M. Barbeau DuBourg Doctor of Medicine
Rue Copeau ー Paris

I have just received, Monsieur, the letter of yesterday which you have thought good to write to me, in order to inform me of your uneasiness about the person who presented himself to you as recommended by your friends, and who cannot now produce his credentials.² The most favourable judgment one can pass upon the man in question is that he is one of those fortune-seekers who are willing to enrich themselves at any cost; that, with this aim, he has been to offer his services you know where, that they have been accepted and that thinking to find people here equally bold and venturesome he has perhaps undertaken to supply to distant parts what he is seeking to obtain here, only to receive the price of it after delivery. So reckless a party not being of a kind to find associates, I think would do very well, Monsieur, to put a check upon the facilities which you seemed inclined to procure for this man, and above all, not to answer for anyone whatsoever. One advice, moreover, which I cannot omit to give you is to inspire this man and his adherents with the greatest caution in their manner of dealing and dispatching business. You are aware that if the object of his negociation were to acquire sufficient publicity for direct and well defined complaints to reach us we could not avoid giving redress and so putting a stop to everything. Pray recollect what I told you, one can connive at certain things but one cannot authorize them.

The enquiries which you suggest, Monsieur, would be, at the least, useless; the production of the credentials is what you ought to insist upon; in default, avoid everything which would implicate you, and consequently compromise you. I am &c