“I do myself the honor to inclose you a letter I received from M ^r. Short the 6th of January last--and a copy of an introduction M ^r. Carmichael gave me to Richard Harrison Esquire of this city--Tho’ I am no longer accountable to you for the discharge of the commission you were pleased to give me, still I should be happy my conduct would meet with your approbation.--Cortes’s letters /which you mention in your letter to M ^r. George Meade/ I am extremely sorry I had not the good fortune to bring with me, owing to the following circumstance--About the middle of last August M ^r. Carmichael received permission to return to America, and expecting to leave Madrid in a few weeks after, sent his baggage to Cadiz--and with it C. letters packt up among his other books--but the winter season arrived, before he had made the arrangements necessary for his intended voyage--and I came away without him--For some days previous to my departure from Madrid, the copy of an Order to the Custom-house Officer at Cadiz, authorizing me to open a trunk and to take C. letters out--was prepared, but such was the state of M ^r. Carmichael’s nerves, that he was unable to write his name.--This occasioned a disappointment, which indeed made me very unhappy--as it deprived me of the only occasion, that perhaps, may ever present itself of rendering you any kind of service--I hope, however, on the arrival of M ^rs. Carmichael here, which I expect will be in a few days, to have the pleasure of sending you those letters, together with a manuscript respecting the Istmus [ sic -- Ed. ] of Darien, which M ^r. Carmichael also intended for you--Cortes’s letters are become so rare in Spain, that it cost even the Archbishop of Toledo /at whose expence they were published/ a great deal of trouble to procure the copy of them which you are to have . . .”

On February 9, 1795, William Carmichael died in Madrid, and his Spanish widow came to the United States. On October 14 she wrote to Jefferson from Chester town, Maryland: “Etant arrivée depuis quelques semaines dans ce pais et ne sachant par quel moyen vous faire passer un livre intitulé la Conquête du Mexique que feu mon mari vous avvit destiné ainsi que quelques papiers a votre adresse si les lettres d’Hernand Cortes a Charles Quint ainsi que les gravures vous font plaisir je crois pouvoir vous les procurer.”

A few days later, on October 20, James Blake wrote to Jefferson from Philadelphia: “The widow of M ^r. Carmichael is arrived in the United States--and resides near Chester-Town in Maryland. I made her acquainted with the disappointment I had respecting a Copy of Cortes’s letters, which her husband intended for you--and she informed me, she would send it to Baltimore, to any acquaintance of yours you would please to mention--Pray, Sir, will you be so good as to write her a line on the subject and address it as below--”

On December 8, Blake sent to Jefferson the volume of Cortés’s letters: “I beg leave to inform you that I have this morning put Cortes’s letters into M ^r. Crosby’s hands to be forwarded to you as soon as possible--M ^rs Carmichael brought them with her here from Maryland--but forgot the manuscript--she assured me, however--she would not fail to send it by the first opportunity.”

The receipt of the volume was acknowledged by Jefferson on February 29, 1796: “ I have to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Dec. 8. as also of Cortez’s letters which came safe to hand, and return you my thanks for the great attention you have been so kind as to pay to this matter. will you add to the favor by presenting to m ( ^~ r) s Carmichael the homage of my thanks for this volume, which I value the more as a mark of the friendly attentions of m( ^~ r) Carmichael. in the course of my correspondence with him I had asked him to turn his enquiries to the isthmus of Darien, and I presume the manuscript you mention must contain information on this subject. my object was in some new edition of my Notes on Virginia to have said something on the subject of that Isthmus. I shall receive it with great thankfulness if the posses- ”