1. Marie Dumas’ letter to John Thaxter has not been found, but JQA also wrote to JA on the 22d (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 5:130–131). There he noted his arrival on the previous day, after spending a few days in Amsterdam. His main concerns were whether to remain at The Hague or go to Leyden and the disposition of a [26 Oct.] 1782 letter for JA entrusted to him by Francis Dana (vol. 13:547–551). He also noted a report that Richard Oswald was at Paris to finalize the definitive peace treaty.

2. Hermann Boerhaave (1668–1738) was a celebrated Dutch physician whose work was instrumental in enhancing the international reputation of the University of Leyden and particularly of its medical school (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale description begins Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, 1852–1866; 46 vols. description ends ). Dumas misquotes Boerhaave’s lifelong motto as it appears on the medallion affixed to his monument in Leyden’s Pieterskerk. There it reads “Simplex sigillum veri,” or simplicity is the sign of truth.