Caermarthen, the Minister for foreign affairs, the distance and
disinclination which he betrayed in his conversation, the vagueness
and evasions of his answers to us, confirmed me in the belief of their
aversion to have any thing to do with us. We delivered him, however, our
_Projet_, Mr. Adams not despairing as much as I did of its effect.
We afterwards, by one or more, notes, requested his appointment of an
interview and conference, which, without directly declining, he evaded,
by pretence of other pressing occupations for the moment. After staying
there seven weeks, till within a few days of the expiration of our
commission, I informed the minister, by note, that my duties at Paris
required my return to that place, and that I should, with pleasure, be
the bearer of any commands to his Ambassador there. He answered, that
he had none, and, wishing me a pleasant journey, I left London the 26th,
and arrived at Paris the 30th of April.

While in London, we entered into negotiations with the Chevalier Pinto,
Ambassador of Portugal, at that place. The only article of difficulty
between us was, a stipulation that our bread-stuff should be received
in Portugal, in the form of flour as well as of grain. He approved of it
himself, but observed that several nobles, of great influence at their
court, were the owners of windmills in the neighborhood of Lisbon, which
depended much for their profits on manufacturing our wheat, and that
this stipulation would endanger the whole treaty. He signed it, however,
and its fate was what he had candidly portended.

My duties, at Paris, were confined to a few objects; the receipt of
our whale-oils, salted fish, and salted meats, on favorable terms; the
admission of our rice on equal terms with that of Piedmont, Egypt,
and the Levant; a mitigation of the monopolies of our tobacco by the
farmers-general, and a free admission of our productions into their