The Ambassador told Mr Jay, that he ought to ask an audience of the Minister. To this Mr Jay replied, that he could not hope to have an answer to this request, as he had not been able to procure one to the different applications he had already made. The Ambassador said, that he would willingly speak to the Minister, but that he feared he should not be able to enter fully into the subject with him until Wednesday, both the Minister and himself having their time employed on objects, which at present and for some time past, had engrossed much of their attention. He then asked Mr Jay if he had written to Congress to stop drawing bills on him. Mr Jay replied, that he could not with propriety give such information to Congress, after the general and repeated assurances made him by the Count de Florida Blanca ever since his arrival here, and particularly the Minister's declaration, that he should be able to furnish him with thirty or forty thousand pounds sterling, at the end of the present or commencement of the next year, and that in the meantime, other arrangements might be taken to pay such bills as might become due after that period. He added, that if the Count had candidly told him that he could not furnish him with money to pay the bills, he should then immediately have informed Congress of it, who would have taken of course the proper measures on the occasion, but that should he now send a true account of all that had passed between the Count de Florida Blanca and himself thereon, he could not answer for the disagreeable effects such intelligence would produce. The Count seemed to think the Spanish Minister would pay the bills that had been already presented, and had probably delayed giving Mr Jay an answer until the arrival of the person he expected, who he understood was detained by the necessity of making some arrangements in his family before he left it. On this Mr Jay remarked, that this did not accord with the information the Minister had given him near three weeks before, that the said person was then about to set out. The conference ended with a promise of the Count de Montmorin, that he would endeavor to speak to the Count de Florida Blanca on the subject, but that he was afraid he should not be able to do it fully until Wednesday next. Finding that the Ambassador could not do anything till Wednesday next, and that the Minister's determined silence left no room to hope much from him very soon, I despatched letters by express to the holders of the bills, and requested a little more time. I was apprehensive that if I should accept them without the Minister's consent, it might become an objection to his providing for their payment, and appearances led me to suspect, that any tolerable excuse for such refusal would have been very grateful.