East India Company of England's ships have brought to England, until the season has arrived for their return.

That, about thirteen weeks since, he received eleven Chinese seamen and four Lascars from the owners of the Lord McCartney, (these lately arrived from China,) with orders to provide for them until the ships going to India were ready to receive them.

That, on the 29th, 30th, and 31st of December last, sixteen Chinese seamen came to their countrymen at his said house, all of whom paid a week's board beforehand.

That the said sixteen men informed your memorialist they came from India in the Hyder, or Hydrea, Captain Clarke, belonging to the United States of America, to Ostend, who discharged them there; which caused them to take passage to London, in hopes of obtaining a passage to their own country.

That their money being all expended, and not having any lawful means of obtaining any for their necessary support, and of returning to their native country, your memorialist has applied on their behalf to the honorable East India Company, who will not have any thing to do with them; as also to Mr. Adams, the American Ambassador, who likewise refuses to do any thing for them.

That, in consequence of such refusals, your memorialist applied to the right honorable the Lord Mayor on behalf of the said sixteen men, who referred him to the overseers of the poor of the said hamlet of Mile-End Old Town, who likewise refuse to provide for them; and as the men are not very orderly and regular, your memorialist submits to your Lordships the very great nuisance and injury the public would sustain from their being turned loose upon them, and into the street.

Your memorialist, therefore, humbly prays your Lordships will be pleased to take the hardness of their case into your Lordships' consideration, and grant such orders for the relief of the said sixteen Chinese seamen as your Lordships' wisdom shall seem meet and be judged expedient; and your memorialist, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c., &c., &c.

JOHN HALES.

REPORT OF SECRETARY JAY ON PRECEDING LETTERS.

Office for Foreign Affairs, July 31, 1787. The Secretary of the United States for the Department of Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred a letter of 27th January last, from the honorable Mr. Adams, with the papers referred to in it, reports:

That this letter calls the attention of Congress to two objects: the first of which is the case of sixteen Chinese seamen, who were then in London in a distressed condition, and who said they had come from India in the Hyder, or Hydrea, Captain Clarke, belonging to the United States, to Ostend, where he discharged them; the second is, "a practice then beginning to be talked of, if not 'practised, for British merchants to metamorphose a British into an 'American bottom, to trade to the East Indies."

Whether it be right or wrong for an American vessel to discharge foreign seamen at this or that port, must at present depend on the agreement made with them when shipped; so that, without a knowledge of the agreement in the present case, the propriety of discharging these Chinese seamen at Ostend cannot be decided, especially as no complaint appears to have been made by them of their having been irregularly discharged. In the opinion of your Secretary, Congress cannot take any particular notice of this case.

As to the fraudulent practice mentioned in the second case, it seems doubtful whether it does really exist, or whether it is only talked of; and, therefore, in his opinion, the particular attention of Congress is not due to it. It is, however, most certain, that the trade of the United States to Asia, as well as to other parts of the world, should be subject to certain general regulations; but, at present, Congress cannot ordain such regulations and cause them to be observed; nor, while lawful requisitions remain neglected, is there much reason to expect that recommendation would prove useful or proper.

They who trade to distant nations may often find it convenient to employ seamen of the country, who should be encouraged to ship themselves by settled and proper regulations to facilitate their speedy and easy return to their own country; but as it is not in the power of Congress to take effectual measures for these and similar purposes, he thinks it best that they should not take any.

All which is submitted to the wisdom of Congress.

JOHN JAY.

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY.

London, February 3, 1787.

Sir,

I wrote a few days since by Colonel Franks, who embarks in the French packet from Havre de Grace with the Morocco treaty.

There is no further intelligence of the Portugal business, nor any better prospect or more agreeable disposition in this country, whatever artifices may be employed in America to keep up delusive hopes.

Parliament opened with an uncommon gloom, and has been sitting in a mournful silence. Nobody dares oppose the French treaty, yet nobody seems to have any confidence in it. It seems truly a forced plant-something to appease France and amuse the people. The revenue is found to be greatly deficient. A new loan and fresh taxes are expected. A dead taciturnity prevails about America.

The gazettes are employed, and every coffee-house and bookseller's shop filled with talkers, to keep up the spirits of the people at any expense of truth. The holding of our frontier posts is found to cost Government more money annually than the whole trade is worthnay, than the whole capital employed in it.

Mr. Pitt's plan for the session is not yet developed. They are skirmishing about Hastings and Rodney, who, I suppose, have nearly all the scribblers enlisted for or against them; yet Hastings must be acquitted, and I suppose Rodney remunerated, right or wrong. Such is the state of this nation.

Enclosed is a copy of the convention between France and England, which was sent me yesterday by Lord Caermarthen, and a letter from Mr. Hales relative to the East India ship, which it is supposed was made an American bottom, a practice which Congress will, no doubt, judge proper to discountenance.

As the politics of Parliament shall open to view, I shall do myself the honor to transmit you still further accounts of them.

By Colonel Franks I had the honor to convey to Congress my intention to return home at the expiration of my commission to this Court. A duplicate will go by this opportunity. A life so useless to the public, and so insipid to myself as mine is in Europe, has become a burden to me as well as to my countrymen. By the first packet or convenient merchant ship in the spring of 1788, I shall embark with my family, if my life and health enough to make the voyage remain to me, unless Congress should see fit to recall me sooner, which would be much more agreeable. It will be necessary that arrangements should be made as early as possible, and the pleasure of Congress signified whether the Secretary of Legation is to return with me, or remain longer here.

With great respect and esteem, &c.,

JOHN ADAMS.

FROM JOHN HALES TO JOHN ADAMS.

February 2, 1787.

Sir,

In obedience to your Excellency, I have made further inquiry respecting the American East India ship Hydrea, and have learned from Mr. Robinson, agent in Gould Square, Crutched Friars, that the owner lives upon Rhode Island, in North America. His name is Charles Champlin. It also appears, by the books at the Exchange Insurance Office, that in March, 1786, Mr. James Wilkinson, of Abchurch Lane, London, underwrit the said ship from Calcutta to Rhode Island.

JOHN HALES.

Sir,

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY.

Grosvenor Square, February 24, 1787.

I do myself the honor to transmit to Congress a letter from Mr. Harrison, with an account of disbursements for Captain Erwin and his associates, on their return to Cadiz from their captivity in Morocco. Situated as Mr. Harrison was, he had every motive of humanity and love of his countrymen to relieve their necessities; and it would be too severe, if not unjust, to leave the burden upon him. He is a gentleman of much merit, and I beg leave to recommend him and his claim to Congress.

With great respect, &c.,

JOHN ADAMS.

FROM R. HARRISON TO JOHN ADAMS.

London, February 21, 1787.

Sir,

I take the liberty of herewith presenting to your Excellency a state of a claim I have against the United States for £72 12s. 8d. sterling. It arises from advances made by me in Spain, for the support of Captain James Erwin and his crew, who were captured in the American brigantine Betsey, in the month of October, 1784, by a Barbary corsair, and carried to Morocco, being, after a captivity

of about nine months in that country, at length liberated by the mediation of the Spanish Ambassador, and by him delivered to me as the only American character at Cadiz. Your Excellency, I humbly trust, will readily grant that I could not, consistently with the dignity and honor of the Republic, or with the feelings of a good citizen, refuse either to take charge of these unfortunate subjects, or to pay the expenses unavoidably incurred by so doing. If, therefore, it is a matter which comes in any degree within your Excellency's department, I hope you will be pleased to order my reimbursement here, which, though, strictly speaking, nothing more than an act of justice, I shall be ready to acknowledge, at the same time, as a favor.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

R. HARRISON.

Dear Sir,

FROM JOHN JAY TO JOHN ADAMS.

Office for Foreign Affairs, May 12, 1787.

I had the pleasure of writing you a few lines on the 2d of last month; since which I have received and communicated to Congress your letters of 9th, 24th, and 27th January, and 3d and 24th February last.

My health still continues much deranged, and I purpose, in a few days, to make an excursion into the country for about a fortnight.

A motion has lately been made in Congress to remove to Philadelphia, and the party who support it persevere in pushing it from day to day; they are not joined by a single member from either of the Eastern States, and yet there is reason to apprehend that they will carry their point. No other motive for this strange measure is publicly assigned by them except that Philadelphia is more central than New York. Several important affairs, which ought to have been despatched, have given place to this unfortunate contest, so that I can, by this conveyance, send you little of importance.

Accept my thanks for the book you were so kind as to send me. I have read it with pleasure and profit. I do not, however, altogether concur with you in sentiments respecting the efficiency of our great council for national purposes, whatever powers, more or less, may be VOL. II.-47