Adieu!

if you are ready to sail, and the wind serves. I wish you a prosperous voyage, a happy sight of your friends and country, and that you may be received with all the honors you have so justly merited. I am, B. FRANKLIN.

&c.

P. S. I say nothing about the prize money, having never had any thing to do with it; but I will endeavour to forward the payment to those honest fellows, who are gone to America. Pray let me know, if the despatches I formerly sent down to go with you in the Alliance are gone in her. There were letters containing the proceedings about Captain Landais.

FROM JOHN ADAMS TO B. FRANKLIN.

Opinions in Europe concerning the American War.

SIR,

Amsterdam, 17 August, 1780.

I never was more amused with political speculations, than since my arrival in this country. Every one has his prophecy, and every prophecy is a paradox. One says, that America will give France the go-by; another, that France and Spain will abandon America; a third, that Spain will forsake France and America; a fourth, that America has the interest of all Europe against her; a fifth, that she will become the greatest manufacturing country, and thus ruin Europe; a sixth, that she will become a great and an ambitious military and naval power, and consequently terrible to Europe. In short, it seems as if they had studied for every impossibility, and agreed to foretell it, as a probable fu

ture event.

I tell the first, that if the King of France would re

lease America from her treaty, and England would agree to our independence, on condition we would make an alliance offensive and defensive with her, America ought not to accept it, and would not; because she will in future have no security for peace, even with England, but in her treaty with France. I ask the second, whether they think the connexion of America of so little consequence to France and Spain, that they would lightly give it up? I ask the third, whether the family compact, added to the connexion with America, is a trifling consideration to Spain? To the fifth, I say, that America will not make manufactures enough for her own consumption these thousand years; to the sixth, that we love peace and hate war so much, that we can scarcely keep up an army necessary to defend ourselves against the greatest of evils, and to secure our independence, which is the greatest of blessings; and, therefore, while we have land enough to conquer from the trees, rocks, and wild beasts, we shall never go abroad to trouble other nations.

To the fourth, I say, that this paradox is like several others, viz. that Bacchus and Ceres did mischief to mankind, when they invented wine and bread; that arts, sciences, and civilization have been general calamities, &c. That, upon this supposition, all Europe ought to agree to bring away the inhabitants of America, and divide them among the nations of Europe to be maintained as paupers, leaving America to grow up again with trees and bushes, and to become again the habitations of bears and Indians, forbidding all navigation to that quarter of the globe in future. That mankind in general, however, are probably of a different opinion; believing that Columbus, as well as Bacchus and Ceres, did a service to mankind, and that Europe

and America will be rich blessings to each other; the one, supplying a surplus of manufactures, and the other, a surplus of raw materials, the productions of agriculture.

It is very plain, however, that speculation and disputation can do us little service. No facts are believed, but decisive military conquests; no arguments are seriously attended to in Europe, but force. It is to be hoped our countrymen, instead of amusing themselves any longer with delusive dreams of peace, will bend the whole force of their minds to augment their navy, to find out their own strength and resources, and to depend upon themselves. I have the honor to be, with great respect, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.

FROM JAMES HUTTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

Moravian Missionaries in Labrador.

DEAR SIR,

Pimlico, 21 August, 1780.

Our last year's voyage to and from Labrador was a safe one. The Esquimaux remain friendly, and our people at both missions were well. Many thanks to you for the last year's passport, which I here return again, that you may be sure no ill use can be made of it by us. Our Captain Mugford is this year not in such a state of health, as to be able to perform the voyage; so we take the mate in his room. He has begged us, if possible, to get a vessel with two masts, that, in case one was damaged in hard weather, there might yet be one remaining; as, in case of the loss of the only mast, they might perish for want of succour in those unfrequented seas. We have agreed

to his request, and bought a small brig with two masts, very little bigger than the former, the description of which is as follows. The brig Amity, Captain James Frazer, about seventy-five tons, square-sterned, navigated by seven men. I should be much obliged to you, if you would be so kind as to send another pass according to this description, so that it may be here before the 20th of May at latest.

We are all sorry for the loss of Captain Cook. I hope the papers, that are on the way hither from Kamtschatka, will come safe.

I know not whether you could procure us a Spanish pass, or whether I should apply to M. de Sartine. I shall mention it to him, who will probably forward this. We had two old persons at our Labrador mission; one, an old Lutheran minister, a Dane, Drachardt by name, who had been a dozen years employed by the Danes in their mission in Greenland. He, in his heroic way, though he had been many years retired to Hernhuth, as soon as he heard of a mission to Labrador, dedicated his life and labors freely and eagerly to that service, and ended his days there, after a cheerful, laborious life. The other was a surgeon from Wurtemberg, very skilful and much respected in his own country; his name was Waiblinger. These two old men died about the same time, and were buried at the same time. As these were much loved by the natives, many of them, all that were near, were at the burying, and many of them lost their horror for death.

Since then, a younger man, born and bred among us, has offered his service, to succeed Waiblinger. His name is Kriegelstein, son of one of our first brethren, himself a physician. I am, &c.

JAMES HUTTON.

VOL. VIII.

32

TO CHARLES W. F. DUMAS.

Relative to M. Dumas's Appointment and Services. Passy, 2 October, 1780.

DEAR SIR,

I received duly your several letters of the 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th, and 21st of September. I am much pleased with the intelligence you sent me, and with the papers you have had printed.

Mr. Searle is a military officer of the Pennsylvania troops, and a member of Congress. He has some commission to execute for that province, but none that I know of from Congress. He has an open letter for you from Mr. Lovell, which he has shown me. It is full of expressions of his esteem; and I understand from Mr. Searle, that you stand exceedingly well with the Committee and with the Congress in general. I am sorry to see any marks of uneasiness and apprehension in your letters. M. Chaumont tells me, that you want some assurance of being continued. The Congress itself is changeable at the pleasure of their electors, and none of their servants have, or can have, any such assurance. If, therefore, any thing better for you, and more substantial, should offer, nobody can blame you for accepting it, however satisfied they may be with your services. But, as to the continuance of what you may enjoy, or of something as valuable in the service of the Congress, I think you may make yourself easy; for your appointment seems more likely to be increased than diminished, though it does not belong to me to promise any thing.

Mr. Laurens was to sail three days after Mr. Searle, who begins to fear he must be lost, as it was a small vessel he intended to embark in. He was bound directly to Holland.