Leblane, an agent from Desfourneaux,
of Guadaloupe, came in the Retaliation. You will see in the papers
Desfourneaux's letter to the President, which will correct some
immaterial circumstances of the statement in my last. You will see the
truth of the main fact, that the vessel and crew were liberated without
condition. Notwithstanding this, they have obliged Leblane to receive
the French prisoners, and to admit, in the papers, the terms, 'in
exchange for prisoners taken from us,' he denying at the same time that
they consider them as prisoners, or had any idea of exchange. The object
of his mission was not at all relative to that; but they choose to keep
up the idea of a cartel, to prevent the transaction from being used
as evidence of the sincerity of the French government towards a
reconciliation. He came to assure us of a discontinuance of all
irregularities in French privateers from Guadaloupe. He has been
received very cavalierly. In the mean time, a Consul General is named to
St. Domingo: who may be considered as our Minister to Toussaint.
But the event of events was announced to the Senate yesterday. It is
this: it seems that soon after Gerry's departure, overtures must have
been made by Pichon, French _Charge d'Affaires_ at the Hague, to
Murray. They were so soon matured, that on the 28th of September,
1798, Talleyrand writes to Pichon, approving what had been done, and
particularly of his having assured Murray that whatever Plenipotentiary
the government of the United States should send to France to end our
differences, would undoubtedly be received with the respect due to the
representative of a free, independent, and powerful nation; declaring
that the President's instructions to his Envoys at Paris, if they
contain the whole of the American government's intentions, announce
dispositions which have been always entertained by the Directory; and
desiring him to communicate these expressions to Murray, in order to
convince him of the sincerity of the French government, and to prevail
on him to transmit them to his government.
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