To John Jay from Floridablanca, 29 July 1780
From Floridablanca
[Samedi 29 Juillet 1780]
Le comte de Floridablanca fait bien ses compliments a Mr De Jay et lui fait savoir qu’il a recu exactement ses trois dernieres Lettres.
Pour satisfaire au desir de Mr Jay l’on expediera l’ordre pourque Mr Harrison puisse y demeurer a Cadix, malgré la regle generale que le Roi avoit etabli.
Au sujet de l’aceptation des Lettres de change le Comte de Floridablanca peut dire uniquement qu’il attend toujours la Personne en question la quelle a deja anoncé qu’elle alloit se mettre en route.
Au reste il est tres sensible a l’atention de luy communique les derniers details arrivés sur l’affaire de Charlestown, et compte qu’il aura toujours la même complaisance.
[Translation]
[Saturday 29 July 1780]
The Ct. D F B. presents his Compts. to Mr: Jay, & acquaints him that he has duely recd his three last Letters
For the satisfaction of Mr: Jay orders shall be given for Mr: Harrison to remain at Cadiz, the General regulation of ^established by^ the King notwithstanding.1
On the Subject of the Acceptance of the Bills of Exchange the Count can only say that he still waits for the Person in question who has informed him that he was on the point of setting out on ^beginning his Journey—^2
He is moreover very sensible of the Attention in communicating to him the last advices recd. respectg the Affair of ChT: & hopes persuades himself that Mr: Jay will always have ^observe^ the same complaisance—3
RC, in French, with draft English translation in the hand of Henry Brockholst Livingston, NNC (EJ: 8249). Endorsed: “ . . . Recd 30th.” LbkCs, in French with English translation, embedded in JJ to the President of Congress, 6 Nov., below, DNA: PCC, item 110, 1: 247–49 (EJ: 4128); NNC: JJ Lbk. 1; CSmH.
1. In his letter of 22 July, JJ had asked permission for Richard Harrison to remain at Cádiz and enjoy the privileges usually given to merchants of friendly nations. ALS, SpMaAHN: Estado, leg. 3884, exp. 4, doc. 3 (EJ: 12143). On 1 Aug. he wrote to thank Floridablanca for granting it. Dft, NNC (EJ: 8247).
2. In his letter of 27 July, LS, SpMaAHN: Estado, leg. 3884, exp. 4, doc. 64, JJ discussed the appeals for acceptance of bills from Joyce and Maraci, on which see the notes to JJ to Floridablanca, 28 June (first letter), above. He also enclosed an extract of a letter from Henry Laurens of 27 May to an unidentified correspondent. Laurens asserted that the British had tacitly acknowledged American independence in the agreement for the capitulation of Charleston. He argued that the capitulation by an American army consisting of only 1,900 Continental soldiers and 1,400 militia after a 30-day siege by Henry Clinton’s force of 12,000 men and Admiral Arbuthnot’s 10 warships was an honorable one and gave “Lustre” to their arms. He further reported that sufficient troops were being sent to the region to isolate the British within Charleston.
3. JJ’s letter to Floridablanca, 28 July, enclosed a letter from Harrison affirming the reliability of reports on the siege of Charleston by Captain Gabriel Bryan, master of the ship Peggy, freighted to Cádiz by Henry Laurens and captured by the British. AL, SpMaAHN: Estado, leg. 3884, exp. 4, doc. 65 (EJ: 12145). On Bryan, see , 15: 307–9, 408n4.
On 30 July, Carmichael reported on a meeting with one Gavarra, who had showed him a copy of Bryan’s narrative with orders from the court to publish the “substance” of it. He noted further that, although there was no reference to Laurens’s letter in the court’s orders, Gavarra had promised to “Introduce him as a voucher for the truth of the intelligence.” ALS, NNC (EJ: 90263). The Gazetta de Madrid was at this time the Crown’s means of communicating official information reflecting the policies and decisions of the government. “Gavarra” may refer to the Abbé Gavarra, secretary of the Academy of History, one of the Spaniards Carmichael proposed for honorary membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1783 (, 21: 3), who is probably the same person as the Abbé Guevara, identified in numerous editions of the Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, and in the Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, May-August 1818, 499, as editor of the Gazetta de Madrid and a friend of Cabarrús.