I took care to impress on him, through the whole of our conversation, that I had neither instructions nor authority to say a word to any body on this subject, and that I could only give him my own ideas, as a single individual:  which were, that we were not in a condition at present to meddle nationally in any war; that we wished particularly to cultivate the friendship of Portugal, with whom we have an advantageous commerce.  That yet, a successful revolution in Brazil could not be uninteresting to us.  That prospects of lucre might possibly draw numbers of individuals to their aid, and purer motives our officers, among whom are many excellent.  That our citizens being free to leave their own country individually, without the consent of their governments, are equally free to go to any other.

A little before I received the first letter of the Brazilian, a gentleman informed me there was a Mexican in Paris, who wished to have some conversation with me.  He accordingly called on me.  The substance of the information I drew from him, was as follows.  He is himself a native of Mexico, where his relations are, principally.  He left it about seventeen years of age, and seems now to be about thirty-three or thirty-four.  He classes and characterizes the inhabitants of that country, as follows. 1.  The natives of Old Spain, possessed of most of the offices of government, and firmly attached to it. 2.  The clergy, equally attached to the government. 3.  The natives of Mexico, generally disposed to revolt, but without instruction, without energy, and much under the dominion of their priests. 4.  The slaves, mulatto and black; the former enterprising and intelligent, the latter brave, and of very important weight, into whatever scale they throw themselves; but he thinks they will side with their masters. 5.  The conquered Indians, cowardly, not likely to take any side, nor important which they take. 6.  The free Indians, brave and formidable, should they interfere, but not likely to do so, as being at a great distance.  I asked him the numbers of these several classes, but he could not give them.  The first, he thought very inconsiderable; that the second formed the body of the freemen; the third equal to the two first; the fourth, to all the preceding:  and as to the fifth, he could form no idea of their proportion.  Indeed, it appeared to me, that his conjectures as to the others were on loose grounds.  He said he knew from good information, there were three hundred thousand inhabitants in the city of Mexico.  I was still more cautious with him than with the Brazilian, mentioning it as my private opinion (unauthorized to say a word on the subject, otherwise), that a successful revolution was still at a distance with them; that I feared they must begin by enlightening and emancipating the minds of their people; that as to us, if Spain should give us advantageous terms of commerce, and remove other difficulties, it was not probable that we should relinquish certain and present advantages, though smaller, for uncertain and future ones, however great.  I was led into this caution by observing, that this gentleman was intimate at the Spanish ambassador’s, and that he was then at Paris, employed by Spain to settle her boundaries with France, on the Pyrenees.  He had much the air of candor, but that can be borrowed; so that I was not able to decide about him in my own mind.