Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1

Saturday July the 7th 1781.

Monday July the 9th 1781.

Sunday July the 8th 1781. JQA

1781-07-08

Sunday July the 8th 1781. Adams, John Quincy
Sunday July the 8th 1781.

This morning Mr. Dana and Mr. Deneufville1

1.

The day's entry breaks at this point because the succeeding MS leaf containing p. 113–114 of the Diary volume is missing. This and similar losses of leaves from the same volume containing p. 127–128 and 149–156, affecting entries for 11, 12 90 91July, and 27 July–17 Aug., were noted in the MS by Worthington C. Ford in April 1911. Dana's Journal, which covers the entire journey to St. Petersburg, helps to fill in the gap for this day's activities. Dana and JQA did not continue on their trip, though young Adams may have accompanied Dana when he briefly visited the nearby Moravian settlement of Zeyst. Otherwise, both remained in Utrecht until the following day, so that they could purchase a coach for the trip to Russia in order to “avoid the trouble and delay of changing carraiges as well as horses, as in the manner of the Posts in Germany” (Dana, Journal).

The entry in its present state concludes with a passage from the Geographical Grammar (p. 406–407), which probably began at the point where JQA had left off copying the day before. However, as the MS remains there is a hiatus.