To John Adams from Charles van Notten, 28 November 1785
From Charles van Notten
Devonshire Square 28 Novemr 1785
Sir
I beg pardon for troubling You on a very disagrable Subject, but not being able to procure a sufficient Information in any other manner, I must request the favor of Yr Ex’ Information & is if it is true, the Report circulated here, of a Party of Indians, having about the 29th: July last, fallen on a few Settlers at Great Kanhaves, & having there Scalp’t five Persons, amongst which were
Mr: Jean Duval Senator of the Districht of Monougholie & the Ohio1
& Mr:Galatin who was known as a french Gentn (tho born at Geneve, from which Place he about a Year or Some Months back, on the troubles in that Town, went to Settle in America).2
An Uncle’s of this Gentn: is very uneasy, & it will be doing him a friendly act, to let Us know, if Yr: Ex: knows if it is true, & if MrGalatin is one of those unfortunate Persons, the Name was Spelt Galatan in an Article of 15 Augt: from New York—but differs you See but one Letter, I fear therefore it is so. The favor of a Line in answer at Your leisure directed as hereunder will oblige / sir Yr: Ex: / Most Obt Humb: Servt
Chas Van Notten
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “H E Adams Esqr:.”
1. The report seen by Notten, a London merchant, stemmed from erroneous accounts appearing in various Pennsylvania and Virginia newspapers of the deaths of Albert Gallatin and John P. Duval, a Virginia state senator, while on a surveying expedition in the vicinity of the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. Gallatin’s business partner, Jean Savary de Valcoulon, indicated that the reports were false in a 10 June 1786 letter to John Jay written in consequence of Thomas Jefferson’s efforts to discover if the rumors had any basis in fact (; , 10:183).
2. Closing parenthesis editorially supplied.