From what I wrote you from New York you will have surmised that I embarked in that city for the port of Gibraltar. I made the voyage with good fortune in thirty days, together with three American passengers who are going to Italy for pleasure and to see the antiquities of Rome, Naples, and other cities. I found them to be excellent young men, and they treated me with great kindness while on board. I was sick the whole time, and they assisted me like real brothers. All three of them are from Boston. I would like to repay them if I have the pleasure of seeing them again in Tuscany, where they have promised to spend some time. Having arranged in New York to travel to Messina in the same vessel that brought them here, however, their first excursion is to that place. From thence they will enter mainland Italy at Naples.

As I wrote you from New York, I beg you, Mr. Jefferson, to send to Leghorn two hundred dollars, or Spanish pesos, for my drawings or for the travel expenses owed to me. I hope that you will consider the great hardships and disasters I have suffered and that in addition to those it would not be fair if I returned home penniless and further in debt. Later, if you wish, I can always return to America with my wife, as will be explained below, provided that you give me a new four-year contract. You need only pay for my trip, as my wife’s expenses will be my own responsibility. For board, you will have to give me enough for my food, drink, and laundry. I will ponder all this before departing with my wife and son after the weather improves. This winter I will have time to rough out the marble capitals in Carrara and thus provide you with a solid, well-executed job that will cost you less than the stone itself. You say in the letter I received in Washington that if I had stayed and finished my contractual time, I would have made more progress in my work. Rest assured, Sir, that it was impossible for me to do any more than I had already done in the months I spent at the college, because the stone was unsuitable for ornamental sculpture work. If you do not wish to make a new contract, at least send me the commission to make the four Corinthian capitals at Carrara. To show that I am willing to serve you for very little gain, you will only have to pay me three hundred and fifty dollars for them. I will deliver the capitals to Leghorn, finished well and boxed up, and you can pay me when I give them to Mr. Consul Appleton, who acts in concert with you. In this way there would be no more questions, either of traveling or anything else; I would claim nothing more; and I would waive everything you still owe me. If, in the end, you decide not to make an agreement, please arrange to send the two hundred talers due me, so that justice and humanity will be served. When I told you that I did not fare well in America in terms of food and that the coffee was bad, I was not attacking Mr. Brockenbrough’s honesty and integrity. On the contrary, I respect him and consider him to be a fine gentleman. We Italians, however, are not used to that way of life, and because of my exceedingly weak stomach, the stone dust and poor food would surely have cost me my life if I had remained there even a few months more. I truly believe that most of the time Mr. Brockenbrough did not even know what was being sent to me to eat, because the custom there is to entrust all of that to the blacks. I implore you, therefore, to give my regards to the said Mr. Brockenbrough and his estimable family, as I respectfully do to you and your compatriots, wishing you all the happiness and good health that your heart desires and confirming myself, most illustrious lordship   Your most humble and devoted servant