1. See Pickering to GW, 11–12 Oct., and notes 17 to 21. In a letter to Benjamin Bourne of this date, Pickering enclosed his commission “as Judge of the District Court in and for Rhode Island District” (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters).

2. See GW to Pickering, 10 Oct., n.6.

3. Pickering enclosed the letter of 10 Aug. that he had received from Rufus King, the U.S. minister to Great Britain. In that letter, written from London, King announced his arrival in that city on 23 July and his subsequent introduction to the “King & Queen.” According to King, King George III had communicated his wish to maintain good relations with the United States, and his intention to execute the 1794 Jay Treaty “with the most scrupulous good Faith.” King also described his meeting with Lord Grenville, the British secretary of state for foreign affairs, during which the two men discussed the Jay Treaty and the appointment of Silas Talbot as a U.S. agent in the West Indies to assist impressed American seamen. Grenville “expressed a wish that some notice had been given of our intention to send an Agent for their [American seamen] Protection” and feared that West Indian officials would not recognize Talbot. King further relayed news that Joseph Donaldson, Jr., had obtained, at Leghorn, Italy, “Specie to the amount of 400.000 Dollars” as partial fulfillment of U.S. treaty obligations with Algiers. King then mentioned French foreign minister Charles Delacroix’s note to Francois, marquis de Barthélemy, the French ambassador and minister to Switzerland, which advised of the 2 July 1796 French decree “to seize the Cargoes of all neutral vessels bound to English ports.” Grenville commented on the decree’s probable authenticity but denied the existence of an equivalent British order against neutral ships bound to French ports (DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to Great Britain).

For more on the official note from Delacroix to Barthélemy, see Pickering to GW, 11–12 Oct., and n.12 to that document.

4. The ship William Penn, Capt. James Josiah, had left Gravesend, England, for Philadelphia around 17 August. The Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Advertiser for 20 Oct. 1796 reported that on 31 Aug., the William Penn was “boarded by 2 French frigates, the Le Coque, and Le Henri … the lieutenant of the former offered captain Josiah, assistance and acted with politeness” (see also London Packet or New Lloyd’s Evening Post, 17–19 Aug. 1796).

5. Pickering may refer to Delacroix’s letter of 7 July to James Monroe, the former U.S. minister to France (see Pickering to GW, 11–12 Oct., and n.4 to that document).

6. The Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser for 11 Oct. printed, under the heading “NEW-YORK, October 10,” a copy of a letter to Elias Vanderhorst, the U.S. consul at Bristol, England, from Fulwar Skipwith, consul-general to France, dated 1 Aug.: “Since my last, of the 3d instant, I have received a written letter from the Vice Consul at Marseilles of the 22d of July, advising that the Master of the Danish vessel who brought over the Americans from Algiers, has written him that the Bey of Tunis has delivered up the American schooner Eliza, mentioned in my last, Mr. [Joel] Barlow having effected a treaty previous to her capture. I believe, therefore, that our vessels have now nothing to dread in the Mediterranean.”

For the capture of the Eliza prior to the negotiation of a six-month truce between Hamuda, bey of Tunis, and the United States, see Pickering to GW, 5 Oct., and n.4 to that document.

7. This paragraph accurately summarizes a section of the letter of 5 Aug. to Pickering from David Humphreys, the U.S. minister to Portugal. That letter, written from Lisbon, confirmed fears that France’s occupation of Leghorn in June 1796 “would interrupt the completion of our pecuniary operations at that place.” Humphreys updated Pickering on the efforts to secure funds to meet the terms of the 1795 U.S.-Algiers treaty. He quoted a letter reporting that Leghorn broker Salamon Coen Bacri promised “to finish the business, either by taking Mr. [Joseph] Donaldson’s Bills” on the London banking firm of John & Francis Baring & Co., “or in some other manner.” Humphreys noted that he directed the Barings to honor Donaldson’s bills “or to establish such Credit in his favour … as might be convenient.” According to Humphreys, Capt. Richard O’Bryen had left Lisbon on 4 Aug. for Algiers “carrying with him the property of the U.S.” (Knox, Naval Documents, Barbary Wars description begins Dudley W. Knox., ed. Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers. 6 vols. Washington, D.C., 1939–44. description ends , 1:170–72; see also Pickering to GW, 6 Jan. 1797, and notes 10 and 21 to that document). France occupied Leghorn in June 1796 in response to the British use of that port.

In his letter of 10 Aug. to Pickering, also written from Lisbon, Humphreys reported the capture of the Eliza and provided intelligence on European affairs: “The French have taken Frankfort; & [Jean-Victor] Moreau has gained some farther signal advantages on the higher Rhine. … a Corps of Buonaparte’s Army had dislodged the Austrians” near Tyrol. In a postscript to the letter, Humphreys reported both British fears of war with Spain and tense relations between Spain and Portugal. He also noted Portugal’s efforts to “complete their Infantry to its Establishment” and to increase the strength of its cavalry (DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to Spain).

8. Richard O’Bryen left Lisbon for Algiers on 4 Aug. aboard the brigantine Sophia, which carried about $220,000 for Hassan Bashaw, dey of Algiers. The funds were intended to fulfill the terms of the 1795 U.S.-Algiers treaty (see Buel, Barlow description begins Richard Buel, Jr. Joel Barlow: American Citizen in a Revolutionary World. Baltimore, 2011. description ends , 207–8). The sum transported by the Sophia included at least $200,000 worth of gold bullion, which John Bulkeley of the Lisbon banking firm John Bulkeley & Son had amassed and offered to Humphreys in the summer of 1796. The amount was to be used against a letter of credit on the London firm John & Francis Baring & Co. (see Barnby, Prisoners of Algiers description begins H. G. Barnby. The Prisoners of Algiers: An Account of the Forgotten American-Algerian War, 1785–1797. New York, 1966. description ends , 281, 295–96). The shipment of this sum occurred after Barlow already arranged with broker Micaiah Bacri to secure ransom money for the liberation of the American prisoners in Algiers in 1796 (see Pickering to GW, 6 Jan. 1797, and n.21). For more on the efforts of Humphreys and others to secure funds for the dey of Algiers, see Pickering to GW, 27 July; see also GW to the dey of Algiers, 3 December.

Banker and trader Joseph Coen Bacri (c.1740–1817), born in Algiers, founded the Bacri Frères firm and represented the company in Marseille, France. His brother Micaiah (Micayo) Coen Bacri headed up the firm in Algiers and was a close adviser to the dey. Salamon (Solomon) Coen Bacri, a cousin to Micaiah, was a member of the Bacri mercantile firm in Leghorn (see Buel, Barlow description begins Richard Buel, Jr. Joel Barlow: American Citizen in a Revolutionary World. Baltimore, 2011. description ends , 201; see also Knox, Naval Documents, Barbary Wars description begins Dudley W. Knox., ed. Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers. 6 vols. Washington, D.C., 1939–44. description ends , 1:167).

9. Humphreys’s skepticism about an imminent war between Spain and Great Britain, which he expressed in his 10 Aug. letter to Pickering, was proven wrong. Spain and France had signed an alliance in August 1796, and Spain and Britain were soon at war (see Pickering to GW, 20 Oct., and n.5 to that document).

10. In his 10 Aug. letter to Pickering, Humphreys noted that the situation between Portugal and Holland had improved “Since the Royal Edict posted up at the Exchange … has lately been taken down by Authority.” A decree of 19 July 1796, issued by Maria I of Portugal, suspended “all commerce with the states general of the Netherlands” and barred her subjects from making “transactions, of mercantile connections” with the citizens of the Batavian Republic. Maria I further suspended “all transactions in the interior of her dominions with the subjects of the United Provinces” and prohibited the “departure of all Dutch ships” from Portuguese ports. The decree was initiated after “the Portuguese envoy extraordinary” to the Netherlands reported, on 15 June, “a letter which he received from the committee of foreign affairs of the [Batavian] republic, in which has been notified to him the fixed resolution of abstaining from all political communication with him, as representative of her majesty, the queen of Portugal, till the conclusion of a peace with the French republic.” The Portuguese decree evidently was revoked soon after it was issued (The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1796 [London, 1800], 211–12; see also GW to Pickering, 21 Oct., and n.2 to that document).

11. Diogo de Noronha de Angeja was Portuguese ambassador to Spain until his appointment as minister of state in the fall of 1796. Diogo José de Carvalho e Sampayo, the Portuguese envoy extraordinary to Spain since 1791, was named ambassador extraordinary to Spain in August 1796 (see Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter description begins Ludwig Bittner et al. Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder seit dem Westfälischen Frieden (1648). 3 vols. Oldenburg, Germany, 1936–65. description ends , 3:320; see also Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Advertiser, 7 Dec. 1796).

12. The Daily Advertiser (New York) for 6 Oct. 1796 announced that “The Court of Lisbon have resolved to send the Marquis de Pombal as ambassador extraordinary to London, to negociate with the British ministry, for such efficacious assistance as may secure Portugal against the attack of the French.” Pombal evidently did not take his post until November 1797. The St. James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post (London) for 16–18 Nov. 1797 reported Pombal’s arrival in London the previous day “from Lisbon on a diplomatick Commission to treat with our Government on business of importance.”

José Luís de Vasconcellos e Sousa, conde de Pombeiro, marqués de Pombal (1740–1812), served as Portugal’s ambassador extraordinary and special secretary to Britain from 23 Nov. to 3 Dec. 1797 (see Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter description begins Ludwig Bittner et al. Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder seit dem Westfälischen Frieden (1648). 3 vols. Oldenburg, Germany, 1936–65. description ends , 3:317).