Abstract), 20 April 1805
§ From William Jarvis
20 April 1805, Lisbon. “Since I had the honor to address the foregoing to you,1 nothing with certainty has reached here about the French other than a confirmation of their being off Cadiz2 & were laying on & off waiting to be joined by a french line of battle ship, two frigates & the Spanish Line of battle ships in that port. It is said that only 7 of the 14 spanish line of battle ships are ready & those but imperfectly manned.
“After having waited nearly two months longer than I did either of the preceding years to see if any one else would move in the quarantine regulations, and in hopes, that as the necessity of it had ceased the Government would raise it without an applications, but finding no steps taken to-ward it, and it having lately Come very hard on two or three Vessels, I passed a communication to His Excy. Mr de Araujo the 17 Inst. of which the inclosed is a Copy3 & received his answer yesterday, of which goes inclosed a copy and translation.”4
Adds in a postscript: “Inclosed is also a letter recd. from Mr Simpson by the last post.”5
RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 59, CD, Lisbon, vol. 2). RC 2 pp.; docketed by Wagner: “13. 14 & 20 April 1805 Recd. 11 June.” For enclosures, see nn. 3–5.
1. See Jarvis to JM, 14 Apr. 1805.
2. For the French ships at Cádiz, see Anthony Terry to JM, 10 Apr. 1805.
3. The enclosure (3 pp.) is a copy of Jarvis to António de Araújo de Azevedo, 17 Apr. 1805, asking the prince regent to order that any American vessels with clean bills of health and crews free of sickness, having already had a passage of twenty to twenty-five days, be excused from undergoing a fifteen-to-twenty-day quarantine, especially as yellow fever had not been known in the United States for more than eighteen months. He asked that American vessels be allowed admission in the same way as ships from northern Europe.
4. The enclosure (1 p.; in Portuguese, with English translation), is a copy of Araújo to Jarvis, 18 Apr. 1805, acknowledging receipt of Jarvis’s 17 Apr. letter, and stating that the prince regent had ordered Araújo to send it to the board of health “that they may provide for the object of your requisition.”
5. The enclosure was probably James Simpson to JM, 2 Apr. 1805.