“ formed of about 250. words. in this I have made such progress, that within a year or two more I think to give to the public what I shall then have acquired. I have lately seen a report of m ( ^~ r) Volney’s to the Celtic academy on a work of m( ^~ r) Pallas entitled ‘Vocabulaires comparés des langues de toute la terre.’ with a list of 130. words to which the Vocabulary is limited. I find that 73. of these words are common to that & to my vocabulary, and therefore will enable us, by a comparison of language, to make the enquiry so long desired, as to the probability of a common origin between the people of colour of the two continents. I have to ask the favor of you to procure me a copy of the above work of Pallas; to inform me of the cost, & permit me to pay it here to your use: for I presume you have some mercantile correspondent here to whom a paiment can be made for you. A want of knowledge what the book may cost, as well as of the means of making so small a remittance, oblige me to make this proposition, and to restrain it to the sole condition that I be permitted to reimburse it here . . . ”

Harris replied from St. Petersburg on August 10: “. . . The Work of Pallas, a copy of which your Excellency has requested, I have made very general inquiries for; but it has never been publickly exposed to sale here. The Empress Catherine II, with whom the subject of that production originated, in submitting it to the examination of those Savans, who distinguished her institutions the latter part of her reign, distributed the result of their labours and researches among the different philosophical establishments most celebrated in Europe, and but very few copies remained here. Some of the Academicians, whom I have spoken to on the subject, have promised their endeavours to procure me a copy; but last evening being in the company of the Minister of Commerce, to whom I happened to mention my desire, assured me he would charge himself with obtaining the needful. Your Excellency therefore will be indebted to the politeness of Count Romanzoff for this interesting book, and thus prevent the fulfillment of the conditions, which your Excellencys circumspection had otherwise made the price of its possession . . .”

Levett Harris sent two copies of this letter to Jefferson by different routes. The first was received by Jefferson on November 19, and is the one quoted here. The second, which has very slight variations in the text, was not received until March 7, 1807.

The book was sent on September 15, on which day Harris wrote to Jefferson: “Having received the copy of the work of Mr. Pallas, from Count Romanzoff, as mentioned in the letter I had the honor to address your Excellency the 10. August, I hasten to transmit it by this conveyance, to the care of my correspondents, Mess: J. & J. Dorr at Boston, whom I have directed to forward the same, on its receipt, to Washington.

"On looking into this work, I perceive it to be written in Russian characters, and the different indications throughout, given in this language, which, I fear, will render it much less an object of interest to your Excellency than had been expected; and on further inquiry, I have been informed that no translation of it into another language had been made here.

"By Mr. Volney’s report of this Work to the Celtic Academy, as mentioned in your Excellency’s letter, I conclude it to have appeared in another language, in such case, a copy will be ordered for you Sir, from Paris, where, I judge, it may be found, and whither I shall write by the next post. In the mean time, I am, thus far, enabled to acquit myself of your Excellency’s commission, through the polite attention, as advised, of the Minister of Commerce . . .”

On March 28 of the following year, 1807, Jefferson wrote to acknowledge the receipt of the books: “ Yours letters [ sic -- Ed. ] of Aug. 10. & Sep. 15. have been duly recieved, and I have to thank you for the safe transmission of the 4. vols of the Vocabulaires comparés de Pallas, for which I am indebted through you to the minister of commerce Count Romanzoff. I must pray you in a particular manner, to express to his Excellency my sensibility for this mark of his obliging attention, rendered the more impressive from a high esteem for his personal character, and from the hope that an inter- ”