en the
States in our confederation, and that it seems to be the hope of our
enemies. With the most fervent wishes that the latter may be
disappointed,

I have the honor to be, &c.

WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

* * * * *

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Madrid, January 18th, 1783.

Sir,

I had the satisfaction to receive some days ago your letters of the
6th of July and the 12th of September, and am sorry that of the many
which I have had the honor to write you in the course of the spring
and summer, none had yet reached you. I hope that this circumstance,
which causes me the greatest affliction, will not induce you or others
to believe that I have missed any safe occasion of writing to you. Had
I been possessed of a cypher, I flatter myself there would have been
less occasion for this complaint. I have been, and am at present
obliged to avail myself of private conveyances to forward my letters
to the sea-ports of France and Spain; these occasions do not offer so
frequently as I could desire. Indeed, few American vessels have sailed
from Bilboa this summer, and the embargo at Cadiz during part of the
campaign, prevented me from sending letters regularly from that port.
Five vessels by which my letters were forwarded have been taken by the
enemy, and others, which I was constrained to send by post to L'Orient
and other ports of France, taking all the means in my power to prevent
their being inspected, although sent from hence in the months of July
and August, were not received by my correspondents until the 16th of
October. I have received several packets of newspapers from your
quarter without any letters. I must confess to you, that this kind of
intelligence is very expensive, every packet costing me from five to
ten dollars, and we have no allowance for extraordinary expenses.

Since my last of the 31st ult. I have repeatedly insinuated to those
who have the confidence of the Ministers, my apprehensions that the
conduct of Spain would oblige Congress to take steps very different
from what were their intentions when they sent Mr Jay and myself to
this Court; that I saw with pain, the use which Great Britain hoped to
make of our resentment; and to give weight to these insinuations, I
availed myself of the letters, which the Marquis de Lafayette has done
me the honor to address