ty possible. The General told me, he could not expect to redeem
our prisoners as cheap as their own, but that he would use all the means
in his power to do it on the best terms possible, which will be the
better, as there shall be the less suspicion that he acts for our
public. I told him I would write to you on the subject, and speak to him
again. What do you think of employing them, limiting them to a certain
price, as three hundred dollars, for instance, or any other sum you
think proper? He will write immediately to his instruments there, and
in two or three months we can know the event. He will deliver them
at Marseilles, Cadiz, or where we please, at our expense. The money
remaining of the fund destined to the Barbary business, may, I suppose,
be drawn on for this object. Write me your opinion, if you please, on
this subject, finally, fully, and immediately, that, if you approve the
proposition, I may enter into arrangements with the General before my
departure to the waters of Aix, which will be about the beginning of
February,

I have the honor to be, with very sincere esteem and respect, Dear Sir,
your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XLI.--TO MONSIEUR LE DUC D'HARCOURT, January 14, 1787

TO MONSIEUR LE DUC D'HARCOURT, GOUVERNEUR DU DAUPHIN.

Paris, January 14, 1787.

Sir,

In the conversation with which you were pleased to honor me a few days
ago, on the enfranchisement of the port of Honfleur, I took the liberty
of observing, that I was not instructed by my constituents to make
any proposition on that subject. That it would be agreeable to them,
however, I must suppose, because it will offer the following advantages.

1. It is a convenient _entrepot_ for furnishing us with the manufactures
of the northern parts of France, and particularly of Paris, and for
receiving and distributing the productions of our country in exchange.

2. Cowes, on the opposite side of the channel, has heretofore been the
deposite for a considerable part of our productions, landed in Great
Britain in the first instance, but intended for re-exportation. From
thence our rice, particularly, has been distributed to France and other
parts of Europe. I am not certain, whether our tobaccos were deposited
there, or carried to London to be sorted for the different markets.
To draw this business from Cowes, no place is so favorably situated as
Honfleur.

3. It would be a convenient deposite for