Adams Family Correspondence, volume 3
I send you a Continuance of the Journals.
The Printer having lately made a Mistake in the Course of sending me the Sheets of 1778, I was led to think he had done so before, as to that which I have written to you about already, called by him H; I therefore now put up one, as well as M.N. which I am certain were not before inclosed to you. I would have you send all forward to our Friend, unless you should have found that I really committed the Error of sending you before both Mr. A's H and my own. For you are to know that only two Copies are taken out of the Printer's Hands; and as I could not find all my own Pages I was induced to think I had sent them to you. But as you see above I have altered the Conjecture.
How do you do, Lovely Portia, these very cold Days? Mistake me not willfully; I said Days. For my Part, I was hardly able to write 258legibly at the Distance of only 18 feet from two Fire Places in the Congress Room at 4 oClock this Afternoon. There is no Probability that the Cold will be decreased in 7 hours from that Time. I will strive however to refrain from coveting my Neighbour's Blankets. I shall find that not difficult. But really I doubt whether I shall be able to keep myself void of all Coveteousness. I suspect I shall covet to be in the Arms of Portia's1 Friend and Admirer—the Wife of my Bosom, who would be a whole Coverlid bettered, as well as I, by such an Approximation.
Upon casting my Eye back thro' what I have written, I find it would have been more justly comprehensible if the Page had been either a little longer or somewhat shorter. There was not room to write Turn over. I hope, however, that you did not stop long without doing so Madam; because a quick Turnover alone could save the 10th. Commandment intire; and you must now see plainly that I had not the smallest Suspicion of my being driven by my present Sufferings to make a frantic Breach there.
I hope Mr. Adams is long e'er now in France where he will not have at his very Fingers Ends such nipping Reasons as I have to regret his Separation from that sweet Comfort which is held up to our Hopes among other Bible-Felicities. Eccles: IV. 11.2
We are still without News from any of our Agents or Ministers abroad. I will not fail to communicate the first we get that can amuse you. Respectfully & affectionately Yrs.,
In the MS, Lovell facetiously ended the first page with the word “Portia,” adding the possessive form and the rest of the sentence overleaf. This device, reminiscent of some found in Sterne's writings, explains the clumsily playful remarks in his next paragraph.
“Again, if two lie together, then they have heat; but how can one be warm alone?”
We arrived here, last night, all alive, but all very near sick with violent Colds taken on the Road for Want of comfortable Accommodations.
I was advised, on all Hands to come by Land rather than wait an uncertain Time for a passage by sea. But if I had known the Difficulties of travelling, in that part of Spain which I have passed through I think I should not have ventured upon the Journey.
259It is vain to attempt a Description of our Passage. Through the Province of Gallicia, and again when We came to that of Biscay, We had an uninterupted succession of Mountains; thro that of Leon and the old Castile, constant Plains. A Country, tolerably good, by Nature, but not well cultivated.
Through the whole of the Journey the Taverns were inconvenient to Us, because there are no Chimneys in their Houses and We had cold Weather. A great Part of the Way, the Wretchedness of our Accommodation exceeds all Description.1
At Bilbao, We fare very well, and have received much Civility from Mr. Gardoqui and sons as We did at Ferrol and Corunna from Mr. Detournelle2 and Mr. Lagoanere.3
I wish I could send you, some few Things for the Use of the Family from hence, but the Risque is such that I believe, I had better wait untill We get to France.4
I have undergone the greatest Anxiety for the Children, thro a tedious Journey and Voyage. I hope their Travels will be of Service to them, but those at home are best off. My Love to them.
The Adams party had left La Coruña on 26 Dec., with JA still undecided whether he would proceed to Bilbao by the longer but more traveled route via Madrid or by the shorter route more or less directly eastward through the rugged terrain of northern Spain. At the junction of roads in the town of Astorga on 4 Jan., he made up his mind, continuing east to Burgos and then north to Bilbao instead of turning southeast to Madrid. For his reasons, see his letter to the President of Congress, written this day and copied into his Autobiography (
Diary and Autobiography
, 4:231). As for the adventures and rigors of the journey itself, JA's diary entries furnish much vivid detail, and in his Autobiography he elaborated and commented upon them from memory—the whole forming a superb travel narrative (same, 2:415–433;
4:213–238).
The French consul stationed at La Coruña, who had welcomed JA at El Ferrol (same, 2:405; 4:194). JA this day wrote Detournelle a letter of warm thanks for his many kindnesses (LbC, Adams Papers).
Michel Lagoanere of La Coruña had, by contract, made the travel arrangements for the Adams party's expedition across Spain. See JA to Lagoanere, 16, 18 Dec. 1779 (LbC's, Adams Papers); Lagoanere to JA, 17, 26 Dec. 1779 (Adams Papers); also JA, Diary and Autobiography
, 2:415; 4:213–214.
JA did, however, send AA substantially more than “some few Things” from Bilbao. They were furnished by the firm of Joseph Gardoqui & Sons, a mercantile house that had American connections, and they included tumblers, cups, knives, forks, green tea, bolts of linen cloth, and eighteen dozen “Barcelona Handkffs.,” at a total cost of 4,000 rials. They were shipped by Capt. James Babson in the Phoenix, who sailed from Bilbao on 5 February. See Gardoqui & Sons to JA, 19 Feb., with invoice enclosed (Adams Papers); the invoice is reproduced as an illustration in the present volume. Babson arrived at Beverly, Mass., in forty-five days (Boston Gazette, 20 March, suppl., p. 2, col. 1; see also AA to JQA, 20 March–8 May, below).