Adams received the
letters giving information of Mr. Lambe's arrival at Algiers. In London,
we had conferences with a Tripoline ambassador, now at that court, named
Abdrahaman. He asked us thirty thousand guineas for a peace with his
court, and as much for Tunis, for which he said he could answer. What we
were authorized to offer, being to this, but as a drop to a bucket,
our conferences were repeated, only for the purpose of obtaining
information. If the demands of Algiers and Morocco should be
proportioned to this, according to their superior power, it is easy to
foresee that the United States will not buy a peace with money. What
principally led me to England was, the information that the Chevalier
del Pinto, Portuguese minister at that court, had received full powers
to treat with us. I accordingly went there, and, in the course of six
weeks, we arranged a commercial treaty between our two countries. His
powers were only to negotiate, not to sign. And as I could not wait, Mr.
Adams and myself signed, and the Chevalier del Pinto expected daily the
arrival of powers to do the same.
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