Observations on the Present State of the Affairs of the River Plate

    Buenos Ayres, December 28th, 1842.

My dear M. de Vidal, – I received this morning your private letter of the 20th; after thanking you for it I have little to add, except that Count de Lurde and I have received an answer to our note demanding an armistice, stating that a demand of this nature, menacing as it does the Argentine Confederation, requires time for deliberation before a reply can be given. In the mean time, I trust that the step which I and the French Minister have taken will in no manner weaken, but, on the contrary, hasten and encourage the zealous efforts of your Government to resist invasion, because, where winds and waves are concerned, no man can say, when he leaves Europe, in what week or in what month he will arrive at Monte Video. I know nothing of the operations of the armies on either side of the Uruguay; I thank you for the information which you send me about them; I know nothing from any other source.

Believe me ever, my dear M. de Vidal, ever your sincere friend,

    J. H. MANDEVILLE.

To his Excellency M. de Vidal, &c. &c. &c.

    Buenos Ayres, January 12th, 1843.

My dear M. de Vidal, – When I received M. Gelly's official letter upon the entry of Oribe's troops into the Banda Oriental, I was myself too unwell to thank you for your letter of the 28th ult. on the subject of your resignation, and too sad and discouraged by it at the idea of your retirement from office at the present moment. But now when I see, by the Nacional of the 3d, that you have nobly decided upon still retaining the foreign and home departments, I am as anxious to congratulate you and your country upon this resolution, as I was averse, on the day I wrote to M. Gelly, to take up my pen for any body or any thing, but for this letter of yours above mentioned. The two official communications, which I send you with this opportunity, would have gone with my letter to M. Gelly, luckily, it's of little consequence whether you receive them now or this day month. What has prevented the British and French naval forces from coming long before this to the River Plate, I can have no conception. The interview between the British Ambassador and Guizot took place on the 9th September, when he agreed to all that Lord Cowley proposed, of uniting their forces to put an end to the war. Before the end of December I would have sworn that they would have been here. I cannot conclude my letter without expressing to you my truest thanks for the expression of your friendship towards me, and my confidence that, happen what may, you will always duly appreciate my public and private conduct to you. Believe me, my dear M. de Vidal, that my sentiments and my utmost efforts will always be in unison to draw closer the ties of friendship, which have been so happily established, through you in great part, between the two countries where we first drew our breath, and my labour will be unceasing to preserve them unchanged.

    J. H. MANDEVILLE.

To his Excellency Don Jose Antonino Vidal.