Title: Wednesday June the 13th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. Cerisier came here and said that he had read in the Brussels Gazette, that there had been a second action between Lord Cornwallis and General Green, that General Green had been repulsed with the loss of 400 men, but he says he don’t know by which way the news comes.
       At eleven o’clock I went to take a walk with Mr. Bordly and brother Charles; we met Mr. Le Roi on the Way. He ask’d us to go to Sloot Sloten with him this afternoon, we told him we would.
       Mr. Cerisier din’d with us, after dinner brother Charles and I went to Sloot, which is a small village, about 7 Miles from Amsterdam, we found Mr. Hartsinck, Mr. Le Roi, Young Mr. Chabanel, Mr. Scravensvert, and Mr. Menoir there; we went into water, in the Haerlem meer. We got home at about half past 8 o’clock.
       From Guthrie’s Grammar. (continued from yesterday) Chap 4th §: 4th.


Title: Thursday June the 14th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. Jennings and Mr. Greves came here with An English Gazette; in which there is the detail of the action between Cornwallis and Green. Cornwallis writes that he has obtain’d a compleat victory; but he has thought proper to run away to Wilmington, General Green is at Camden; Cornwallis has made a Proclamation of pardon to every body (murderers excepted) but does not mention of one single man’s having came over to him yet; his army was two days without any provisions. He writes in one part of his letter that a defensive war wou’d be certain destruction to the british forces; in another, he says he can only act upon the defensive; therefore by his own confession let him act after what manner he will; it is certain destruction to the british there.
       Mr. Jennings and Mr. Greves breakfasted here; I did not go out in the forenoon: Mr. Waldo din’d with us; after dinner I went and took a walk with Mr. Dana. We went to the printer’s of the Amsterdam Gazette for a couple of old numbers for Mr. Dana, We Walk’d to the Western market; and look’d about the shops, and then came home.
       Continued From Yesterday from Guthries Grammar. Chap: 4th §:6th.


Title: Friday June the 15th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. Dana, Mr. Thaxter, brother Charles and myself went to Kaa’s, to see Mr. Jennings and Mr. Bordly. We found Mr. Searle there; he has just arriv’d from the Texel; where he has been since saturday.
       We stay’d sometime there and then went to take a ride; we went out of the Haerlem Port, and rid round by the side of the outer Cingel and came in again into the Leyden Port.
       After dinner I wrote a letter to Dr. Waterhouse; and then went to Madam Chabanel’s where I found Mr. Brailsford; he went away soon after, and I went to take a walk, with the young ladies; when we got back we found Mr. Le Roi, and young Mr. Chabanel at home; I return’d home soon after.
       The English papers are arriv’d. There is an account of an action between Commodore Johnstone and the french Squadron which was going to the East India’s, but we have not got the paper in which an account of it is given; and therefore, do not yet know the details.

       From Guthrie’s Grammar. Chap 4th § 6th (Continuation from yesterday).


Title: Saturday June the 16th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This day Mr. Brice, Commodore Gillon, Colo. Searle, Major Jackson, Captn. Coltyzer and Mr. Jennings din’d here; Major Jackson has read in Lloyd’s list an account of an old French sixty four gun Ship’s having been taken by the Jamaica fleet with eighty pieces of brass cannon twenty thousand suits of cloaths and two Millions of Livres on board bound to North America, but this news is not yet ascertain’d. We have a letter in one of the papers from Commodore Johnstone, containing the details of the action which I spoke of yesterday; he gives himself a Victory but his letter gives but a poor and broken account of it, and the French might call it a victory to them with as much (and perhaps more) truth than the English can.
       From Guthrie’s grammar (continuation from Yesterday) Chap 4th §:6th.


Title: Friday June the 22d 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went to Mr. De la Lande and Fynje’s; din’d at home. Mr. Guild din’d Here. After dinner I went to Madam Chabanel’s with the coach; she went to take a ride; we went through a village call’d Diemen, and went to Mr. Hartsinck’s country seat. We stay’d there a little while and then return’d in to town to Madam Chabanel’s, Mr. Brailsford came there soon after; and brother Charles and I went with him to the coffy House where we found Mr. Greaves and Mr. Brush, from thence we went to Mr. Brailsford’s lodgings, and return’d home at about 10 o’clock.
        From Guthrie’s Grammar (continued from yesterday) Chap 4th §. 15th.


Title: Saturday June the 23d 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went with Mr. Dana to the old Man House to buy a few things. We hear that a courier is arriv’d at the Hague from Madrid who was only eleven days upon the Journey, he brings news that two Dutch fregates commanded by the Captains Oorthius and Melvill had been out to meet the Dutch East India Ships which were coming home; and had done it accordingly, and were returning to Cadix with them when they fell in with two English 74 Gun Ships and after a Smart battle Melvill was taken and one of the E. I. M. Sunk but Oorthius carry’d into Cadix the five others.
       Mr. Guild and Mr. Jones din’d here. Nothing remarkable in the afternoon.
       From Guthrie’s grammar. (continued from yesterday) Chapter 4th §. 16th.


Title: Sunday June the 24th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Nothing remarkable in the forenoon, Mr. Thaxter din’d at Mr. Sigourney’s; I din’d at home, after dinner I went to take a walk with Mr. Dana; we walk’d someways out of town, in the evening I went to Madam Chabanel’s where I supp’d; got home at about 10 1/2 o’clock.

       (Continuation from yesterday) From Guthrie’s grammar. Chapter 4th §: 17th.


Title: Monday June the 25th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went to Mr. Crajenschot’s to get the 20th No. of the Politique Hollandois which comes out every week, there is something in the last No. worth coppying which I shall do at the end of this day’s journal. Din’d at home, after dinner went to see Mr. Bordly and afterwards to Madam Chabanel’s. Got home at about half past nine o’clock.
       From the Politique Hollandois Chapter 5th.


Title: Tuesday June the 26th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Nothing remarkable in the forenoon; after dinner I went with Doctor Brown to the New French Coffy House where we found Mr. Greaves and Mr. Brush, we then went and took a long walk and came along by the first bible and there I left the gentlemen and went to see Mr. Bordly, brother Charles came in soon after. We staid there some time and got home at about 8 o’clock.
       From the Politique Hollandois (continued from yesterday).


Title: Wednesday June the 27th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went to take a walk with Mr. Bordly met in the street two of my old schoolmates; went to Madam Chabanel’s. We did not Stay there long; din’d at home; after dinner brother Charles and I went out of the Leyden Gate, and from thence to the Haerlem Schout with an intention of going to Leyden this day. When we got to the Schout we found the Roof was hir’d and some were obliged to go in the Ruim. We had a number of fellow travellers, but one of them who was some peasant or other, and who had drank full his portion, thinking himself very wise took all the conversation to himself and pleas’d us very much by his talk. When we had got half ways to Haerlem we chang’d boats, and our Boor took another glass of gin which made his tongue run about half as fast again as it did before. We got to Haerlem at about half past five o’clock; we found that the fair is at Haerlem at present; We passed through the city and went out to the Leyden Boat; but found that the Roof was hir’d again and so we were oblig’d to go again in the Ruim; Our Boor did not go to Leyden with us; we arriv’d at Leyden at about half past ten.
       Fine weather all day.
       Chapter 6th. From Pope’s works. Messiah. a sacred eclogue, in imitation of Virgil’s Pollio.


Title: Thursday June the 28th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning brother Charles and I, went to buy a trunk, when we had got it here we began to pack up our books, which we did before dinner. After dinner Pappa sent for us from the golden Lion. We went there and found Mr. Jennings there. We did not stay there long, but went to Mr. Lynch’s, and went into water with him and some other gentlemen; at eight o’clock our Master came here and we took leave of him.
       Chapter 7th. From Pope’s works.


Title: Friday June the 29th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning brother Charles and I packed up our trunks, and I went to take leave of our riding master; in the afternoon Pappa came here but stay’d only ten minutes; we went to Mr. Lynch’s at about 4 o’clock; he asked us to go into water with him at 5 o’clock, we told him we would, we went then to take leave of Mr. Luzac. At five o’clock we went again to Mr. Lynch’s and went with him into water. Mr. Cook told us that he would go to Amsterdam with us. We got home at about 7 o’clock.
       From Pope’s works (continued from yesterday).


Title: Saturday June the 30th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. Cook came here and breakfasted with us and at half past six we went to the boat to go to Amsterdam; we had nothing very remarkable, going to Haerlem, where we arriv’d at half past ten o’clock. We went thro’ the city to the Amsterdam boat, we found that there was place in the Roof; we had one gentleman with us. We arriv’d at Amsterdam at half past one o’clock, brother Charles went to show Mr. Cook the way to the first bible; Mr. Van Heukelom din’d with us; after dinner I went to Kaa’s to see Mr. Bordly; but found he was out, and therefore I return’d home.
       From Pope’s works. Prologue to Mr. Addison’s Tragedy of Cato. Chapter 8th.


Title: [1 June – 30 January 1781]
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

      Saturday June the 9th 1781.

       Got up in the morning at about 6 o’clock, and set myself to work; breakfasted at half past seven on tea. At about 1 o’clock Pappa came from the Hague; and ask’d me if I wou’d go to Amsterdam with him; I told him I would, with all my heart. He then told me, that I must put up some clothes and get ready before dinner, and come to dine with him at the Sign of the Golden Lion, all which I did. After dinner the horses were put into the carriage and we set away at about three o’clock. We went along down the broad Street and went down a small lane and out of the Haerlem-Poort; and down along by the Canal. We rode about 3 hours and arrived at about 6 o’clock at a house near Haerlem; we drank tea, and had our horses refresh’d at this house; and set away from it at about seven o’clock; we pass’d thro’ Haerlem, a small city where the Dutch say that the art of printing was invented by Laurence Janzoon Koster or Coster, Sexton of the Church; I have seen the first book which (they say) he printed; but there is a great dispute with this city and that of Stratsburg Strasbourg about this; these last say that one John Guttemberg invented it, and that Koster had only printed upon wood, as the Chinese had done for a long time before. The people of Haerlem say that Koster did print upon wood at first but that he tried it afterwards upon lead and finding he did it successfully he made it public; and that John Guttemberg was an apprentice of Koster’s; and that he stole his masters tools and ran away to Stratsburg and there sat himself up as the inventor of printing.
       I do not pretend to ascertain which of the two was the true inventor of it; for I believe that it would be a hard matter to prove.
       We passed along by the side of a Canal the whole way from Haerlem to Amsterdam. Arrived here at about 8 1/2 o’clock. Went into the Haerlem Port and after several twistings and turnings we arriv’d at Pappa’s house, which is upon the Keizers Gragt; in English the Emperors Canal. We found Mr. Dana here; brother Charles was gone out, but came home soon after. I shall copy in general every day some piece of Poetry or prose; and shall begin with that fine Soliloque of Hamlet, from Shakespeare.

   This is the first entry in D/JQA/4, which covers the brief period from 9 June to 27 Aug. 1781, consisting of JQA’s remaining days in Holland and his journey with Francis Dana to St. Petersburg. This unbound Diary, with pages measuring 7⅝ ″ × 4¾″, is composed of eleven twelve- or sixteen-leaved sections, consecutively numbered by JQA to page 162, with the last ten leaves left blank. A number of the leaves are missing and have been noted later at the appropriate places in the Diary.

   Much of what is known about JQA’s activities between Oct. 1780 and June 1781, for which no Diary exists and none was probably written, comes from letters, especially to and from JA, all of which are printed in volume 4 of Adams Family CorrespondenceAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- .. After the unsettling school experience of his sons in Amsterdam, JA wrote to Benjamin Waterhouse for some advice on how the boys might pursue their studies at Leyden. Waterhouse, later to become the first professor of physic at Harvard, had pursued medical studies at Edinburgh, London, and Leyden, taking his degree at the last-named in 1780 and afterward attending additional lectures there. He recommended Leyden to JA enthusiastically. Not only could JA’s sons live more cheaply there than in Amsterdam, Waterhouse wrote, but also they could advance their knowledge of Greek and Latin through private instruction, and they might attend lectures at the university. Within a week after the receipt of Waterhouse’s letter, JA sent the boys there with John Thaxter. While Waterhouse found accommodations, Thaxter hired a Latin and Greek master named Wensing (or Wenshing), who came twice daily to lecture for an hour. Between sessions the boys spent their time translating Homer and the Greek testament and working on grammar and lessons from the master. Under Thaxter’s counseling, JQA also attended lectures at the university ranging from medicine to law, the latter given by the celebrated professor Frederik Willem Pestel. In early Jan. 1781 Thaxter and JQA were matriculated, and CA, at first regarded as too young for consideration, eventually was admitted later that month. Aside from requests for ice skates and riding lessons, JQA’s full attention in Leyden was on his studies, adhering to them, wrote Waterhouse in the spring, “with a consistency rarely seen at that age.”

   At least two of JQA’s schoolwork manuscripts for this period have survived among the Adams Papers. One is a 100-page French translation of the fables of Phaedrus, copied between February and May 1781 evidently from Wensing’s translation; the other is a 104-page Greek treatise, compiled in Jan. 1781. Another French translation of the fables, of 76 pages, as well as a partial, 56-page rendition in French of Cornelius Nepos’ Vitae Excellentium lmperatorum, a school text for elementary Latin, may also date from this period (M/JQA/23, 22, 43, Microfilms, Reel Nos. 218, 217, 238). Near the time that JQA resumed his Diary, in June of 1781, his father was advising him by letter to turn to Demosthenes and Cicero, and also not to neglect authors in his own language, especially the English poets. This may help to explain why D/JQA/4 resembles not only a Diary but also a commonplace book with samplings of several English poets, dramatists, and essayists.

   When JQA resumed his Diary on 9 June, he was still at Leyden. He left for Amsterdam that day and returned on 27 June, sometime after the decision was made for him to accompany Dana to Russia.

   For a description and view of JA’s residence in Amsterdam, see JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:ix, facing p. 322.

   Here follows, on one and one-half pages in the Diary, Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy. JQA’s citation of the scene number and other internal variations show that he was using William Warburton’s edition of Pope’s The Works of Shakespear in Eight Volumes . . ., London, 1747, 8:182–183. This passage is titled “Chap. 1.” by JQA. For each subsequent piece copied in this Diary he has assigned a chapter number.

      Sunday June the 10th 1781.

       This morning I got up at about 7 1/2 o’clock breakfasted and at about 9 o’clock Pappa, brother Charles and myself went to the English presbyterian Church and heard a Sermon; the text was in Thessaloniens 1st: 5 Ch: 17th vs. “pray Without ceasing.”
       We got home at about eleven o clock. As we came out of the Church we found Mr. Jennings in the Coach, he said he had been deterred by his barber. We dined at home; Mr. Jennings din’d with us; at two o’clock brother Charles and Myself went again to Church; our text was in the Psalms: after Church we went to Mr. Kaa’s to see Mr. Bordly but he was gone out to take a walk; but we found Mr. Jennings, Mr. Brush, Dr. Brown, Mr. Greves and two other gentlemen, and soon after Mr. Bordly came in. We stay’d there some time and then Mr. Jennings came with brother Charles and Myself to Pappa’s house; the other gentlemen went to take a walk; at about 6 o’clock Pappa and Mr. Jennings went out together, and brother Charles and I, went to see Messrs. Sigourny and Ingraham. They were gone to take a walk, but the ladies were at home, we found Mr. Thaxter there, some time after the Gentlemen came home; we stay’d there about an hour and at about 7 o clock we came back again; we found Mr. Guild and Mr. Jennings here; at about Nine o clock we went to Madm. Chabanel’s; we found her, and the young ladies at home, but Mr. Le Roi and young Mr. Chabanel were gone out; we supp’d there and got home at about 10 1/2 o’clock. At about 11 o’clock we went to bed.

   Eliphalet Brush, New York shipowner and merchant, who returned to America from Amsterdam in late September with dispatches to congress from JA. He and his brothers, sons of a prominent Huntington, N.Y., merchant, owned extensive plantations in Demarara, British Guiana, now called Georgetown, Guyana (Conklin Mann, “Thomas and Richard Brush of Huntington, Long Island,” N.Y. Geneal. and Biog. Rec.,The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. 67:21, 132 [Jan., April 1936];Adams Family Correspondence,Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- .4:219).

   Charles Sigourney, a Boston merchant and partner in the Amsterdam mercantile firm of Sigourney, Ingraham & Bromfield (Sigourney to Aaron Lopez, 6 March 1781, MHi:Wetmore Coll.; JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:453–454, 456; Boston Directory, 1789Boston Directory, issued annually with varying imprints.). See also entry for 19 Aug. 1780, note 3 (above).

   Here follows “Chap. 2.” on about one and one-half pages in the Diary, 28 lines, beginning, “All the world’s a stage,” from As You Like It.

      Monday June the 11th 1781.

       This morning I got up at about 8 o’clock breakfasted, and went to see Mr. Deneufville; we staid there about a half an hour and then went and took a walk; we went to the Western market and walked about 1/4 of an hour and then went to Mr. Guild’s lodgings, but did not find him at home; we then return’d to Pappa’s house. In coming we saw young Mr. Chabanel and spoke to him. At two o’clock we din’d; Mr. Guild din’d with us. After dinner, Mr. Dana, Mr. Guild, brother Charles and myself went and drank tea at Madam Chabanel’s. After tea we went to the old-Man-house and bought some things; after that, Mr. Dana, brother Charles and myself, went to see Mr. Tegelaar, we found Burger-Master Hoofd there; after staying about a half of an hour we went to Mr. Hartsinck’s where we found the Young Miss Chabanel’s, Mr. Menoir (a french Gentleman,) and another Gentleman, who lives at Rotterdam, we Stay’d there a little while and from thence went home, we got here at about 9 o clock. At about half past ten I went to bed.

   The Oude Mannen en Vrouwengasthuis; that is, a home for old people, founded in 1559, built around a courtyard on the south side of which was a broad and high gallery with eighteen arcades rented as shops whose profits were returned to the home (Le Guide, ou nouvelle description d’Amsterdam, p. 175–176).

   Here follows “Chap. 3d.,” covering almost two pages in the Diary and consisting of twenty-eight lines from King Henry IV, Part II, Act III, scene i, lines 4–31, beginning “How many thousand of my poorest subjects.”

   Because of occasional differences in act, scene, and line numbers of plays by Shakespeare as quoted and cited by Adams in his Diary, these quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are given modernized citations without volume and page number from the authoritative Cambridge edition (Works of Shakespear, ed. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, John Dover Wilson, and J. C. Maxwell, Cambridge, Eng., 1921- ).

      Tuesday June the 12th 1781.

       This morning after breakfast I went to Mr. Sigourny’s to see about some quill’s. He gave me a paper of the place where he buys his; after that I went and bought some. I din’d at home, Mr. Dennie, Mr. Donalson, and Mr. Sigourny and Mr. Du Barry din’d with us; Mr. Dennie, Mr. Donalson and Mr. Du Barry have just arriv’d here from the West India’s; after dinner I went to see Mr. Greves and Mr. Brailsford, but they were not at home. I went to the first bible to see Mr. Bordly; I stay’d with him sometime and then came home.
       From Guthrie’s Grammar. NETHERLANDS. Chap 4th §:I.

   Here follows, on four pages of the Diary, the first three “sections,” as JQA describes them, of the account of the United Provinces of the Netherlands by William Guthrie, Geographical GrammarWilliam Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar; And Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World..., London, 1779., p. 399–400, at which point are described the physical “extent, situation and boundaries,” as well as the “air, seasons, soil, and face of the country.” JQA collectively designated material copied from Guthrie as “Chapter 4,” assigning “section” numbers roughly matching Guthrie’s topical subheadings, which are unnumbered in the source. JQA acquired a copy of the 1779 edition sometime in 1781 (Catalogue of JQA’s BooksWorthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938.).

      Wednesday June the 13th 1781.

       This morning Mr. Cerisier came here and said that he had read in the Brussels Gazette, that there had been a second action between Lord Cornwallis and General Green, that General Green had been repulsed with the loss of 400 men, but he says he don’t know by which way the news comes.
       At eleven o’clock I went to take a walk with Mr. Bordly and brother Charles; we met Mr. Le Roi on the Way. He ask’d us to go to Sloot Sloten with him this afternoon, we told him we would.
       Mr. Cerisier din’d with us, after dinner brother Charles and I went to Sloot, which is a small village, about 7 Miles from Amsterdam, we found Mr. Hartsinck, Mr. Le Roi, Young Mr. Chabanel, Mr. Scravensvert, and Mr. Menoir there; we went into water, in the Haerlem meer. We got home at about half past 8 o’clock.
       From Guthrie’s Grammar. (continued from yesterday) Chap 4th §: 4th.

   Antoine Marie Cerisier, a French publicist and historical writer living in Amsterdam, who earlier in 1781 established the periodical paper, Le politique hollandais, the Dutch Politician, which actively promoted the American cause and was widely read (JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:454).

   There was no “second battle” after Guilford Court House between Greene and Cornwallis. Greene fought Rawdon unsuccessfully at Hobkirk’s Hill on 25 April. Technically Rawdon was under Cornwallis’ command. American casualties numbered 134 (Willard M. Wallace, Appeal to Arms, N.Y., 1951, p. 240–241).

   Here follow, on about two and one-quarter pages in the Diary, the description of Dutch rivers and harbors, and Section 5, “vegetable and animal productions by sea and land,” from Guthrie, Geographical Grammar,William Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar; And Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World..., London, 1779. p. 400–401.

      Thursday June the 14th 1781.

       This morning Mr. Jennings and Mr. Greves came here with An English Gazette; in which there is the detail of the action between Cornwallis and Green. Cornwallis writes that he has obtain’d a compleat victory; but he has thought proper to run away to Wilmington, General Green is at Camden; Cornwallis has made a Proclamation of pardon to every body (murderers excepted) but does not mention of one single man’s having came over to him yet; his army was two days without any provisions. He writes in one part of his letter that a defensive war wou’d be certain destruction to the british forces; in another, he says he can only act upon the defensive; therefore by his own confession let him act after what manner he will; it is certain destruction to the british there.
       Mr. Jennings and Mr. Greves breakfasted here; I did not go out in the forenoon: Mr. Waldo din’d with us; after dinner I went and took a walk with Mr. Dana. We went to the printer’s of the Amsterdam Gazette for a couple of old numbers for Mr. Dana, We Walk’d to the Western market; and look’d about the shops, and then came home.
       Continued From Yesterday from Guthries Grammar. Chap: 4th §:6th.

   Cornwallis to Lord George Germain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 17 March (two letters), Cornwallis to Germain, 18 April, with his Proclamation of 18 March, all published in the London Chronicle for the Year 1781, 49:537–540 (5–7 June).

   On the next two and one-half pages in the Diary JQA has copied the first paragraph of the section entitled “population, inhabitants, manners, customs and diversions,” from Guthrie, Geographical GrammarWilliam Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar; And Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World..., London, 1779., p. 401.

      Friday June the 15th 1781.

       This morning Mr. Dana, Mr. Thaxter, brother Charles and myself went to Kaa’s, to see Mr. Jennings and Mr. Bordly. We found Mr. Searle there; he has just arriv’d from the Texel; where he has been since saturday.
       We stay’d sometime there and then went to take a ride; we went out of the Haerlem Port, and rid round by the side of the outer Cingel and came in again into the Leyden Port.
       After dinner I wrote a letter to Dr. Waterhouse; and then went to Madam Chabanel’s where I found Mr. Brailsford; he went away soon after, and I went to take a walk, with the young ladies; when we got back we found Mr. Le Roi, and young Mr. Chabanel at home; I return’d home soon after.
       The English papers are arriv’d. There is an account of an action between Commodore Johnstone and the french Squadron which was going to the East India’s, but we have not got the paper in which an account of it is given; and therefore, do not yet know the details.

       From Guthrie’s Grammar. Chap 4th § 6th (Continuation from yesterday).

   James Searle, member of the Continental Congress, 1778–1780, was in Europe from 1780 to 1782 as a commissioner for Pennsylvania to negotiate a loan with France and Holland, but his efforts were unsuccessful (Biog. Dir. Cong.Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949, Washington, 1950.; Mildred E. Lombard, “James Searle: Radical Businessman of the Revolution,” PMHB,Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 59:284–294 [July 1935]).

   The outer Singel canal, one of two by that name in Amsterdam: this one formed the outer boundary of the old city.

   Letter not found.

   On the following two and one-half pages in the Diary JQA continued his transcription of the second paragraph from the same subsection of Guthrie which he began the day before (p. 401–402).

      Saturday June the 16th 1781.

       This day Mr. Brice, Commodore Gillon, Colo. Searle, Major Jackson, Captn. Coltyzer and Mr. Jennings din’d here; Major Jackson has read in Lloyd’s list an account of an old French sixty four gun Ship’s having been taken by the Jamaica fleet with eighty pieces of brass cannon twenty thousand suits of cloaths and two Millions of Livres on board bound to North America, but this news is not yet ascertain’d. We have a letter in one of the papers from Commodore Johnstone, containing the details of the action which I spoke of yesterday; he gives himself a Victory but his letter gives but a poor and broken account of it, and the French might call it a victory to them with as much (and perhaps more) truth than the English can.
       From Guthrie’s grammar (continuation from Yesterday) Chap 4th §:6th.

   William Jackson, from South Carolina, who served under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln in his southern campaign, 1778–1780, and then accompanied John Laurens to Europe in the spring of 1781 to obtain additional financial aid and military supplies. In August, JA put CA in the care of Jackson, who was returning to America on the ill-fated South Carolina. Both changed passage in La Coruña, however, and finally arrived in Massachusetts in Jan. 1782 (Adams Family Correspondence,Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- .4:55, 170–171).

   On the next three pages of the Diary, JQA copied the final two paragraphs on Dutch “population, inhabitants, manners, customs and diversions,” begun on 14 June (p. 402).

      Sunday June the 17th 1781.

       This morning Pappa, Mr. Dana, brother Charles and I, went to the English presbyterian Church, to hear a Sermon, the text was.
       “And the times of this ignorance god winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” Acts 17:30.

       Mr. Brice din’d with us, after dinner I went alone to Church again; the text was.
       “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1st. 21st.
       After Church I went to see Mr. Bordly; a little after brother Charles and Mr. Brice came there, brother Charles, Mr. Bordly and I went out to take a walk. We went to see Mr. Greves, but he was not at home; brother Charles and I went from thence to Madam Chabanel’s where we supp’d; at about half past ten we came home.
       From Guthrie’s Grammar (continued from yesterday) Chapter 4th §: 7th.

   Here follow, on two pages of the Diary, “sections” 7, 8, and 9 from Guthrie’s Geographical GrammarWilliam Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar; And Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World..., London, 1779., p. 402–403, on Dutch dress, religion, and language. JQA copied the “Lord’s Prayer” in Dutch from a source other than Guthrie because, as he later explained, it had been rendered incomplete there (entry for 10 July, below).

      Monday June 18th 1781.

       This morning I went to a bookseller’s to get the Politique Hollandois; Mr. Cerisier din’d here; after dinner I went to Mr. Sigourney’s and drank tea there; after tea I went to see Mr. Greves, he was not at home, but as I was returning I met him in the Street and went to his house with him again, we went to the Coffy house where I left Mr. Greaves, and return’d home at about 9 o’clock.
       (From Guthrie’s Grammar continued from Yesterday) Chap. 4th §: 10th.

   On the next three and one-half pages of the Diary, JQA transcribed sections 10–12 from Guthrie, Geographical GrammarWilliam Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar; And Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World..., London, 1779., p. 403, concerning Dutch learning and learned men, universities, and “antiquities and curiosities, natural and artificial.”

      Tuesday June the 19th 1781.

       This day we all din’d at Mr. Deneufville’s with Mr. Cerisier Colo. Searle Mr. Brice Mr. Van Hasseldt, Mr. Le Comte, Commodore Gillon, and Mr. Jennings, after dinner I went to Madam Chabanel’s: after I had been there a little while Mr. Thaxter, Mr. Bromfield, Mr. Guild and brother Charles came there; we went to take a walk out of the town. We walked some ways and then we return’d home and the gentlemen left us.
       §: 13th.

   Probably Henry Bromfield Jr., who had left Massachusetts the previous July to settle some of his father’s accounts, and who possibly had helped establish earlier in 1781 the Amsterdam mercantile firm of Sigourney, Ingraham & Bromfield (JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:453–454, 456; Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S.I. Minis Hays, comp., Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1908; 5 vols., 2:272; 3:434; 4:49, 313).

   On the following two and one-half pages from the Diary is Guthrie’s account of Dutch “cities, towns, and other edifices, public and private” (Geographical Grammar, p. 403–404). At the point where Guthrie’s commentary turns to the Dutch village of Saardam (p. 404), in which Peter the Great served an apprenticeship in shipbuilding, JQA has inserted the note, “Vide. Voltaire History of Russia. Chapter 9th.,” in which the French historian elaborates on the Russian czar’s experience there (Histoire de l’Empire de Russie sous Pierre le Grand, 2 vols., n.p., 1759, 1:152–154). This work was purchased by JQA a month later in Cologne on his journey to Russia and is listed in the Catalogue of JQA’s BooksWorthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938..

      Wednesday June the 20th 1781.

       This morning I went to Mr. Sigourney’s to carry the English news Papers to him, din’d at home. After dinner I went with Mr. Dana to take a walk, we went to Commodore Gillon’s, he was not at home, but as we were returning, we met him, and Mr. Dana went to his house again with him, and I return’d home.
       Chapter 4th. §: 14th.

   Here follows, on about two and one-quarter pages in the Diary, JQA’s transcription of Dutch “inland navigation, canals, and manner of travelling,” from Guthrie, Geographical GrammarWilliam Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar; And Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World..., London, 1779., p. 404.

      Thursday June the 21st 1781.

       This day I din’d at Madam Chabanel’s, with Mr. Jennings, Captn. Coltyzer Mr. and Madam Hartsinck Mr. Searle Mr. Dana, Mr. Thaxter, Mr. Nickson, Pappa and brother Charles; after dinner I went to see Mr. Bordly, and return’d home at about 9 o’clock.
       From Guthrie’s grammar (continued from yesterday) Chap 4th §: 15th.

   The next two pages in the Diary contain the first half of the section on Dutch commerce and manufacturers (p. 404).

      Friday June the 22d 1781.

       This morning I went to Mr. De la Lande and Fynje’s; din’d at home. Mr. Guild din’d Here. After dinner I went to Madam Chabanel’s with the coach; she went to take a ride; we went through a village call’d Diemen, and went to Mr. Hartsinck’s country seat. We stay’d there a little while and then return’d in to town to Madam Chabanel’s, Mr. Brailsford came there soon after; and brother Charles and I went with him to the coffy House where we found Mr. Greaves and Mr. Brush, from thence we went to Mr. Brailsford’s lodgings, and return’d home at about 10 o’clock.
        From Guthrie’s Grammar (continued from yesterday) Chap 4th §. 15th.

   Jacobus de la Lande and Hendrik Fynje, merchant bankers of Amsterdam, who, with the Willinks and Van Staphorsts, raised the first Dutch loan to the United States in 1782 (Chr. Kroes-Ligtenberg, “Een Vriend van Aagje Deken,” De Gids, Amsterdam, pt. I [1942]: 96; JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:451).

   Here follows, on two pages in the Diary, the concluding section on Dutch commerce and manufacturers (p. 401–402).

      Saturday June the 23d 1781.

       This morning I went with Mr. Dana to the old Man House to buy a few things. We hear that a courier is arriv’d at the Hague from Madrid who was only eleven days upon the Journey, he brings news that two Dutch fregates commanded by the Captains Oorthius and Melvill had been out to meet the Dutch East India Ships which were coming home; and had done it accordingly, and were returning to Cadix with them when they fell in with two English 74 Gun Ships and after a Smart battle Melvill was taken and one of the E. I. M. Sunk but Oorthius carry’d into Cadix the five others.
       Mr. Guild and Mr. Jones din’d here. Nothing remarkable in the afternoon.
       From Guthrie’s grammar. (continued from yesterday) Chapter 4th §. 16th.

   On the next one and one-half pages of the Diary, JQA has transcribed the section on Dutch public trading companies (p. 405).

      Sunday June the 24th 1781.

       Nothing remarkable in the forenoon, Mr. Thaxter din’d at Mr. Sigourney’s; I din’d at home, after dinner I went to take a walk with Mr. Dana; we walk’d someways out of town, in the evening I went to Madam Chabanel’s where I supp’d; got home at about 10 1/2 o’clock.

       (Continuation from yesterday) From Guthrie’s grammar. Chapter 4th §: 17th.

   Here follows, on about one page in the Diary, the first paragraph of the section on the Dutch constitution and government (p. 405). JQA did not resume his copying from this section until 7 July.

      Monday June the 25th 1781.

       This morning I went to Mr. Crajenschot’s to get the 20th No. of the Politique Hollandois which comes out every week, there is something in the last No. worth coppying which I shall do at the end of this day’s journal. Din’d at home, after dinner went to see Mr. Bordly and afterwards to Madam Chabanel’s. Got home at about half past nine o’clock.
       From the Politique Hollandois Chapter 5th.

   On the following two pages in the Diary, JQA has translated into English the first half of a portion of an article in the 25 June issue of Le politique hollandais, 1:315. The passage, which is continued in the following day’s entry, relates an imaginary dream in which a Dutch courier is sent to St. Petersburg to exchange diplomatic assurances for armed ships of war (under the Russian Declaration of Armed Neutrality of 1780) and concludes with what the Russians supposedly gave in return. As a whole, the article argues for all-out war by the Dutch against the English, since Russia’s friendship with England makes the league of armed neutrality futile.

      Tuesday June the 26th 1781.

       Nothing remarkable in the forenoon; after dinner I went with Doctor Brown to the New French Coffy House where we found Mr. Greaves and Mr. Brush, we then went and took a long walk and came along by the first bible and there I left the gentlemen and went to see Mr. Bordly, brother Charles came in soon after. We staid there some time and got home at about 8 o’clock.
       From the Politique Hollandois (continued from yesterday).

   Same, p. 315–316, on two pages in the Diary.

      Wednesday June the 27th 1781.

       This morning I went to take a walk with Mr. Bordly met in the street two of my old schoolmates; went to Madam Chabanel’s. We did not Stay there long; din’d at home; after dinner brother Charles and I went out of the Leyden Gate, and from thence to the Haerlem Schout with an intention of going to Leyden this day. When we got to the Schout we found the Roof was hir’d and some were obliged to go in the Ruim. We had a number of fellow travellers, but one of them who was some peasant or other, and who had drank full his portion, thinking himself very wise took all the conversation to himself and pleas’d us very much by his talk. When we had got half ways to Haerlem we chang’d boats, and our Boor took another glass of gin which made his tongue run about half as fast again as it did before. We got to Haerlem at about half past five o’clock; we found that the fair is at Haerlem at present; We passed through the city and went out to the Leyden Boat; but found that the Roof was hir’d again and so we were oblig’d to go again in the Ruim; Our Boor did not go to Leyden with us; we arriv’d at Leyden at about half past ten.
       Fine weather all day.
       Chapter 6th. From Pope’s works. Messiah. a sacred eclogue, in imitation of Virgil’s Pollio.

   Schout (schuyt or schuit): a boat or barge; roof (roef): the cabin of a small vessel; ruim: the hold of a boat (William Sewel, Nieuw Woordenboek Der Nederduytsche en Engelsche Taale, Amsterdam, n.d.). “A treckscuit [covered boat] is divided into two different apartments, called the roof and the ruim; the first for gentlemen, and the other for common people, who may read, smoke, eat, drink, or converse with people of various nations, dresses, and languages” (Guthrie, Geographical GrammarWilliam Guthrie, A New Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar; And Present State of the Several Kingdoms of the World..., London, 1779., p. 404, which JQA copied into his Diary entry of 20 June, above).

   That is, a boer, or Dutch peasant.

   Here follows, on five and one-half pages in the Diary, Pope’s “Messiah . . .,” which had been copied in JQA’s entry of 12 Sept. 1780 from The Spectator. It is likely that here JQA was using the J. Balfour edition of The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., Edinburgh, 1764. The JA Library contains an incomplete set of this six-volume edition. Three of the four extant volumes contain JQA’s earliest bookplate and classification numbers, which indicate that the volumes were probably purchased sometime in 1781 (Catalogue of JA’s LibraryCatalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.). In the Balfour edition this poem is at 1:37–43.

      Thursday June the 28th 1781.

       This morning brother Charles and I, went to buy a trunk, when we had got it here we began to pack up our books, which we did before dinner. After dinner Pappa sent for us from the golden Lion. We went there and found Mr. Jennings there. We did not stay there long, but went to Mr. Lynch’s, and went into water with him and some other gentlemen; at eight o’clock our Master came here and we took leave of him.
       Chapter 7th. From Pope’s works.

   Here follows, on about four pages in the Diary, the first four sections (seventy lines) of Pope’s “Ode for Music on St. Cecilia’s Day” (Pope, Works, Balfour edn.The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., Edinburgh, 1764; 6 vols., 1:69–71).

      Friday June the 29th 1781.

       This morning brother Charles and I packed up our trunks, and I went to take leave of our riding master; in the afternoon Pappa came here but stay’d only ten minutes; we went to Mr. Lynch’s at about 4 o’clock; he asked us to go into water with him at 5 o’clock, we told him we would, we went then to take leave of Mr. Luzac. At five o’clock we went again to Mr. Lynch’s and went with him into water. Mr. Cook told us that he would go to Amsterdam with us. We got home at about 7 o’clock.
       From Pope’s works (continued from yesterday).

   Although this is the first mention in the Diary, Jean Luzac had taken special interest in JQA and CA during their brief attendance at the University of Leyden in 1781. Luzac was editor of the widely influential Gazette de Leyde, as well as a lawyer and a scholar of history and the classics. He was on JA’s list of persons to be consulted in Holland in 1780 and became an invaluable supporter of the campaign to obtain Dutch recognition of American independence and financial support (JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:444–445; Adams Family Correspondence,Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- .4:xiv).

   John Cooke, an Englishman who completed his medical studies at Leyden and practiced in London (JQA, Diary, 2 Dec. 1795; DNBLeslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885-1900; 63 vols, plus supplements.).

   JQA copied on about the next three and one-quarter pages in the Diary the concluding two sections of Pope’s “Ode for Music on St. Cecilia’s Day,” begun in the previous entry (Pope, Works, Balfour edn.The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., Edinburgh, 1764; 6 vols., 1:71–73).

      Saturday June the 30th 1781.

       This morning Mr. Cook came here and breakfasted with us and at half past six we went to the boat to go to Amsterdam; we had nothing very remarkable, going to Haerlem, where we arriv’d at half past ten o’clock. We went thro’ the city to the Amsterdam boat, we found that there was place in the Roof; we had one gentleman with us. We arriv’d at Amsterdam at half past one o’clock, brother Charles went to show Mr. Cook the way to the first bible; Mr. Van Heukelom din’d with us; after dinner I went to Kaa’s to see Mr. Bordly; but found he was out, and therefore I return’d home.
       From Pope’s works. Prologue to Mr. Addison’s Tragedy of Cato. Chapter 8th.

   The 46 lines of the Prologue take up two and one-half pages in the Diary (Pope, Works, Balfour edn.The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., Edinburgh, 1764; 6 vols., 1:158–159).


Title: Monday July the 2d 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Major Jackson came here; I went to Mr. Crajenschot’s for the Politique Hollandois. At about ten o’clock Pappa set out upon a journey for Paris; We all din’d at home; after dinner, I went to Mr. Sigourney and Ingraham’s but did not Stay there long. I went to Madam Chabanel’s; but found no body but the old lady at home; Mr. Le Roi and young Mr. Chabanel came home. At about half past nine I got home.
       The Universal Prayer. (From Pope’s works) Deo. Opt. Max. Chap: 11th.


Title: Wednesday July the 4th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This day being the Anniversary of American Independance, all the Americans din’d together, at a place call’d De Nieuwe Stads Herberg, but brother Charles and I could not go. In the afternoon Brother Charles and I went to the Oude Man Huis to buy some things, We went to Madam Chabanel’s, brother Charles went away soon after and I went to take a walk with the young ladies, I supp’d there, and after supper went again to take a walk. I got home at about 11 o’clock.
       From Waller’s Works. (Continued from Yesterday) Canto 2d.


Title: Thursday July the 5th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went to see when the boats go for Utrecht. Mr. Dana and Mr. Thaxter din’d at Mr. Sigourney’s; I din’d at home. After dinner went to see Mr. Greaves; but found only Mr. Brailsford at home; I stay’d there but a little time, and went for Kaa’s; in the way I met Mr. Greaves and Captn. Henzel; and went to take a walk with them out of the Haerlem Porte and down along upon the Dyke; as we were returning we stopp’d at the third Bible to see Captn. Cazneau. When we had got to the first bible I went in to see Mr. Bordly. I got home at about half past ten.
       From Addison’s Poems Chapter 13th. HORACE. Ode 3d. Book 3d.


Title: Friday July the 6th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Dr. Waterhouse came here and told us that Colo. Trumbul had arriv’d in Town. I went to the first Bible to see Mr. Bordly, I found Mr. Trumbel there. I din’d at home. Dr. Waterhouse din’d with us; after dinner Colo. Searle and Major Jackson came here; I went and took a walk with Major Jackson and Mr. Dana. I spent the evening and supp’d at Madam Chabanel’s, got home at about 10 o’clock.
       From Addison’s Poems, (continued from yesterday.)


Title: Tuesday July the 10th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning at about half past nine o’clock Mr. Dana, his servant and I set away from Utrecht, and arriv’d at Nijmegen at about 8 o’clock P.M. the distance, is about 50 Miles; We pass’d along thro’ the province of Utrecht, the land is very bad and gravelly. Nimegen is the last City in the Republic, in the Province of Gelderland; the land in this Province is much better than in that of Utrecht. At 4 ½ o’clock we pass’d the Rhine by a rope ferry and at about five o’clock we came upon a dyke on the banks of the river Waal; and rode along upon that till we came opposite Nimegen, where we cross’d it upon a moveable bridge of boats; the construction of which is thus. There are several boats join’d to the shore, with timbers laid over them, and planks over the timbers, at the end of these are two more boats, join’d together (with timbers and planks over them also,) which are seperated from the rest but join’d by a rope when these boats arrive. On the platform of these two boats are two small masts, connected by a cross piece together; over this cross piece goes a small cable fix’d to the stern of the boats; the other end goes up the stream to several small boats which are in the river and then there is a Chain fasten’d to the cable which goes over all these small boats and is hook’d at the stern of each of them. (These small boats are at a small distance one from the other in a perpendicular line, up the stream). The highest small boat is secured by an Anchor; When they cross, they cast off the rope which joins them to the boats which go to the shore and the two boats are wafted over, gradually, by the current to the other shore where there are several more boats connected to the shore, after the same manner.
       This is a very convenient method, as five or six hundred men can cross upon one of these machines at a time, and there is but very little trouble in it. But there must be a strong current which runs always the same way; otherwise they cannot go over.
       Remarks upon Chapter 4th.
       §. 6th. (Page 27. line 9 to 11) Their tradesmen &c.
       This is certainly a great mistake, for the tradesmen will always ask for a thing the double of what it is worth and if you have any thing made, you will certainly get greatly cheated if you do not make the bargain before hand as the dutch themselves always do.
       Do. lines 13 and 14) Smoaking tobacco &c.
       The men and boys smoak almost universally but the Women never do.
       Do. Page 32 lines 18 and 19.) They are &c.
       The dutch it is true skate exceeding swiftly, but with not half that elegance that I expected they wou’d.
       § 9th: (Page 36 line 10 to Page 37 line 2) Onze Vader &c.
       I have not coppy’d the lords pray’r from Guthrie, because there are several words left out in his book and it is not entire.
       § 17th. (Page 111 line 12 to line 15) And such is &c.
       In the city of Amsterdam when a Schepen (a Sheriff) is apointed, his name is given to the Stadholder, and he can reject him and appoint another in his place but after that he cannot change him, but he can in all the other cities.
       (End.)


Title: Thursday July the 12th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Dusseldorp a small town strongly fortified on the land side, but open on the river Rhine which we were obliged to cross, (on one of the same machines that I have mention’d yesterday) before we got there, it is in the Dutchy of Burgin Berg and is subject to the King of Prussia. There is a famous cabinet of Paintings here, but as we only stopp’d here to dine, and the cabinet not being then open, we did not see it. We set off from Dusseldorp directly after dinner and arriv’d at Cologne at about 8 o’clock; on the way we pass’d by a palace in which the Emperor, or the Archduke lodge, whenever they come this way. The roads this day were pretty good, but the produce of the ground is the same as what we have seen all along, that is, wheat, Buck wheat, and Spelts. We cross’d the Rhine again, when we got opposite Cologne, where there is a village, inhabited by Jews; A Nasty, dirty, Place indeed, and fit only for Jews to live in.
       From the Spectator. (continued from yesterday).


Title: Friday July the 13th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. Dana and I went to see a gentleman for whom Mr. Dana had letters. He went to take a walk with us about the City which is large, but irregular, very old, and dirty, the streets are very narrow, and the houses are in a decaying situation. We went to see one of the Churches in which they say that the bodies of the three Wise men of the east are interr’d. The priests show their riches every day at 9 o’clock A.M. They have this inscription on the tomb.

        “Corpora sanctorum recubant Hic terna Magorum,
        Ex His sublatum Nihil est alibive Locatum”

       There are here, about 50 protestant families; they are not allow’d to have any place of worship in the city, but they have a Church about 3 Miles from the city, where they go every Sunday, at a Small village call’d Mulheim; Subject to the Elector Palatine; the Protestants here cannot own houses or farms, but they buy them, and agree with a Catholic to own the house or farm under his name; they can sell goods in retail only; and they cannot be mechanics; this is all thro’ the bishoprick; yet Jews are tolerated and have their Synagogue in a Village, opposite Cologne, of which I have already spoken.
       The jesuits are not permitted to stay here; but by changing their habits they do, and have their universities.
       Cologne like all the other towns situated upon the Rhine, has no manufactures. The Dutch Vessels come up as far as Cologne, and are oblig’d to unload their cargoes there; and the Vessels which come from up in Germany and from Switzerland where the Rhine takes its rise cannot go with their commodities any lower than Cologne; they unload here also and change their goods for the Dutch ones which come up.
       A little way up the river from Cologne is a tower, which stands upon the Rhine. They say that it was there that Julius Caesar built his bridge, a Gentleman told us that in the year 1766 when the waters of the Rhine were exceeding low the ruins of this bridge could be seen, in the winter the water rises about 8 or 10 feet commonly; but in the year 1770 it rose near 18 feet higher than they are at present.
       From the Spectator. (continued from yesterday).


Title: Saturday July the 14th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning at 6 o’clock we set off from Cologne for Coblentz where we arrived at about 6 o’clock P.M. As we could not get horses to go any farther, we stopp’d here, the distance is about 66. English miles. The roads this day were the best we have had since we left Utrecht. Our road, some part of the way was cut through the mountains on the banks of the Rhine; On these mountains we saw the vinyards which produce the Rhenish Wine; Coblentz has nothing remarkable except the citadel which is on the other side of the Rhine, and is situated upon a high Mountain; We went to see it. From the top of it you have on one side, a large extensive plane, but on the other the mountains hinder you from seeing far. Here the river Meusel Mosel runs into the Rhine, and this city is built upon the point of land which seperates them. (From the Spectator) (continued from yesterday).


Title: Sunday July the 15th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning at about four o’clock we set off from Coblentz for Francfort, Where we arriv’d at 8 ½ o’clock, the distance is 84 English Miles; All the way, the roads are mountainous till you get within about 10 Miles of Frankfort, and then you come upon a very large plain. The roads till the plain are in general very bad; but the soil is good, and cultivated in some places. On this plain we saw some fields of Indian corn, which was the best I have seen in Europe, tho by no means so large and fine as that in America.
       From the Spectator (continued from yesterday).


Title: Monday July the 16th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning we enquired something about this city: It is situated upon the river Meyn and is call’d Francfort upon the Meyn to distinguish it from another city in Germany call’d Francfort upon the Oder. It is an imperial city, govern’d by its own magistrates: they Choose every year a new burgermaster or mayor. The dominant religion in this city is Lutheran. Catholics and Jews are tolerated, but Calvinists are not; but they go over on Sundays to a village call’d Bockenheim, (which is subject to the Prince of Hannau) where they have a Church. This city is pretty Strongly fortified, but in time of war, whenever an Army appears they throw open their gates, whether friend or Enemy, and let it pass thro.’ Here the Emperor is elected and crown’d. They have no Manufactures here, but import them from all parts of Germany France, Switzerland, Italy, England and Holland. There are 600 Jew families here who live all in one street which is shut up every night, and all day on Sundays, when the gates are shut they can only come out upon occasions of necessity, but the jews can keep their shops in any part of the City.

       N. B. As I have not time for the present to copy any-thing, I shall leave it off for some time.


Title: Tuesday July 17th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Stay’d at Francfort all day, nothing remarkable happen’d.


Title: Wednesday 18th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This afternoon at about 4 o’clock we set off from Francfort upon the Meyn for Hannau where we arrived at about 7 o’clock. It is about 12 English Miles distant from Francfort. The road for the most part is Sandy, the soil poor; about two Miles from Hannau is a Chateau belonging to the prince of Hannau. About this City are several very large fields of the same corn, we saw some days ago, but this is much better than that. Hannau is a small unpeopled city, it is pretty regular, but a miserable city for a capital. Almost every body is a weaver here.


Title: Thursday 19th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning we set away from Hannau at 4 o’clock A.M. and arriv’d at Hunfeld (which is distant 75 Miles,) at about 8 o’clock P.M. The roads this day were for the most part mountainous but in some places there was a very good made road. The mountains in general, which we have pass’d over this day are pretty well cultivated.


Title: Friday 20th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning we set off from Hunfeld at about 5 o’clock for Gotha where we arriv’d at about 9 o’clock P.M. It is about 66 Miles. The 2 first Posts to Vaach Vacha and to Bercka we had very bad roads but the rest was pretty good; Vaach belongs to the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, and Bercka is the first town in Saxony. Here we saw a new Married couple going about the streets with some musicians before them and I suppose half the village following them. They were dress’d in black and the bride had some large gold lace round her head. We were told that this is the third day they have been about so, and that it is generally done for a week after marriage. This they say is the custom throughout Saxony, in the villages. After Bercka hardly a spot of ground was uncultivated, and at that we had an exceeding fine view. We lodge out of the city, at the sign of the Negroe.


Title: Saturday 21st 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning at five o’clock we set off from Gotha and arriv’d at Naumburg (distant 60 Miles) at about 6 o’clock. Pretty good roads the ground wholly cultivated; flat level country till we get about 10 Miles from Naumburg and then it begins to be a little mountainous.


Title: Sunday July 22d 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning at 4 o’clock we set off from Naumburg for Leipsic where we arriv’d at about 11 o’clock A.M. The distance is about 36 Miles. The first post was a little mountainous but pretty well cultivated, the last post is a large plain well cultivated also.
       A German Post Mile is 6 English Miles And a German post is generally two German Miles; You pay a German Guilder per post for each horse; for a post and a half you pay a guilder and a half per horse and for two posts in proportion. A German Guilder is about 1 shilling and 10 pence Sterling. The money changes in almost every petty prince’s dominions and the same silver money does not pass above 100 Engh. Miles, in general, but French Guineas or Dutch Ducats pass all over Germany. In some places Ducats are better than Louis D’ors, and in others L’D’or’s are better than Ducats, but you lose something by either, in the Exchange.


Title: Thursday July 26th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Nothing remarkable this day.


Title: Friday July 27th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning we went to see the kings arsenal,


Title: Friday August 17th 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Niemersat we enter’d Poland and were searched there, and about a Mile farther we enter’d into Courland which is a Prus-sian Polish Province , taken from Poland in the late division. We rode in Courland till we came at about 60 English Miles from this place and then we enter’d Semigaul Semigallia, which is a different Province but the same dutchy as Courland; it is call’d the dutchy of Courland and Semigaul; We pass’d Mittau, which is the capital of Courland and Semigaul yesterday afternoon at about 4 o’clock; it is but a small town, but the duke has a palace there; it is distant from Riga about 40 Engh. Miles. We cross’d, just before we enter’d the city, the river Dwina upon which Riga stands; it divides the Province of Livonia from the dutchy of Courland and Semigaul.
       The country from Memel to Riga is almost all sand; tho’ there is for about 40 English Miles in Courland some very fine land; there are a number of forests on the road, and there is one, which is about 50 English Miles long.
       Riga is the capital of Livonia; it stands upon an island point of land formed by the river Dwina, it is strongly fortified, and sustain’d a long siege when taken by the Russians under Prince Menzikoff, in 1710, but it is very small, not more than a mile long if it is so much. The Province of Livonia is reckon’d to be one of the most fertile Province of the North except Estonia. It was Conquer’d by Gustavus Adolphus from Russia And retaken by Peter the great from Charles the twelfth. The dominant Religion is the Lutheran; The residence of the governor is at Riga; you must get a Passport (from him,) for Post horses, otherwise you cannot get any, on the road for Petersburg.


Title: Monday August 20th. 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This day at about 2 o’clock P.M we left Riga, and arriv’d at a village call’d Neuermuhlen at about half past 4, here we are obliged to stop because we found all the horses were gone away; The road is sandy from Riga here, and the land bad.


Title: Friday August 24th. 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This day at about 3 o’clock P.M. we arriv’d at Narva after having rode night and day from Neuermuhlen Which we left the 21st at about 3 o’clock A.M. The distance from Riga here is 409 Russian Wersts 7 of Which make 5 English Miles; Part of this way, the roads are very fine as is the soil but here and there you find a station of Sand. Just before you come to Nenal (a Village which is about 110 Wersts from Narva) you Come upon the Lake Peipus; we rode along the side of it about 3 English Miles and then turn’d, off; and at about 30 Wersts from Narva we came in sight of the Baltic, but did not ride along side of it.
       The city of Narva is very small middlin pretty well fortified, there are not more than 200 hundred houses in the city, but the Suburbs Which are on the other side of the river are larger than the city itself. There are about 3000 Souls in the whole. It is the capital of Estonia, another province conquer’d by Peter the great from Sweden, and is famous for the battle fought there, in which Charles the twelfth gain’d so much glory. It was taken by Peter in 1704: They say that this is a better port than that of Petersburg, and think that if he had been sure he should have got this Place, for he would have made Peace at first if Charles would have given him one town upon the Baltic; And even when the Peace was made They say that Peter said “that if Charles had sent him a sheet of blank paper with his name wrote at the bottom of it he should not have taken as much as his ministers had.”


Title: Monday August 27th. 1781.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This day at about 10 o’clock A.M. we arriv’d at St. Petersburg having left Narva yesterday morning at about 9 ½ o’clock. The roads in general are very good, the country in some part is sandy; but there it is almost all paved, the distance is about 145 Wersts.


Title: N.(1782)S. January 27th
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Began to read Hume’s history of England.


Title: 29th
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Dined at Mr. Rimbert’s; changed Lodgings.


Title: 30th. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went to the Shops, bought this book, with some other matters. Began to translate Cicero’s first Catilinary. Finish’d Hume’s first volume of the History of England 503. Pages.


Title: 31st. Thursday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Began Hume’s second volume of the History of England. Went to the shops and bought some things.


Title: [January 1782]
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

      N.(1782)S. January 27th

       Began to read Hume’s history of England.

   David Hume, The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, 8 vols., London, 1763, which JQA borrowed from the English or British Library of St. Petersburg, where he found “a good collection of English Authors” (Dana to JA, 25 Jan., Adams Papers). JQA’s notes (copied quotations) from his reading of Hume appear in M/JQA/1, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 199.

      29th

       Dined at Mr. Rimbert’s; changed Lodgings.

   Or Raimbert, French vice-consul in St. Petersburg (Almanach royal, 1783Almanach royal, année M.DCCLXXVHI [8cc.]. Présenté à sa majesté pour la première fois en 1699, Paris, no date., p. 262).

      30th. Wednesday.

       Went to the Shops, bought this book, with some other matters. Began to translate Cicero’s first Catilinary. Finish’d Hume’s first volume of the History of England 503. Pages.

   That is, his Diary booklet, D/JQA/5.

   Probably the edition JQA used for his translations into French was Selectae . . . Orationes . . ., Paris, 1747, p. 510–525, in which JQA has inscribed “J.Q.Adams, a present from Mr. Cussy rendered Cressy in Catalogue of JQA’s BooksWorthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938., p. 90,” possibly the same man whom he mentions in his Diary on 11 March but who is otherwise unidentified. This edition of Cicero, now among JQA’s books at MQA, contains the same internal divisions of chapters and sections found in his translation of the first Catilinary in M/JQA/45, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 240. In fact, the four Catilinaries which JQA mentions in this and subsequent entries, as judged from JQA’s translations, are from this printed source (p. 510–563). The pages in Selectae . . . Orationes bear MS markings by JQA presumably made while he was translating.

      31st. Thursday.

       Began Hume’s second volume of the History of England. Went to the shops and bought some things.


Title: N.(1782)S. February 1st.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Stay’d at home all day.


Title: 2d Saturday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went to the shops, and bought some things A.M. P.M Mr. D. and Mr. Artaud went to the German play, I stay’d at home.


Title: 3d. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Thermometer in the morning at 15 degrees cold. Fine weather. I went to take a walk with Mr. Peyron the Swedish Consul, and Mr. Montréal. Went into the house where Peter the great resided; it is of wood painted in imitation of brick and is but one Story high, and has four very small rooms in it. There is a Porch since put round it to sustain it, and under the Porch is kept a barge of Peter the great’s own building. Finished Hume’s 2d. Volume. 515 pages.


Title: 4th. Monday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Very unwell all day, but went notwithstanding that to the English Library and took out the 3d. and 4th. Volume’s of Humes history, and begun the third, but read but a few pages.


Title: 5th. Tuesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went with Mr. Artaud to the shops and bought some things. Fine weather. The Thermometer at night was. 15 degrees below.0. which is the degree of freezing. On the 20th. of December last and on the 25th. of the same month our Thermometer was at 25. below 0. and at that of the academy it was at 28, which is colder than it has been here since the year 1776. In 1759 it was as low as 33.


Title: 7th. Thursday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Mr. D. very unwell all day. Mr. Artaud dined out. Finished the 3d. Volume of Hume’s history. 472 pages.


Title: 8th. Friday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Thermometer at 18 below.0. in the morning. Mr. D. Continues unwell. Stay’d at home all day as well as, Yesterday. Begun Hume’s 4th. Volume, Mr. Montréal came to pay us a visit in the forenoon.


Title: 9th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Staid at Home all day.


Title: 10th. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Finished Hume’s 4th Volume. 480 pages. Mr. Artaud dined out. Mr. Peyron Mr. Montreal and Mr. Abraham came to pay us a visit.


Title: 11th. Monday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Mr. Peyron, Mr. Montréal and several other gentlemen dined with us. I went to the English Library and took out the 5th. and 6th. Volumes of Hume’s history of England, begun the fifth but read but 3 or 4 pages; went in the evening to the concert got home at about 9. o’clock.


Title: 12th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Thermometer in the morning at 22 ½ degrees below.0. Stay’d at Home all day.


Title: 13th. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Thermometer in the morning at 25 degrees below 0. Went in the forenoon to Mr. Rimbert’s. In the afternoon, I went with Mr. Artaud to the Shops, and bought some things. Thermometer at night at 26 ½ degrees. below.0. Fine clear weather all day.


Title: 14th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Mr. Artaud dined out. Stay’d at home all day.


Title: 16th. Saturday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Thermometer in the morning at home 29 academy 32 degrees below 0. Stay’d at home all day.


Title: 17th. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Mr. Montréal came in the forenoon to pay us a visit. Mr. D. went out for the first time since his sickness. Mr. Artaud dined out. Mr. Hoogwerst came to pay us a visit in the afternoon.


Title: 19th. Tuesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went to two booksellers shops in the forenoon for some books. Mr. Artaud dined out. Fine clear weather all day.


Title: 20th. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       In the forenoon Mr. Wolff came to pay a visit to Mr. D. In the afternoon I went with Mr. Artaud to a booksellers and bought Cicero’s catilinaries French and Latin, and to the academy to get an almanack. In the evening Mr. Rimbert came to pay Mr. D. a visit.


Title: 22d. Friday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Stay’d at home all day. Begun The 8th. Volume of Hume’s history of England. Mr. D. wrote a letter to Holland. In the afternoon he went to Mr. Wolff’s. Cloudy in the morning, but clear’d up in the afternoon.


Title: 23d. Saturday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Finished translating the first Oration of Cicero against Catilina, and began the second. In the forenoon Mr. D. went out to take a walk. Stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather.


Title: 25th. Monday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went in the morning to the English Library and took out the three first volumes of Mrs. Macauley’s History of England begun the first. Went to the Hotel of the French Minister. Went to the shops with Mr. Artaud and Mr. Montréal, and to a booksellers. In the afternoon Mr. Artaud went to the concert. Cloudy weather all day, and it is so warm that it does not freeze at present.


Title: 27th. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went in the forenoon with Mr. D. to a bookseller’s and bought the King of Prussia’s works. Mr. D. went to take a walk after dinner. Mr. Hoogwerst came to pay us a visit. Mr. Artaud dined out. Cloudy weather all day.


Title: 28th. Thursday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       In the forenoon I received a letter from Holland, from my Father; and another From America. Mr. D went to take a ride after dinner. Stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather. Finished the first volume of Mrs. Macaulay’s history of England 420 pages and begun the 2d.


Title: [February 1782]
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

      N.(1782)S. February 1st.

       Stay’d at home all day.

      2d Saturday.

       Went to the shops, and bought some things A.M. P.M Mr. D. and Mr. Artaud went to the German play, I stay’d at home.

   Artaud’s identity is uncertain, but in a Diary entry written seventeen years later, JQA provides a fuller account of his relationship with this man. “The Chevalier de Villenotte, told me,” JQA wrote, “he had seen me at Artaud’s at Petersburg in the year 1782. I had altogether forgotten it. Poor Artaud, died it seems in 1784 of a fever, caught at Peterhoff, at the annual festival there, upon St. John’s day, in June. His woman then returned to Dunkirk, and afterwards went back to Petersbourg, where she was taken by a Venitian minister; who upon being removed to Constantinople, carried her with him; since which Villenotte has heard nothing of her” (JQA, Diary, 26 July 1799). JQA’s and Dana’s change of lodgings, mentioned in the entry for 29 Jan. (above), Artaud’s daily presence thereafter, his frequent absence at dinner, and JQA’s having been seen “at Artaud’s” all suggest that the two Americans were probably lodging at Artaud’s house. Artaud’s “woman” may have been his housekeeper, who would have served them meals and would have seen to other needs. Some such role would explain why JQA gave so much space to her in his 1799 entry.

      3d. Sunday.

       Thermometer in the morning at 15 degrees cold. Fine weather. I went to take a walk with Mr. Peyron the Swedish Consul, and Mr. Montréal. Went into the house where Peter the great resided; it is of wood painted in imitation of brick and is but one Story high, and has four very small rooms in it. There is a Porch since put round it to sustain it, and under the Porch is kept a barge of Peter the great’s own building. Finished Hume’s 2d. Volume. 515 pages.

   Claës Bartholomeus von Peyron, Swedish consul at St. Petersburg, 1778–1786 (Svenskt Biografiskt LexikonSvenskt Biografiskt Lexikon, Orebro and Stockholm, 1857-[1907]; 10 vols., 8:178).

   The first wooden cottage of Peter the Great was constructed in 1703, the year building of the city was begun. Over it was erected a brick porch, or arcade, to preserve it from the weather on Petersburg Island in the Neva Delta (Storch, Picture of PetersburgHenry Storch, Picture of Petersburg, English transl., London, 1801., p. 54).

      4th. Monday.

       Very unwell all day, but went notwithstanding that to the English Library and took out the 3d. and 4th. Volume’s of Humes history, and begun the third, but read but a few pages.

      5th. Tuesday.

       Went with Mr. Artaud to the shops and bought some things. Fine weather. The Thermometer at night was. 15 degrees below.0. which is the degree of freezing. On the 20th. of December last and on the 25th. of the same month our Thermometer was at 25. below 0. and at that of the academy it was at 28, which is colder than it has been here since the year 1776. In 1759 it was as low as 33.

   The calibration is that of René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French physicist and naturalist. Under Réaumur’s system the temperature range between freezing and boiling was divided into eighty degrees; hence −33°R., mentioned later in the entry, would equal −42°F., or −41°C. (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. généraleJ. C. F. Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, 1852-1866; 46 vols.; entry for 12 Aug. 1783, below; Adams Family CorrespondenceAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- .; 4:287).

   The Academy of Sciences, founded by Catherine I in 1725 in accordance with a plan of Peter the Great for the promotion of literature and science (Storch, Picture of PetersburgHenry Storch, Picture of Petersburg, English transl., London, 1801., p. 297–302, 313–321, 324–344).

      6th. Wednesday.

       Staid at Home all day. Mr. D. went to Mr. Wolff the banker’s.

   Member of Strahlborn and Wolff, St. Petersburg bankers, who handled financial matters for Dana in the Russian capital (Dana to Benjamin Franklin, 29 April/[10 May] 1782, and to Robert Morris, 21 Oct./[1 Nov.] 1782, both LbC, MHi:Dana Papers).

      7th. Thursday.

       Mr. D. very unwell all day. Mr. Artaud dined out. Finished the 3d. Volume of Hume’s history. 472 pages.

      8th. Friday.

       Thermometer at 18 below.0. in the morning. Mr. D. Continues unwell. Stay’d at home all day as well as, Yesterday. Begun Hume’s 4th. Volume, Mr. Montréal came to pay us a visit in the forenoon.

      9th.

       Staid at Home all day.

      10th. Sunday.

       Finished Hume’s 4th Volume. 480 pages. Mr. Artaud dined out. Mr. Peyron Mr. Montreal and Mr. Abraham came to pay us a visit.

      11th. Monday.

       Mr. Peyron, Mr. Montréal and several other gentlemen dined with us. I went to the English Library and took out the 5th. and 6th. Volumes of Hume’s history of England, begun the fifth but read but 3 or 4 pages; went in the evening to the concert got home at about 9. o’clock.

      12th.

       Thermometer in the morning at 22 ½ degrees below.0. Stay’d at Home all day.

      13th. Wednesday.

       Thermometer in the morning at 25 degrees below 0. Went in the forenoon to Mr. Rimbert’s. In the afternoon, I went with Mr. Artaud to the Shops, and bought some things. Thermometer at night at 26 ½ degrees. below.0. Fine clear weather all day.

      14th.

       Mr. Artaud dined out. Stay’d at home all day.

      15th. Friday.

       Fine weather all day. Thermometer at 28 degrees below.0. At the Academy it was 30. Finished the 5th. Volume of Hume’s history of England 577. pages, and begun the 6th.

      16th. Saturday.

       Thermometer in the morning at home 29 academy 32 degrees below 0. Stay’d at home all day.

      17th. Sunday.

       Mr. Montréal came in the forenoon to pay us a visit. Mr. D. went out for the first time since his sickness. Mr. Artaud dined out. Mr. Hoogwerst came to pay us a visit in the afternoon.

      18th. Monday.

       Finished the 6th. Volume of Hume’s history. 480 pages. Went to the English Library and took out the 7th. and 8th. volumes of Hume’s history. Begun the 7th. In the afternoon I went with Mr. Artaud to the Shops.

      19th. Tuesday.

       Went to two booksellers shops in the forenoon for some books. Mr. Artaud dined out. Fine clear weather all day.

   None of JQA’s extant books is inscribed with this date, though he may be referring to at least one book, Peter Rondeau [i.e., Johann Theodor Jablonsky], Nouveau dictionnaire françois—allemand, Basel, 1739, which he records as having bought on 18 Feb. (Catalogue of JQA’s BooksWorthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938.).

      20th. Wednesday.

       In the forenoon Mr. Wolff came to pay a visit to Mr. D. In the afternoon I went with Mr. Artaud to a booksellers and bought Cicero’s catilinaries French and Latin, and to the academy to get an almanack. In the evening Mr. Rimbert came to pay Mr. D. a visit.

   This is undoubtedly Phillippiques de Demosthene, et Catilinaires de Ciceron . . ., transl. Pierre Joseph Thoulier, l’Abbé d’Olivet, Paris, 1771, now in MQA with JQA’s bookplate. JQA apparently used Olivet’s French translation of the Catilinaries to compare it with his own, begun on 30 Jan. (above). In a partial, undated translation of the first oration (M/JQA/44, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 239), he wrote out Olivet’s translation and footnotes (from Olivet’s version, p. 209–214) on even-numbered pages, writing on the odd-numbered pages a fair copy of his own French translation begun on 30 Jan. (M/JQA/45, same, Reel No. 240).

      21st. Thursday.

       Went in the forenoon with Mr. D. to the Hotel of the Marquis de Verac, the French minister here. Mr. Artaud dined out. In the afternoon Mr. D. went to take a ride. Finished the 7th. Volume of Hume’s history of England. 526. pages. Cloudy weather in the morning, but in the afternoon it cleared up.

   Charles Olivier de Saint Georges, Marquis de Vérac, formerly French minister to Denmark, 1775–1777, served as minister at St. Petersburg from 1780 to 1783 (Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller LänderRepertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Lander seit dent Westfalischen Frieden (1648), ed. Ludwig Bittner and others, Oldenburg, &c, 1936-1965; 3 vols., 3:133).

   Dana had been instructed to consult the Marquis de Vérac (and through him, French foreign minister Vergennes) with regard to the appropriate time to present his letters of credence to the Court of Catherine the Great. But Dana’s efforts got off to a shaky start, as neither he nor Vérac was able to communicate in each other’s native tongue, and JQA was judged by the French ambassador as having only a middling ability in the French language. Vérac counseled Dana (and continued to advise him in the months ahead) that this was not the time to present his credentials, but this delay made Dana increasingly suspicious of French motives (David M. Griffiths, “American Commercial Diplomacy in Russia, 1780 to 1783,” WMQWilliam and Mary Quarterly., 3d ser., 27:379–410 [July 1970]; Francis Paul Renaut, La politique de propagande des Américains durant la guerre d’indépendence (1776–1783), 2 vols., Paris, 1922, 1:127, 181–183, 236–237).

      22d. Friday.

       Stay’d at home all day. Begun The 8th. Volume of Hume’s history of England. Mr. D. wrote a letter to Holland. In the afternoon he went to Mr. Wolff’s. Cloudy in the morning, but clear’d up in the afternoon.

   Undoubtedly Dana to JA, 21 Feb., the only letter written to Holland at this time in Dana’s letterbooks; the letter was sent by post on 22 Feb. (Adams Papers; MHi:Dana Papers).

      23d. Saturday.

       Finished translating the first Oration of Cicero against Catilina, and began the second. In the forenoon Mr. D. went out to take a walk. Stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather.

   M/JQA/45, Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 240. See entry for 30 Jan., note 2 (above).

      24th Sunday.

       Finished the 8th. and last volume of Hume’s history of England 327. pages. Mr. D. went to Mr Wolff’s in the forenoon, and dined at Mr. Rimberts. Mr. Artaud dined out also. Mr. D. receiv’d a letter from England in the afternoon. Cloudy weather. Stay’d at Home all day.

      25th. Monday.

       Went in the morning to the English Library and took out the three first volumes of Mrs. Macauley’s History of England begun the first. Went to the Hotel of the French Minister. Went to the shops with Mr. Artaud and Mr. Montréal, and to a booksellers. In the afternoon Mr. Artaud went to the concert. Cloudy weather all day, and it is so warm that it does not freeze at present.

   Catharine (Sawbridge) Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick line, 8 vols., London, 1763–1783. JQA’s single note (a copied passage) from Mrs. Macaulay’s history is in M/JQA/1 (14/25 Feb. 1782), Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 199.

      26th. Tuesday.

       In the forenoon Mr. D. went to take a walk. After dinner I went to a booksellers and bought a Latin and French Dictionary. Cloudy weather.

   This is possibly Jean Boudot, Dictionarium Universale Latino-Gallicum, Paris, 1774, or his third edition, Paris, 1775, both of which contain JQA’s earliest bookplate, but no date of purchase. During his first month in St. Petersburg, he bought for “8 Rubles 50 Copecks” another volume which includes a Latin-French dictionary, François Antoine Pomay, Le Grand dictionnaire royale en trois langues, savoir, la françoise, la latine et l’allemande, 2 vols., Augsburg, 1767 (Catalogue of JQA’s BooksWorthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938.).

      27th. Wednesday.

       Went in the forenoon with Mr. D. to a bookseller’s and bought the King of Prussia’s works. Mr. D. went to take a walk after dinner. Mr. Hoogwerst came to pay us a visit. Mr. Artaud dined out. Cloudy weather all day.

   Frederick the Great, (Oeuvres du philosophe de Sans-Souci, 4 vols., Neuchatel, 1760, with JQA’s notation: “bo’t St. Petersbourg, Feby. 16/27, 1782 ... 3 Rubles, 25 Copecks” (Catalogue of JQA’s BooksWorthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938.).

      28th. Thursday.

       In the forenoon I received a letter from Holland, from my Father; and another From America. Mr. D went to take a ride after dinner. Stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather. Finished the first volume of Mrs. Macaulay’s history of England 420 pages and begun the 2d.

   That of 5 Feb. (Adams Family CorrespondenceAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- ., 4:282–283), which JQA says he “receiv’d three days agone” (JQA to JA, 4 March, sameAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- ., p. 286–287).

   The only possibility, from evidence in surviving letters, is Elizabeth Cranch to JQA, May 1781 (sameAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- ., p. 146–148), which JQA states he received “some days agone” in his reply to her of 17 March (sameAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- ., p. 297).


Title: N.(1782)S. March. 1st. Friday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Mr. D went to take a walk in the forenoon. Stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather.


Title: 2d. Saturday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       In the Forenoon Mr. Wolff came to pay a visit to Mr. D. Went to a bookseller’s for a book for Mr. D. In the afternoon I went with Mr. Artaud to the shops, and bought some things. Cloudy weather.


Title: 3d. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Several persons dined and supped here this day. Mr. D. receiv’d some letters from America. Stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather.


Title: 4th. Monday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       A French Gentleman dined with us this day. I wrote a letter to my Father. Stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather. Finished Mrs. Macaulay’s second volume 498. pages: and begun the third. Mr. Artaud went to the concert in the evening.


Title: 5th. Tuesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went to Mr. Wolff’s and to Mr. Rimbert’s in the afternoon to carry letters to be sent to Holland. Mr. D. went after dinner to take a walk. Cloudy weather.


Title: 6th. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Went in the forenoon with Mr. Artaud to take a walk. Mr. D stay’d at home all day. Cloudy weather in the morning, and snow in the afternoon.


Title: 7th. Thursday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. D. went with Mr. Artaud to get some maps at the Academy. I went to a bookseller’s and bought Manstein’s Memoir’s upon Russia, and Anecdotes du Nord. Mr. Artaud dined and supped out. Clear weather.


Title: 9th. Saturday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Finished the second oration of Cicero against Catilina.
       In the morning about ten o’clock Mr. D. Mr. Artaud and myself went to Mr. Rimbert’s, where we breakfasted; and then The Swedish Consul and his Lady and two of Mr. Rimbert’s Nephews, and another Gentleman and the rest of us set off in three slays for Cronstadt. We left the city at 10 o’clock and 40 minutes and arrived at Cronstadt at 12 o’clock and 35 minutes. The distance is 28 wersts which is 20 English miles. We went to see the port of Cronstadt before dinner; after dinner we went to drink tea at a gentleman’s house. We then went to take a walk, and then left Cronstadt at five minutes past five for Oranienbaum where we arrived at six o’clock wanting twenty minutes. The distance is 7 wersts or five English miles. We found at Oranienbaum Madam Peyron’s brother.


Title: 10th. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning we went to see the palace at Oranienbaum, and then dined and after dinner set off in our slays from Oranienbaum for Peterhoff at five minutes past two o’clock, and arrived there, at three o’clock wanting twenty minutes the distance being 9 wersts. We came from Oranienbaum to Peterhoff on the land whereas yesterday we were upon the Gulph of Cronstadt. We saw the palace of Peterhoff and then set out for St. Petersbourg upon the Gulph, and arrived there in one hour and three quarters, (from 10 minutes before 4. to 35 past five) the distance is 27. wersts which is about 19 ¾ English Miles. We stopp’d some time at Mr. Rimberts and then Mr. D. Mr. Artaud and myself return’d home.


Title: 11th. Monday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This day Mr. Blondot and Mr. Cussy dined here, after dinner I went with Mr. Artaud to the Concert. Went after the concert was over, and supped at Mr. Rimbert’s. Mr. D. receiv’d this day a letter from Holland inclosing some from America.


Title: 12th. Tuesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       In the afternoon I went to take a ride with Mr. D. Begun the third Oration of Cicero against Catiline. Mr. Hoogwerst came to pay us a visit in the evening. Mr. Artaud supp’d out. Cloudy weather.


Title: 14th. Thursday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning when we got up we found our Thermometer stolen. In the forenoon Mr. D. and Mr. Artaud went to take a ride; we dined at Mr. Rimbert’s; Mr. Artaud supp’d out. In the evening Mr. Hoogwerst came to pay us a visit.


Title: 15th. Friday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went with Mr. D. and Mr. Artaud to take a walk. After dinner I went in a Slay with Mr. Artaud to a place called Crasna-Kabak at about eleven wersts or eight English Miles from the city, and drank coffeé there. In the evening I went to carry a letter for Mr. D. to Mr. Rimbert’s. to be sent to Holland. Mr. Artaud supped out.


Title: 16th. Saturday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went to the Academy and bought some almanacks. After dinner I went with Mr. Artaud to the Post office to subscribe for the French Amsterdam Gazette. We went after that to the Club, and return’d home at about nine o’clock. Clear weather.


Title: 17th. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. Peyron and two of Mr. Rimbert’s Nephews came to pay us a visit. Mr. D. went to Mr. Wolff’s. We dined with Mr. Rimbert, Mr. Peyron and several other gentlemen, at Mr. Colombi’s. Wrote a letter for America.


Title: 18th. Monday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This forenoon I went with Mr. Artaud to the Academy and bought a Russian and French Grammar. Wrote a letter to Mr. Thaxter. Went to carry out letters to Mr. Felleisen. Mr. D. dined at Mr. Wolff’s. After dinner Mr. D. Mr. Artaud and myself went to the concert. We returned at about 9 o’clock.


Title: 19th. Tuesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This forenoon Mr. D went to take a walk. After dinner he went with Mr. Artaud to the shops. Mr. Hoogwerst came to pay us a visit.


Title: 20th. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning Mr. D and Mr. Artaud went to take a ride, in the afternoon I went with Mr. Artaud to take a ride in a slay. In the evening, news came of Port Mahon’s being taken. Fine weather.


Title: 21st. Thursday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning our German master came to give us a lesson for the first time; Mr. Rimbert came to pay a visit to Mr. D. Dined at Mr. Rimbert’s with Mr. D. and Mr. Artaud. After dinner we went to see Mr. Colombi. Mr. Artaud supped out.


Title: 22d. Friday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went to the English Library, and brought home The second volume of Smith’s wealth of Nations. Mr. Blondot came in the forenoon to pay us a visit. In the afternoon I went with Mr. Artaud to the shops and bought some things.


Title: 24th. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Mr. Artaud dined and supped out. Stay’d at home all day. Snowy and rainy weather. Mr. D. receiv’d a letter from Holland.


Title: 25th. Monday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Finished the 4th. volume of Mrs. Macaulay’s history of England. 409 p. Mr. Colombi came to pay us a visit. In the evening Mr. Artaud went to the concert.


Title: 26th. Tuesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Begun the fifth volume of Mrs. Macaulay’s history. Finished the third oration of Cicero against Catiline. Stay’d at home all day. Mr. Artaud supp’d out. Our German master gave us a lesson.


Title: 27th. Wednesday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went with Mr. D. to the house of the Spanish chargé d’affaires. Mr. D went to take a ride with Mr. Artaud. In the afternoon they went to the shops together. In the afternoon I went to take a walk. Begun the fourth Catilinary of Cicero. Fine weather.


Title: 29th. Friday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning I went with Mr. Artaud to the shops and bought some things. We went to the Academy for some Maps but found it shut up, and to Mr. Rimbert’s for the Newspapers. In the afternoon I went and took a walk with Mr. D. Mr. Artaud supped out. Fine clear weather. Thermometer above 0.


Title: 30th. Saturday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Mr. Rimbert, Mr. Peyron and his Lady, Mr. Abraham, Mr. Rosat, and the youngest Mr. Montréal dined with us this day: Mr. Artaud supp’d out. Fine weather. Stay’d at home all day. Finished the 5th. and last volume of Mrs. Macaulay’s history of England 470. pages.


Title: 31st. Sunday.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Wrote a letter to my Father. Mr. Artaud dined and Supped out. Fine weather. Thermometer at 9 degrees above.0. Stay’d at home all day.