Part 4 El Camino: John Adams Journey to France: The Real Story
Expect the Unexpected
Rarely would anyone select the Camino de Santiago as the most viable option for traveling from the shores of the Atlantic to the border of France.
However, when future U.S. President John Adams experienced a time setback during his voyage to France in 1779, he revised his travel plan and took his whole entourage on a trek over the Camino.
A go-getter, Adams was determined to reach Paris in short order to contribute to peace treaties and commercial alliances with Great Britain. Without his dedicated action, the U.S.A. might have become the U.S.G.B. – The United States of Great Britain.
Here’s the dirt on what happened. Ben Franklin was in Paris as the first American Minister (Ambassador) to negotiate treaties and form alliances. Unimpressed with the apparent lack of progress, Adams considered Franklin’s old-school approach of non-stop schmoozing and socializing with the French to be excessive, extravagant, and frivolous. As a younger man with a modern approach, Adams was convinced the French would deal more favorably with him.
Congress gave Adams the thumbs up and he prepared to go to France and show old Ben how to get the job done.
Ah yes! It’s the Young Whippersnapper knows better than the Old Fogey plot!
Meanwhile, back on the homefront, John’s wife Abigail was ticking along doing her aristocratic thing, hobnobbing and setting the stage to become Mrs. First Lady. When John announced he was making a short TWO-YEAR trip to France to show that old goat Franklin how to run the show, Abby wasted no time hauling three travel trunks out of storage - one for John and one for each of their two sons.
It was no secret that both John and Abigail Adams had long-term political ambitions for their boys. They viewed the trip as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for John Quincy, age 12, and his younger brother, Charles, age 9, to be mentored in the art of foreign diplomacy and immersed in European culture.
Whoa! Let’s get this in perspective. The year was 1779.
They were NOT going on a trans-Atlantic luxury cruise liner, occupying the Presidential Suite with 24-hour room service and everything available at their beck and call. They would NOT put on their finest clothing to dine at the Captain’s Table. There would be no bars, restaurants, musicians, spas, lounges, or fitness centers.
Oh no. No, no, no.
In 1779 crossing the Atlantic was a treacherous, hazardous venture. Passengers were squished into tight, cramped quarters where they were plagued with chronic seasickness due to the perpetual heaving and rolling motion of the ships. Worse yet, chamber pots served as the “facilities”. If the seasickness wasn’t enough to knock the socks off of the captive passengers, the smell certainly did! Finally, if the ships weren’t attacked by marauding pirates, or ravaged by pestilence and disease, they risked being shipwrecked.
Envision Abby standing at Boston Harbor, all decked out wearing her pretty bonnet and carrying her dainty parasol, waving her gloved hand at the children, “Bye boys! Bon Voyage! Mind your father. Don’t forget to brush your teeth and say your prayers before you go to bed!”
On November 15, 1779, Adams and his sons, John Quincy and Charles, set sail from Boston Harbor aboard the French Frigate, Sensible. Captain Chevalier De Chavagne was at the helm with 350 sailors under his command.
According to the archived journals of John Quincy Adams, almost five years passed before he saw his mother on July 30, 1784. He was 17 years old.
Hey guys, has anyone noticed this frig is FILLING WITH WATER? Is that normal?
Two days at sea, off the Grand Banks, the French Frigate Sensible started to take on water.
The captain ordered the crew to start a pump, and then to start another one. Still, the icy water continued to flow in, until the captain was forced to enroll EVERYONE on board in a 24-hour pumping vigil.
John Quincy Adams wrote in his journal on November 29, 1779:
“The ship is very leaky. The passengers are all called to the Pump four times per day. 8 o clock AM, 12 o clock, 4 o clock PM, and 8 o clock PM.”
The Sensible was in serious trouble. Still keeping in mind the year – they were on their own. No Coast Guard, no GPS, no communication, no hope of a rescue team being sent their way. In 1779 ships in distress sank to the depths of the ocean floor, never to be heard of again. A splash and a glug and they were gone.
The ship would either sink or… get to a port QUICK. While the crew and passengers worked their tailfeathers off trying to keep the leaky frigate afloat Captain De Chavagne made a beeline for the nearest friendly port.
On December 7th the Sensible arrived at the westernmost point of Spain, Cape Finisterre. From there it crept northwest along the coastline to El Ferrol, where it was put into port on December 8, 1779.
Within one hour of docking, seven feet of water gushed into the hold of the French Frigate Sensible. It was out of commission for an extended time.
THAT cut it close! I’d say God was watching over that old warship.
John Adams was a man with a mission and a minor matter like a sinking ship was not going to slow him down. The future of the United States of America weighed heavily on his shoulders.
After ruling out all other options, he decided he and his group would travel along the Camino de Santiago, The Way of Saint James – from Spain to France.
Adams noted in his Autobiography he was happy to be on his way to France because, since landing in Spain, he had been plagued with insomnia due to the “innumerable Swarms of Ennemies of all repose.” (Note: I made mention of these same enemies in Part 1 of my series on the Camino.)
On December 27, 1779, at 2:30 PM John Adams and his party set out on their 1000-mile trek from the Atlantic Ocean to Paris via the Camino de Santiago. The entourage included four small carriages, as well as several mules and mule handlers for hauling all the food and supplies for the journey.
Adams, a headstrong and determined man, had disregarded cautionary warnings to avoid taking his young sons on the difficult journey during the dead of winter.
Maybe he thought he would escape the “ennemies of all repose” if he hit the road.
Not a chance Johnny! They’ve been chomping humans in that neck of the woods since the dinosaur age and I’m sure they’ll maintain their vigil until the second coming.
John Adams was a real stickler about maintaining a personal journal and autobiography, a habit he also instilled in his son John Quincy. A record of their entire Camino experiences can be read at: https://founders.archives.gov/content/volumes#Adams.
Sure, I get it. You don’t give a rip snort about where to find John Adams’ journal on the Internet. I suspect you want ME to read the whole thing and condense it for you.
December 27, 1779
Adams didn’t mince words describing the deplorable living conditions at the house where he and his men stayed their first night on the Camino.
The kitchen had a dirt floor that was “trodden into mire by men, hogs, mules and horses” and the animals were stabled in an adjoining room.
Can’t you just hear them entering the house? “Hey fellas, watch where you step, it’s slippery. The mules just passed through here on their way to the stable, and there’s a fatted hog on the stairway to the sleeping chambers.”
THAT has to be the Presidential welcome to beat them ALL!
Adams was equally as appalled by the filth and stench in the sleeping area. He wrote, “The Floor I believe had never been washed, or swept for an hundred Years. Smoke, Soot and dirt, every where, and in every Thing.”
A large oven billowed out black smoke that filled the entire house, causing Adams to question if his men would suffocate while they slept. And, of course, his loathsome “nocturnal ennemies”1 faithfully tucked in with him.
December 30, 1779 - quoted directly from John Adams’ Journal
“I see nothing but Signs of Poverty and Misery, among the People. A fertile Country, not half cultivated, People ragged and dirty, and the Houses universally nothing but Mire, Smoke, Fleas and Lice. Nothing appears rich but the Churches, nobody fat, but the Clergy…
We are obliged, in this Journey to carry our own Beds, Blanketts, Sheets, Pillows &c., our own Provisions…”
Hold on a minute! You are all carrying your own BEDS and BEDDING?
Wow, Buddy, you’re a bigwig, diplomat, and all that snazz, but apparently, you don’t know bull-snot about your “Ennemies of repose.”
There’s no gentle way to break this to you, Johnny. Every morning you pack up your “Ennemie-infested” bed and bedding and transport it to your NEXT destination where even more “ennemies” join the caravan. Yup! The blood-sucking stowaways hide in the seams and the dark corners of your bedding. YOU and your party are their guaranteed meal ticket.
The man was distraught. “Ennemies of all repose” are enough to drive even the best of men to the brink of insanity.
Then came the night of all nights, the BIG night to remember - Tuesday, January 4, 1780, in the old Romanesque city of Astorga in the Province of Leon. John made the following entry in his journal: 2
“We found clean Beds and no fleas for the first time since We had been in Spain.”
The tone of his journal became distinctly more pleasant when he wasn’t being bugged by bugs all night. (Wanna bet the Adams party started staying at well-appointed country inns and stopped snoozing in their own bug-infested beds and bedding?)
The party plowed through the freezing winter weather conditions. Veering northeast into Basque Country they headed toward the Bay of Biscay, destined for Bilbao and San Sebastian. As the news of John Adams’ journey along the Camino spread like wildfire, he and his sons were honored daily by diplomats and dignitaries in every town of significance they passed through. Given the apparent, upbeat frame of mind and positive entries he wrote in his journal after the bugs bugged off in Astorga, I was surprised when I read this:
January 11, 1780:
“For more than twenty Years I had been almost continually engaged in Journeys and Voyages and had often undergone severe Tryals, as I thought; great hardships, cold, rain, Snow, heat, fatigue, bad rest, indifferent nourishment, want of Sleep &c. &c. &c.
But I had never experienced any Thing like this Journey. If it were now left to my Choice to perform my first Voyage to Europe with all its horrors, or this Journey through Spain, I should prefer the former.”
(Note: During his first Voyage to Europe in 1778, John’s ship, the Boston, almost sank when it encountered a violent storm with gale-force winds.)
“Every Individual Person in Company had a violent Cold, and were all of Us in danger of fevers.
We went along the Road, sneezing and coughing, in all that uncomfortable Weather, and with our uncomfor[t]able Cavalry and Carriages, in very bad roads, and indeed were all of Us fitter for an Hospital than for Travellers with the best Accommodations on the most pleasant Roads.
The Children were sick. In short I was in a deplorable Situation. I knew not what to do nor where to go.
In my whole Life my Patience was never so near being totally exhausted.”
John, my man, you gotta get a grip! You can’t crack up on us now! We’re almost to the end of the Camino. What will I tell my readers? John Adams, Founding Father, lost his marbles, went whacko, spun out, and gave up. Come on, Johnny! You HAVE to make it! You can’t wuss out now!
On Thursday, January 20, 1780, John Adams and his party completed their reverse journey across the Camino de Santiago when they arrived at St. John De Luz, the first Village in France. John’s journal entry that day was short.
“And never was a Captive escaped from Prison more delighted than I was.”
Racing across France was a breeze compared to the grueling challenges of tackling the Spanish Camino during the winter. John Adams and his party arrived in Paris on Wednesday, February 9, 1780. The entire journey from Boston took 12 weeks and 3 days. Adams and his group spent 25 days traversing the Camino de Santiago.
On February 10, 1780, the day after they arrived in Paris, John enrolled his two sons in a private boarding school and sent them to classes.
Wow! No one could ever accuse those two boys of being slouches!
Within days Adams discovered Benjamin Franklin had already signed, sealed, and delivered the treaties and the alliances that prompted his French journey. The old goat beat Adams to the finish line. Ultimately, Adams’ trip did not serve an immediate purpose. He made the best of the situation by spending time in Europe with his sons showing them the ropes on being a U.S. foreign diplomat before returning to the U.S.A. Would you believe he did NOT take the Camino on his trip back to Boston?
John Adams became President of the United States in 1797 and John Quincy Adams followed his father’s Presidential footsteps in 1825.
Spelling “ennemies” is an intentional matching of John Adams’ journal notations.
All quotes from John Adams’ Journal have his original grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. https://founders.archives.gov/content/volumes#Adams.
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