int out the verbal changes
which appear to me necessary, to accommodate the instrument to the
views before expressed. In the mean time, I have the honor to be, with
sentiments of the most perfect respect and esteem, your Excellency's
most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXLIV.--TO DOCTOR GORDON, July 16, 1788

TO DOCTOR GORDON.

Paris, July 16, 1788.

Sir,

In your favor of the 8th instant, you mentioned that you had written to
me in February last. This letter never came to hand. That of April
the 24th came here during my absence on a journey through Holland and
Germany; and my having been obliged to devote the first moments after my
return to some very pressing matters, must be my apology for not having
been able to write to you till now. As soon as I knew that it would be
agreeable to you to have such a disposal of your work for translation,
as I had made for Dr. Ramsay, I applied to the same bookseller with
propositions on your behalf. He told me, that he had lost so much by
that work, that he could hardly think of undertaking another, and, at
any rate, not without first seeing and examining it. As he was the only
bookseller I could induce to give any thing on the former occasion,
I went to no other with my proposal, meaning to ask you to send me
immediately as much of the work as is printed. This you can do by
the Diligence, which comes three times a week from London to Paris.
Furnished with this, I will renew my proposition, and do the best for
you I can; though I fear that the ill success of the translation of
Dr. Ramsay's work, and of another work on the subject of America, will
permit less to be done for you than I had hoped. I think Dr. Ramsay
failed from the inelegance of the translation, and the translator's
having departed entirely from the Doctor's instructions. I will be
obliged to you, to set me down as subscriber for half a dozen copies,
and to ask Mr. Trumbull (No. 2, North street, Rathbone Place) to pay
you the whole subscription price for me, which he will do on showing him
this letter. These copies can be sent by the Diligence. I have not yet
received the pictures Mr. Trumbull was to send me, nor consequently that
of M. de la Fayette. I will take care of it when it arrives. His title
is simply, Le Marquis de la Fayette.

You ask, in your letter of April the 24th, details of my sufferings by
Colonel Tarleton. I did not suffer by him. On the contrary, he behaved