So I must Give up my Little Companion, my Young Friend. Your Claim is prior, your Title Cannot be Contested, but Remember she is not all your own: how apt are we to think we hold all our Blessings by a tenure of right, and Grow fretful when they are Resumed by the first proprietor.

But I took not up my pen to Moralize. Nor will I hold it Long: and were I to Judge by the very sparing Returns dos my Friend wish it. Therefore will hasten to thank you for the Instance of self Denial in thus long sparing your Daughter. I Love her, and as her amiable Disposition Delights her Friends, May an assemblage of Virtues Ripen, and Flourish, to Gladden the Fond Mother, and to fill the paternal Bosom with unspeakable satisfaction, when he Returns to his Natal soil, and must Look painfully abroad on the Degeneracy of Man, the Depravity of Manners, the Decline of Morals, the Depreceation of Money and the sinking of patriotism.

But I forbear. I will throw asside my pen, Ink and paper for this time at Least not because I am not in a Writing humour, I have a thousand things to say, but merely in Resentment, that Your Attention 195is so much taken up with Your southern and other Correspondents that You have no time for your assured Friend,

I Send Mr. Adams's Letter knowing it will Give you pleasure. You will Give it Mr. Warren.

I hope Miss Naby will not be the Less solicitous to Come to Plimouth in Future for rather runing over her time. If she is I shall be sorry she did not Go sooner that her Wishes might accellerate her return.

I left Paris on the Eighth of March, expecting to find the Alliance, at Nantes and embark immediately for home, but when I arrived there I found the Alliance was still at Brest. I went to Brest 200 Miles from Nantes, and after some Stay there the Alliance was ordered to Nantes. I returned to Nantes, and when every Thing was ready to sail for America, an order came from Court for the Alliance to go to L'orient, and for me to go home in one of the Kings ships, with his new Ambassador to the united States, Le Chevalier de la Luzerne.

It would fill a Volume to give you an History of my Adventures.2 My Son has accompanied me wherever I have been and is treated with more Attention than his father, tho that is as much as he wishes.

Dont think hard of me for not writing. I have wrote as often as I could. But there are Letters of mine still in the Ports of this Kingdom, which were written I believe 9 Months ago—many many others are in the Sea.

When you come to know how few Letters I have received from America, you will be surprized. There seems to be no Communication of Intelligence between the two Countries or worse than none.

What the Sentiments or Intentions of Congress are concerning me, I know not. Shall find out in Time, I presume. But it seems to most People a little misterious that I should be sent here, and so soon forgotten, so entirely as neither to be ordered to stay, go or come. However, there3 are Reasons probably that We know not here.

You may form an Idea of the Tenderness with which I expect to see you and ours, in the Course of five or six Weeks.