Nothing is so pleasing as to find that what we have done is so exactly what is approved by the friends whose judgment we esteem. not a tittle of what you recommend has been omitted; and it has been in train from June last. one article only varies. the situation of fort Rosalie, now the Natchez, being less favorable for a fort, one of the best on the Missisipi,1 which happened to be very near our Southern boundary, was taken possession of, and a fort built by the former administration, under the name of fort Adams. it is an eminence on the river, commanding the river completely, & hors d’insulte itself: and it’s harbour excellent. here we have been silently making a place d’armes, commensurate with the force of men in it’s neighborhood. except as to the place, your ideas have been exactly & in every particular those on which we have acted. exclusive of these measures, the most important one now to be attended to is the opening a land office for the fine country we have lately got from the Choctaws, extending from the Missisipi to the Mobile & Alabama rivers, tho’ nearly cut in two at the Pascagoula: our line running from the Yazoo S. Eastwardly to the Pascagoula, & thence N. Eastwardly to the Tombigbee, and including all the country between this last & the Alabama. if the lands be granted in small lots of ¼ of a mile each, making residence a condition of the continuance of the title, we shall have that country filled rapidly with a hardy yeomanry capable of defending it. if this speck in our horison blows over kindly I see nothing but smooth water before us. Monroe will be with you probably in a fortnight to take his immediate departure.—I hear with great pleasure from our friends, of whom I make frequent enquiries about you, that you preserve your health well. may it so continue to the end of the chapter, and that be as long a one as yourself shall desire. my respects attend mrs Gates, and to yourself I tender my affectionate & constant friendship.