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This small series contains diplomatic papers of George William Erving (1769-1850), dating for the most part from his service as chargé d'affaires for the United States in Madrid from 1804 to 1809. No correspondence of Erving is preserved here. A memoranda book in the form of a diary records his activities in Madrid between October 1805 and February 1806, with scattered entries through July 1808. Erving describes political and diplomatic developments in Spain and gives in some detail several conversations with Spanish government officials. There are also occasional notes about social and economic conditions and about Erving's finances. Accompanying this volume is a miscellany of newspapers and other printed matter and copies of letters and documents in English, Spanish, and French, all pertaining to Spain and her American colonies, and to the progress of the Napoleonic Wars.