TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, IN MADRID.
Office of Finance, March 4th, 1783.
Sir,
You will probably recollect that Mr Jay protested ten bills of exchange, each for two hundred and twentyfive Mexican dollars, of which the list is enclosed. These bills, with the addition of twenty per cent damages, amount to two thousand seven hundred dollars, for which I have this day signed a set of bills on you, which, to avoid the dangers to which communication is liable, are extended to the eighth bill. This draft is at six months' sight, and I am to desire that you will honor it, and take your reimbursement on Mr Grand. The length of sight may probably place it at a considerable discount on the exchange of Madrid, and it is probable, also, that you may draw on Mr Grand to advantage; if so, I conceive it would be best to have the bill bought.
Draw on Mr Grand at the common usance, and close the transaction; which I hope may be the last of the kind, which the American government will be concerned in. An additional reason for suggesting this is, that should this bill go through hands ignorant of the whole transaction, it may give rise to conjectures, that the former practice of drawing is about to be revived. I should have drawn on France or paid in cash, but as the party is at Boston, and the rate of the exchange unfixed, it is more conformable to mercantile usage to give a new bill for the principal and damages.
I am, Sir, &c.
ROBERT MORRIS.