PARIS, October 5, 1787.
SIR,--I have now before me your several favors of April the 16th, 26th,
and 30th, and of May the 9th and 29th, and received also a few days ago
the box containing the skin, bones, and horns of the moose, and other
animals, which your Excellency has been so kind as to take so much
trouble to obtain and forward. They were all in good enough condition,
except that a good deal of the hair of the moose had fallen off.
However, there remained still enough to give a good idea of the animal,
and I am in hopes Monsieur de Buffon will be able to have him stuffed,
and placed on his legs in the King's Cabinet. He was in the country
when I sent the box to the Cabinet, so that I have as yet no answer
from him. I am persuaded he will find the moose to be a different
animal from any he had described in his work. I am equally persuaded
that our elk and deer are animals of a different species from any
existing in Europe. Unluckily, the horns of them now received are
remarkably small. However, I have taken measures to procure some from
Virginia. The moose is really a valuable acquisition; but the skeletons
of the other animals would not be worth the expense they would occasion
to me, and still less the trouble to you. Of this, you have been
already so kind as to take a great deal more than I intended to have
given you, and I beg you to accept my sincere thanks. Should a pair of
large horns of the elk or deer fall into your way by accident, I would
thank you to keep them till some vessel should be coming directly from
your nearest port to Havre. So also of very large horns of the moose,
for I understand they are sometimes enormously large indeed. But I
would ask these things only on condition they should occasion you no
trouble, and me little expense.
You will have known that war is commenced between the Turks and
Russians, and that the Prussian troops have entered Holland, and
reinstated the Stadtholder. It is said that even Amsterdam has
capitulated. Yet is it possible, and rather probable, this country will
engage in a war to restore the Patriots. If they do, it will be the
most general one long known in Europe. We, I hope, shall enjoy the
blessings of a neutrality, and probably see England once more humbled.
I am, with great esteem and respect, your Excellency's most obedient,
and most humble servant.