Saturday 15th.

This morning we rose at about day break and at about a half an hour before Sun rise we set off from Luyando. At about 8 o clock it began to rain, rain’d till about 12 and then left of [f] raining but it did not clear up. At about 1 oclock we arrived at Bilbao.

When we arrived we found two American Vessels one a brig Capt Bapson belonging to the Tracy’s of New-bury port and the other a Ship of 18 6 pounders Capt Lovett belonging to one of the Cobet’s of Beverly.1 After dinner Mr. Gardoqui came to where we lodge and my Pappa and the Gentlemen being gone out he gave me his address and about an hour after he came again with Captn. Bapson and drank tea and spent the Evening with us.

1. The vessels were the brigantine Phoenix, James Babson, captain, and the ship Rambler, commanded by Benjamin Lovett and owned by Andrew Cabot. The Traceys and the Cabots had close connections with the Bilbao firm of Joseph Gardoqui & Sons. During the Adamses’ stay in Bilbao, the Gardoquis extended numerous courtesies to them, treating JA “with the Magnificence of a Prince” (JA, Diary and Autobiography description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 2:433; 4:236–237; Adams Family Correspondence, description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- . description ends 3:xiv–xv).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: Saturday 15th.
Author: Adams, John Quincy
Date: 15 January 1780

Reference

Cite as: “Saturday 15th.,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/03-01-02-0002-0001-0015. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary of John Quincy Adams, vol. 1, November 1779 – March 1786, ed. Robert J. Taylor and Marc Friedlaender. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981, p. 30.]