1. JA accurately summarizes Carmarthen’s 26 Jan. letter and, in part, its enclosed 13 Jan. petition from John Hales to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury (both Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ). In addition, Hales, a victualler, indicated that he had previously lodged East India seamen for the East India Company and had requested assistance from the company in this case but had been denied. He also wrote that he had solicited JA for assistance but that too had been denied, presumably for the reasons given in this letter. In his 27 Jan. letter to John Jay enclosing copies of Carmarthen’s letter and Hales’ petition (Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789 description begins The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from … 1783, to … 1789, [ed. William A. Weaver], repr., Washington, D.C., 1837 [actually 1855]; 3 vols. description ends , 2:732–733), JA mentioned reports that British merchants were seeking American merchants so as “to metamorphose a British into an American bottom, to trade to the East Indies.” This information likely came from Hales, for in a 2 Feb. letter (same, 2:736), he indicated that he was responding to JA’s request and identified the metamorphosed ship as the Hydra owned by a Charles Champlin of Rhode Island. In his 31 July report on JA’s letter and its enclosures, Jay indicated that while the cases of the Chinese seamen and the fraudulent use of American ships in the East India trade were of concern, Congress could do little, if anything, in either case (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, D.C., 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 33:444–445).