To George Washington from Robert Townsend Hooe, 25 January 1787
From Robert Townsend Hooe
Alexandria Jany 25th, 1787.
Dr Sir,
I some time last Year mention’d to Major Washington a small Acct which Mr Harrison wrote me he had paid to Mr Carmichael for expences of your Jack Asses in Spain, and as the Major afterwards informed me Mr Carmichael had not given you any Acct of such Payment I wrote to Mr Harrison for the particulars which I now have the Honor to enclose, the Amt is 71¼ Dollars equal to £21.7.6 Va Currency.1 I am Dr Sir, Yr Excellency’s most Obt servt
R. Td Hooe
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. The contemporary translation of the enclosure, dated 9 Aug. 1785, is headed “An acct of Provisions & other Charges attending the Embarkment of 2 Jack-Asses & of what was supplied to Peter Thellez conductor of one of them that was Ship’d on Bd of Capt. Knights.” A transcription of the document is in CD-ROM:GW. William Carmichael signed the account certifying that he had been paid the amount by Richard Harrison. The ship captain Giles Sullivan (Sulivan) confirmed that it was “a true Translation from the Spanish &c.” For the role of William Carmichael and Richard Harrison in securing a Spanish jackass for GW, see Carmichael to GW, 3 Dec. 1784, n.1.