rise, I will continue to give Congress, through you, the earliest
information of it.

I am, with the greatest respect, &c.

FRANCIS DANA.

* * * * *

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, April 4th, 1781.

Sir,

If the packet, which I sent off for L'Orient early this morning comes
safe to hand, your Excellency will receive a copy of my letter of the
31st ultimo, to his Excellency the Count de Vergennes, communicating
to him the general object of my mission, my letter to yourself of the
same date, a copy of the Count's answer to me of the 1st instant,
proposing a conference with me before my departure, and my answer to
_that_ of the 2d, together with my letter of the same date to you.

I hurried these away, because I conceived the Count's letter clearly
manifested the sentiments of his Majesty's Minister on the subject of
my mission, and was afraid the opportunity of sending them would
otherwise be lost. Whether I was too hasty in this opinion formed upon
his letter, Congress will judge. However that may be, I am happy to
say, that in the conference I had with his Excellency this morning,
(being, at my particular desire, introduced to him by Dr Franklin) I
did not perceive that he had formed any fixed judgment upon it. Though
he opened the conference with ideas perfectly consonant with those I
had supposed him to entertain on the subject, yet, when I had
explained to him my proposed line of conduct, he did not persist in
them. He seemed rather to have desired an opportunity of
communicating to me his reflections, by way of caution and advice,
than as serious objections to the mission itself.

He asked if I had any particular object of negotiation in view, to
which I answered, that I had communicated the general object of my
mission in my first letter to him, that I had it not in contemplation
to precipitate any negotiation whatever, that I did not think it
agreeable to the design of Congress, and that I certainly would never
expose them to any indignities; that it was thought by Congress
expedient to have some person at St Petersburg, with an eventual
character, who might improve the favorable moment for assuming it. He
inquired whether I had received any assurances from that country, that
my residence in it would be acceptable. I told him, a gentleman, not