RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson Esqe.”; endorsed by TJ as received 7 June “by Admiral Hartsink” and so recorded in SJL.

Ships of the Batavian Republic under the command of Vice Admiral Pieter HARTSINCK had transported French infantry regiments to Saint-Domingue as part of Leclerc’s expeditionary force. After disembarking the troops, Hartsinck took his squadron, which included three ships of the line, a brig, and perhaps other vessels, to Chesapeake Bay. He left some of the ships at Hampton Roads while he continued up the bay to Baltimore for refitting and supplies. Hartsinck’s ultimate destination was Java (Batavia) in the East Indies, a Dutch colony that had been captured by the British and was restored to the Batavian Republic as a provision of the truce between Britain and France (Middlebury Mercury, 24 Feb. 1802; Providence, R.I., United States Chronicle, 25 Feb. 1802; Savannah Georgia Gazette, 4 Mch. 1802; New-York Herald, 14 Apr. 1802; New Bedford, Mass., Columbian Courier, 21 May 1802; New York Daily Advertiser, 8 June 1802; Simon Schama, Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands, 1780–1813 [New York, 1977], 450; Parry, Consolidated Treaty Series description begins Clive Parry, ed., The Consolidated Treaty Series, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., 1969–81, 231 vols. description ends , 56:213, 292).

YOUR PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE: when Hartsinck found himself in Baltimore again a few years later, he recalled paying his respects to TJ in Washington during his visit in 1802 (Hartsinck to TJ, 6 Feb. 1808, in DLC).