Philippe Reibelt to Thomas Jefferson, 30 October 1805
From Philippe Reibelt
Baltimore le 30 Oct. 1805.
Monsieur le President!
Les Perroquets sont arrivès—mais mon epouse a etè tant facheè contre eux, de çe, qu’ils n’ont pas Su, se faire recevoir, que les a echangèe avec Moi pour l’exemplaire in Quarto.
J’ai eû le plaisir, de faire la Connaissance de Mr. Short, qu’il m’a dit, que Vous avez eû la bontè, de lui parler de Moi.
Sans doute, que la petite incluse—Vous interesse.
Je Vous prie d’agréer mes tres profonds respects.
Reibelt.
Je viens de recevoir une Lettre de Mr. Randolph, d’apres laquelle il est probable, que Mr. E. tombe a la fin d’accord avec Moi au sujet de P. P.
Editors’ Translation
Baltimore, 30 Oct. 1805
Mister President!
The parrots arrived, but my wife was so annoyed at them for not making themselves welcome that she traded them for my quarto copy.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Short who said you were kind enough to tell him about me.
The brief enclosure will undoubtedly interest you.
Please accept my very deep respect.
Reibelt
I just received a letter from Mr. Randolph saying that Mr. E. will probably agree with me in the end about Pen Park.
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 31 Oct. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: extract from a German periodical, the title of which, rendered in French, would be Journal du monde élégant, 18 Apr. 1805; the Danish adjutant general has invented a new device called the topognomon designed to ascertain, even on the darkest of nights, a source of distant light otherwise beyond human view; the same inventor has contrived a device for recognizing the precise moment a vessel sails from a port, even in dark conditions (MS in same; in Reibelt’s hand; in French).
petite incluse: although it is uncertain from which German periodical Reibelt was extracting, information on the inventions, described as “being of the greatest importance in war,” appeared in numerous publications around this time (Monthly Magazine 20 [1805], 63; Intelligenzblatt der Jenaischen Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung vom Jahre 1804, 143 [1804], 1201).
Mr. E.: presumably, John Wayles Eppes.