I received in its time your Favour of the 15th past, with an Extract from the Contract made at Versailles, Feb. 21. 1783. This Extract being a Translation, I have spent some time in searching for a Copy I suppos’d I might have of the Original, but have not yet met with it, and will now no longer delay my Answer, which is, that if the Translation be just, and the Original really mentions Three Millions as given before the Treaty of 1778, it has either been a Mistake of One Million, or the Million receiv’d from the Farmers General is included as a Dongratuit of the King. In which latter Case, as you observe, they owe us for the Tobacco receiv’d in part. For I think it a Certainty that no Money was receiv’d from the Crown which did not go directly into the Hands of Mr. Grand, and tho’ he accounts for three Millions receiv’d before 1778, one of them is the Million receiv’d of the Farmers General. An Explanation and Adjustment of this Matter, may, I make no doubt, be easily obtain’d by writing to Mr. Grand and Mr. Jefferson. There can be no Error of that Magnitude in Mr. Grand’s Accounts, for they were render’d to the Commissioners from time to time and settled while all the Transactions were fresh in Memory. And I am persuaded the Minister will very readily either correct the Error in the Contract, or direct our demanding of the Farmers the Value of the Tobaccos, as the case may be. With great and sincere Esteem, I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant