tion of his sentiments, and nothing was
now wanting to bring it into direct and formal consideration, but
the assent of our government, and their authority to make the formal
proposition. I communicated to them the favorable prospect of protecting
our commerce from the Barbary depredations, and for such a continuance
of time, as, by an exclusion of them from the sea, to change their
habits and characters, from a predatory to an agricultural people:
towards which, however, it was expected they would contribute a
frigate, and its expenses, to be in constant cruise. But they were in no
condition to make any such engagement. Their recommendatory powers for
obtaining contributions, were so openly neglected by the several states,
that they declined an engagement, which they were conscious they could
not fulfil with punctuality; and so it fell through.

[In the original MS., the paragraph ending with 'fell
through,' terminates page 81; between this page and the
next, there is stitched in a leaf of old writing,
constituting a memorandum, whereof note G, in the Appendix,
is a copy.]

In 1786, while at Paris, I became acquainted with John Ledyard, of
Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science, and of fearless courage
and enterprise. He had accompanied Captain Cook in his voyage to the
Pacific, had distinguished himself on several occasions by an unrivalled
intrepidity, and published an account of that voyage, with details
unfavorable to Cook's deportment towards the savages, and lessening our
regrets at his fate; Ledyard had come to Paris, in the hope of forming
a company to engage in the fur-trade of the Western coast of America. He
was disappointed in this, and being out of business, and of a roaming,
restless character, I suggested to him the enterprise of exploring the
Western part of our continent, by passing through St. Petersburg to
Kamtschatka, and procuring a passage thence in some of the Russian
vessels to Nootka sound, whence he might make his way across the
continent to the United States; and I undertook to have the permission
of the Empress of Russia solicited. He eagerly embraced the proposition,
and M. de Semoulin, the Russian Ambassador, and more particularly
Baron Grimm, the special correspondent of the Empress, solicited her
permission for him to pass through her dominions, to the Western coast
of America. And here I must correct a material error, which I have
committed in another p