On the 27th of February, I expressed my apprehensions for the fate of our accepted bills, although I could not but hope, that either this Court or that of France, would interfere in time to relieve us from this cruel mortification. Whether this Court withheld its aid, from expectation that the French Ambassador was secretly instructed to assist us, as on a former occasion, in case of extreme necessity; whether their wants, which are pressing, occasioned their indecision; or whether it was produced by the secret influence and artifices of ill disposed persons, I will not pretend to say; but the fact is, that notwithstanding the frequent representations of Mr Jay, and as frequent good offices of the French Ambassador, the Minister did not, until the day before Mr Jay found himself under the absolute necessity of protesting the bills, authorise verbally the Count de Montmorin to inform Mr Jay, that if M. Cabarrus persisted in his former intentions of making the necessary advances, he would see him repaid in ten or twelve months, to the amount of forty or fifty thousand current dollars. It must be observed that this consent was given the day after M. Del Campo had been informed by M. Cabarrus, at his own house, of the terms on which he would make the advances in question. These terms were different from those he had frequently repeated to Mr Jay and myself, and which Mr Jay made known to the Minister; but I believe the conversations with the latter, had excited apprehensions of his not being reimbursed even in the time he had originally proposed. These apprehensions were augmented by finding that the French Ambassador was not authorised to extricate us from our distress, although the Court of France was apprized of our situation. I early remarked these fears, and endeavored to remove them by every means in my power. I was clearly of opinion, however, that after the conversation, above mentioned, with M. Del Campo, no reliance could be placed on his assistance for our relief, and informed Mr Jay of my conjectures on this subject, as I had done from the first moment I discovered M. Cabarrus's fears and apprehensions. This disappointment, constrained Mr Jay to protest a number of bills, some of which the holders had the complaisance and indulgence to keep by them near three weeks, in order to give time to Mr Jay to make arrangements for their payment. Indeed, the whole commercial interest here, behaved in a manner that scarce could be expected from persons who have so little connexions with our country, and expressed their indignation and astonishment, that the Court should expose to this mortification, for a sum so trifling, a country united with them against a common enemy. The foreign Ministers were not less surprised, and this incident, I believe, furnished materials for their despatches at the time, and has occasioned much conjecture since.