I have received the letter, which you did me the honor to write to me on the 6th of October last. I was well persuaded, that M. de Chavagne[55] would endeavor to procure for you everything in his power to render your passage agreeable. This was conformable to the instructions I had given him respecting the intentions of the King. I learn with pleasure, that, being again charged with an important mission by Congress, you will be able to profit by the frigate Sensible a second time in your voyage to France. I have the honor to be, &c. DE SARTINE. FOOTNOTE: [55] These instructions, and those for a treaty of commerce which follow were agreed to unanimously in Congress on the 14th of August, nearly six weeks before the Minister was chosen. They were drawn up by Gouverneur Morris. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Bilboa, January 16th, 1780. Sir, I have the honor to inform Congress, that last night, and not before, I arrived at this place. At Ferrol and Corunna I was advised by all the friends of America, to undertake a journey by land. The consul of France and M. Lagoanere, a gentleman who has acted for some time as the American agent at Corunna, obligingly offered me all the assistance in their power, and accordingly used their utmost diligence to procure me the necessary mules and carriages, for the transportation of the small number of persons in company with me, and the small quantity of baggage we found it indispensably necessary to take with us, having left more than two thirds of what we had with us to take the chance of a passage by sea to France. From the 8th of December, when we arrived at Ferrol, to the 26th of the same month, when we set off from Corunna, we were detained by the violent rains, and the impossibility of getting accommodations for travelling. All our beds and provisions we were obliged to carry with us. We travelled through the ancient kingdoms of Galicia, Leon, Old Castile, and Biscay, and although we made the best of our way without loss of time, we found it impossible to go more than eight leagues a day, and sometimes not more than four. The roads and inns are inconvenient to a degree that I should blush to describe, and the pain we suffered in a cold season of the year for want of fire, in a country where there are no chimnies, gave us all such violent colds, that I was under great apprehensions of our being seized with fevers.