I had the satisfaction to receive some days ago your letters of the 6th of July and the 12th of September, and am sorry that of the many which I have had the honor to write you in the course of the spring and summer, none had yet reached you. I hope that this circumstance, which causes me the greatest affliction, will not induce you or others to believe that I have missed any safe occasion of writing to you. Had I been possessed of a cypher, I flatter myself there would have been less occasion for this complaint. I have been, and am at present obliged to avail myself of private conveyances to forward my letters to the sea-ports of France and Spain; these occasions do not offer so frequently as I could desire. Indeed, few American vessels have sailed from Bilboa this summer, and the embargo at Cadiz during part of the campaign, prevented me from sending letters regularly from that port. Five vessels by which my letters were forwarded have been taken by the enemy, and others, which I was constrained to send by post to L'Orient and other ports of France, taking all the means in my power to prevent their being inspected, although sent from hence in the months of July and August, were not received by my correspondents until the 16th of October. I have received several packets of newspapers from your quarter without any letters. I must confess to you, that this kind of intelligence is very expensive, every packet costing me from five to ten dollars, and we have no allowance for extraordinary expenses. Since my last of the 31st ult. I have repeatedly insinuated to those who have the confidence of the Ministers, my apprehensions that the conduct of Spain would oblige Congress to take steps very different from what were their intentions when they sent Mr Jay and myself to this Court; that I saw with pain, the use which Great Britain hoped to make of our resentment; and to give weight to these insinuations, I availed myself of the letters, which the Marquis de Lafayette has done me the honor to address me from Cadiz. I know these hints have been conveyed to the Ministry, and am assured underhand, that I shall have soon reason to be satisfied. To these assurances I replied, that with all the desire I had to contribute to a lasting harmony between the two countries, it would be impossible for me, consistent with propriety and the idea I had of the dignity of my constituents, to remain here longer unless received formally in the character with which I had been honored by Congress, adding, that I should not be surprised to receive letters of recall. The methods taken to persuade me to be tranquil a little longer, prove that the Court thinks seriously of its situation with respect to the United States, but it will always be with reluctance and an ill grace, that it will consent to do what it ought to have done long ago generously.