RC (MH-H: Lee Papers); notation at the top of the 1st page: “No. 3.” The account printed here, as well as those transmitted by Grand earlier and later, was subsequently copied into the Foreign Ledgers, Public Agents in Europe, 1776–1787 (DNA: RG 39 [Microfilm]). Those accounts should also be consulted because errors in addition have been corrected, and the entries sometimes contain additional information. In any event, the accounts printed here should be used in conjunction with the other accounts submitted by Grand of 30 June and 9 Aug., the Household Accounts of 9 April (all below), as well as JA's personal accounts in Diary and Autobiography , 2:325–342.

The previous account, for the period from 15 Jan. to 30 March, is in MH-H: Lee Papers.

This figure is the then current exchange rate of 29 and 15/16 pence sterling per ecu, a French monetary unit equal to 3 livres tournois.

This amount is in error and should be 114,281.19.11 livres, making the total 1,452,234.9 livres. There are 20 sous to a livre and 12 deniers to the sou.

This entry represents money received from the French government. Previously such sums had been considered subsidies and had totaled 3,750,000 livres, but from this payment they were carried in the accounts as loans to be repaid (Foreign Ledgers, Public Agents in Europe, 1776–1787, DNA: RG 39 [Microfilm], f. 2, 107). For the remaining payments for 1778, totaling 1,500,000 livres, see the Accounts printed under the dates of 30 June and 9 Aug. (both below).

Ferdinand Grand, Swiss Protestant and the Commissioners' banker, with whom JA dined on 19 April (JA, Diary and Autobiography , 2:303 and note; 4:64–65).

RC (P.R.O.: H.C. Adm. 32, Prize Papers, bundle 473). Intended by JA to announce his arrival to the congress, this letter was entrusted to John Bondfield, who placed it aboard the Vidame de Chalons, which was subsequently captured by a British privateer (see Bondfield to JA, 6 April and notes, below). Thus, the first conclusive evidence that JA was in France, other than a newspaper report, did not reach the congress until the arrival of AA's letter to James Lovell of 30 June, in which she reported receiving JA's letter of 25 April ( Adams Family Correspondence , 3:17, 51–53, 54).

JA's arrival and enthusiastic reception in Bordeaux are chronicled in his Diary and, in more detail, in his Autobiography. He left that city on 4 April, one day late, and arrived at Paris on 8 April, after a “long Journey of near 500 Miles, at the Rate of an hundred Miles a day” ( Diary and Autobiography , 2:293–296; 4:34–41).

JA's landing at Bordeaux and subsequent arrival at Paris were also reported, with some information not included in either his Diary or Autobiography, in the Nouvelles extraordinaires de divers endroits (commonly known as the Gazette de Leyde) for 21 and 24 April. That paper, edited by Jean Luzac, often contained news from America or material supporting the American effort in Europe, some of which was supplied by C. W. F. Dumas (see Dumas to the Commissioners, 16 June, note 1, below). For a sketch of Luzac and his later relationship with JA, see Adams Family Correspondence , 4:xiv–xv. The items from the Gazette were translated into English and printed in the Boston Independent Chronicle for 29 Oct.

France officially notified the British government of the Franco-American treaties in a note presented by the French ambassador on 13 March. The King's message communicating the note to Parliament announced the recall of the British ambassador and the government's displeasure at the treaties but went no farther. Seemingly unwilling to enter into open war, the two nations did not begin fighting until 17 June, and then almost tentatively with a naval skirmish off Ushant between the French frigate Belle-Poule and the British frigate Arethusa ( Parliamentary Hist. , 19:912–914; Bemis, Diplomacy of the Amer. Revolution , p. 66–67; Mahan, Navies in the War of Amer. Independence , p. 61–62).

Enclosures not found.