1. From D/JA/48, one of the two matching small quarto volumes bound in marbled boards probably purchased by the Navy Board in Boston and presented to JA when he sailed on his first mission to Europe; see entry of 13 Feb. 1778 and note 1 there. The present record of JA’s receipts and expenditures, from the day before he sailed from Nantasket Roads until the day he returned there, occupies 24 leaves at the front of the volume. Doubtless JA left the volume home when he returned to Europe in Nov. 1779; most of its remaining leaves were used for transcripts of his early Diary when in 1829 JQA caused the earliest Diary booklets to be copied; see Introduction.

The record is valuable not only because it fills, at least in a manner, certain gaps in the Diary but also because it is a veritable guide to French currency and the exchange rate between French and British money during JA’s first sojourn in Europe. In the early part of his record, JA, who was himself coping with the usual monetary problems of a traveler, gives his sums in both currencies, though it should be noted that the symbols for both (£ for pounds and livres, s. for shillings and sous [or sols], and d. for pence and deniers) were identical and were used interchangeably, each series having proportionally the same value. For a brief account of the French monetary system before and after the French Revolution, see JQA’s Report on Weights and Measures, written and published as a U.S. Government document, Washington, 1821, p. 62–64. It is sufficient to say here that, as the figures in the present document show, 24 French livres equaled one British pound sterling (for which the French had an equivalent coin, called a louis d’or), and that 6 livres therefore equaled 5 shillings (for which the French had a coin called an écu or crown, as well as a half-crown piece worth 3 livres or 2s. 6d. sterling).

In printing this document the editors have omitted the totals that appear at the foot of the columns (which in the MS are on facing pages) on some pages in the MS. Since these are incomplete and were never added up to make a grand total, they would in our judgment prove more confusing than significant if set in type and dispersed here and there on the pages of the printed version.

2. See note 1 on entry of 13 Feb. 1778, above, and facsimiles reproduced in this volume.

3. A figure, apparently in British pounds, appears opposite this entry in the MS but is not wholly legible. See, however, the first entry under 25 May 1778 in this column, below.

4. Repeated and corrected in the first entry under 25 May 1778 in this column, below.

5. See a later entry dated 18 April 1778 in the Expenditures column, below.

6. See a later entry dated 18 April 1778 in the Receipts column, below.

7. See note 1 on Diary entry of 1 April 1778, above.

8. From this point on, the sums are entered in French money only.

9. Probably but not certainly the two folio letterbooks designated in the Adams Papers as Lb/JA/6–7, bound in white parchment and bearing handsome trade cards of Cabaret, “Au Griffon ... Marchand Papetier Ordinaire des Bureaux du Roy,” in Rue de Seine, Faubourg St. Germain, Paris.

10. The Hochereau family were booksellers established in Paris from the beginning of the 18th century ([A. M. Lottin,] Catalogue chronologique des libraires et des libraires-imprimeurs de Paris, Paris, 1789, p. 80). From one or more of them JA bought books with great frequency during his first years abroad. Unfortunately, the “mémoires” or bills, which might indicate the titles of the books JA bought, have not been found. In rendering his accounts to Congress for this mission, JA included sums spent on such books as were essential to qualify himself in “the science of Negotiation,” arguing that this was “one of the most necessary, and Useful Ways in which Money had ever been spent in that Country” (JA to the Board of Treasury, 19 Sept. 1779, LbC, Adams Papers; Works description begins The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols. description ends , 7:111–114). What is more, his argument prevailed; see the report of a committee on JA’s accounts, 15 April 1780 (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 16:368–369).

11. This volume, Almanach royal, année M. DCC. LXXVIII description begins Almanach royal, année M.DCC.LXXVIII [&c.]. Présenté à sa majesté pour la première fois en 1699, Paris, no date. description ends , Paris, n.d., issued by the King’s Printer, remains among JA’s books in the Boston Public Library and has proved useful to the editors in identifying French officials and others mentioned in the Diary.

12. This letter has not been found, but JA’s answer, 3 June (LbC, Adams Papers), elucidates this transaction. Bondfield had purchased various articles on JA’s account to be sent to Braintree by Capt. Tucker in the Boston.

13. Second entry in this column, above.

14. Third entry in this column, above.

15. Seemingly a mistake for June, but the payment by Grand of 4,294 livres to “Mrs. Poussin” for furniture was made on 17 July 1778, as recorded in the final accounts of the Commissioners (DNA:RG 39, Foreign Ledgers, Public Agents in Europe, 1776–1787, p. 87). A note is added in the official account: “N.B. the proportions of Mr. D. & Mr. A. must be settled by them.”

16. René Louis, Marquis d’Argenson, published anonymously Considérations sur le gouvernement ancien et présent de la France, Amsterdam, 1765, of which JA’s copy remains among his books in the Boston Public Library (Catalogue of JA’s Library description begins Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. description ends ).

17. The “Hôpital des Enfans-Trouvés, prés Notre-Dame” is described in Thiéry, Almanach du voyageur à Paris description begins Luc Vincent Thiéry, Almanach du voyageur à Paris ..., année 1784, Paris [1784]. description ends , 1784, p. 331–332. Years later JA drew a political moral from what he saw on his visit to this foundling hospital; see his Works description begins The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols. description ends , 6:452.

18. Entry of 28 Aug. 1778 in the Receipts column.

19. On Pierre Landais see entries of 9 May and following, below.

20. There is conflicting evidence on the exact date of JA’s arrival home. La Luzerne and his party disembarked at Hancock’s Wharf in Boston on 3 August. The present entry indicates that JA and JQA left the Sensible in Nantasket Roads on the 2d and were rowed to Braintree. This may be so, but on the other hand JA may have carelessly misdated this entry; see note on the Diary entry of 31 July, below.