s never settled the accounts of his
mission, no further information has been received. It has been said
that he entered into a positive stipulation with the Dey, to pay for the
prisoners the price above mentioned, or something near it; and that he
came away with an assurance to return with the money. We cannot believe
the fact true: and if it were, we disavow it totally, as far beyond his
powers. We have never disavowed it formally, because it has never come
to our knowledge with any degree of certainty.

In February, 1787, I wrote to Congress to ask leave to employ the
Mathurins of France in ransoming our captives; and on the 19th of
September, I received their orders to do so, and to call for the money
from our bankers at Amsterdam, as soon as it could be furnished. It was
long before they could furnish the money, and as soon as they notified
that they could, the business was put into train by the General of the
Mathurins, not with the appearance of acting for the United States, or
with their knowledge, but merely on the usual ground of charity.
This expedient was rendered abortive by the revolution of France, the
derangement of ecclesiastical orders there, and the revocation of church
property, before any proposition, perhaps, had been made in form by the
Mathurins to the Dey of Algiers. I have some reason to believe that
Mr. Eustace, while in Spain, endeavored to engage the court of Spain to
employ their Mathurins in this business; but whether they actually moved
in it or not, I have never learned.

We have also been, told, that a Mr. Simpson of Gibraltar, by the
direction of the Messrs. Bulkeleys of Lisbon, contracted for the ransom
of our prisoners (then reduced by death and ransom to fourteen) at
thirty-four thousand seven hundred and ninety-two dollars. By whose
orders they did it, we could never learn. I have suspected it was
some association in London, which, finding the prices far above their
conception, did not go through with their purpose, which probably had
been merely a philanthropic one. Be this as it may, it was without our
authority or knowledge.

Again Mr. Cathalan, our Consul at Marseilles, without any instruction
from the government, and actuated merely, as we presume, by willingness
to do something agreeable, set on foot another negotiation for their
redemption; which ended in nothing.

These several volunteer interferences, though undertaken with good
intentions, run directly counter to our p