My last letter to you was dated the 27th: of August, and went by “the Genl Green” for Rhode Island.1 I hope ere this it has made more than half the passage. A direct opportunity offers for Boston from Rotterdam and another from the Capital, by the latter of which, I am informed, in a letter from Messrs: Willink just received, will be sent the table linnen &ca: which was ordered by you last fall. That which was directed to be purchased for Mrs: Welsh, will also take passage in the same vessel. In a letter, which a few days since I wrote to the Doctor, I undertook to presume that the articles had not only been sent long ago, but that they were safely landed in Boston. Upon enquiry however I find that my anticipations of Myn Heer’s punctuality and dispatch were much too favorable. Nine months taken to complete so trifling a commission, is surely an unreasonable time, but you know the nature of the annimal, and will account for the delay upon the score of his tardiness.

Upon the subject of the table cloths, which were deficient in the parcel you received last year, I shall give you an extract of Myn Heer’s letter above mentioned.

“We have made every enquiry about the missed table cloths, of 387 doubt but that the number of table cloths expressed in the account have actually been shipped.

“The person from whom we bought them, will if required make a declaration of his having packed up and delivered the number of table cloths charged in the account, and our porters who put them in the box are likewise willing to make a similar affidavit of there having been the same number put in the box and shipped. As these documents will be attended with some expence, we shall expect to learn whether you will have them made out.”

Now as Myn Heer not only avers, that the said table cloths were faithfully packed and shipped according to invoice, but affirms that his people are ready if required at a small expence to swear to the fact; it is my humble advice & opinion, that it is quite sufficient to be robbed, without paying more of ones property for the sake of having the first loss confirmed by the oath of any body. I do suppose then, that the loss must be pocketed, but if I knew any method of making the pocket of Myn Heer hold it, I would certainly put it in force. I am sure that Myn Heer will not refund if he can avoid it, though a few guilders, you will say could be no object to him; but therein you would be much deceived, for a few guilders taken from a few millions according to his calculation make as glaring a deficit as when taken from a few hundreds. I hope the commission which is now executing will eventually prove more satisfactory to you both in quantity and quality, than the first.2

The news of the times may be comprised in a small compass. The defeats again and again of the French armies upon the Rhine form the principal share of newspaper intelligence— The two armies upon a moderate estimate have lost between 50 & 60 thousand men; and one of them was very near being entirely cut off. So much for the ambition of Conquest. All this has taken place in the space of sixweeks.3 The french begin to talk of peace with the Emperor, upon such terms as he may expect at present—this is a sufficient indication that the times are pénible with them.

The English have not yet learnt entirely to respect our rights— they continue to capture our vessels; but the french threaten also to adopt the same practice, if the English persist in it. Oh impotence! Of how many wrongs art thou the Parent!

We are well— Tilly has got rid of the Ague, after a severe battle with it. We are looking for letters every day; alas! How little do I deserve any.

Remember me to every body & believe me now & ever your dutiful Son.

After reading your letter of the 30th: of last month which I received this morning, I looked at your picture, and methought it looked unusually cool.— I read the letter a second time, and upon again turning to the picture, it seemed to look severe— Upon a third reading, I dared not again consult the portrait; I feared to find it disdainful— Between us two, my lovely friend let there be Peace. In the intercourse of friends, of lovers, but more especially in the [te]nder and inseparable connection which I hope is destined for us, nothing bears so hard upon the ties of mutual kindness and affection as suspicion and distrust.— Between you and me may it never rise.

As to the subject of pomp, or parade, I will henceforth be totally silent upon it, and indeed there is no occasion for much to be said upon what will never be our concern. I most cordially wish that either duty or prudence would permit me from this moment to relinquish my present Station, and renounce every other that can detain me from my friends and my Country according to your advice; but there are inducements from both those sources, which forbid it for the present.— Whenever I shall be able consistently with my obligations to my Country, and with my anxious affection for you, I shall 389 eagerly seize the first opportunity that shall offer to restore me to private life and retirement. It is most suitable to my disposition, and I hope you will find it congenial with yours.

I must apologize for the use of the word rank, in my last Letter, which appears to have displeased you.1 Had I been an Englishman or a soldier possibly I might have been of opinion that it could not be applied to any thing but the british peerage, or to military gradation. A different Country and profession may have occasioned an error in my mind or an inaccuracy of expression. I certainly did not speak or think of speaking either as an English duke, or as corporal of a company. I pray my dear friend that the word and the thing may be forever forgotten between us.

The advice which I gave you to consider the dark and shady side of a prospect, which your imagination had painted to you in the brightest colours, was not acceptable.— “Pleasing contemplation”! you exclaim in the tone of irony which is a convenient covering for satirical wit. No, my gentle friend it is not a pleasing contemplation, nor should I have recommended it to one whom I love dearer than my life, had I not been convinced that pleasing contemplations are sometimes apt to terminate in disappointment: that they do not alone su[ffic]e for the happiness of any person’s life, and that the tenderest attachment may sometimes discover itself by pointing the attention of its beloved friend to useful reflection. I do most sincerely wish that you may never find from experience, that pleasing contemplations are summer friends, ready to fly from the first appearance of difficulty; but I am sure that you will often have occasion to know that reflection, and the habit of seeing by anticipation the inconveniences and evils inevitably annexed to every approaching prospect, is in reality a kind and benevolent adviser.— As I prefer suffering the mortification even of a sneer from you, rather than the future reproach of having excited false though pleasing contemplations, I readily renounce all pretensions to address in the art of pleasing, and hope you will find me throughout life rather a true and faithful than a complaisant friend.

As a test of your sincerity in the declaration that your affections are solely fixed on me, you propose to continue that separation which every hour renders more severe to me, untill I shall return to America. And could you then for a moment harbour the thought that there is any quarter of the world, or any situation in life which can diminish your worth in my estimation, or render your society less essential to my happiness?— No Louisa.— You are the delight and 390 pride of my life.— Humbly as I have reason to deem of my own merits, there is a sense within me that will neither allow me to doubt of your affection, nor admit the suspicion that it could be brought in competition with any foreign or unworthy object; and assuredly if there is any thing in your character that can deduct in my mind a particle from its general excellence, it is not the want of a laudable pride, or of a generous consciousness of your own dignity.

I am still detained here by positive orders from the American Government. I have reason to expect every day those which will release me from hence; but as I know not how long their arrival may be delayed, nor what the nature of them will be, it has hitherto been impossible for me to speak positively, whether they will allow me to take the course which my own inclination directs, or will prescribe another. If they leave me to my own option, (and I have no reason to apprehend that they will not) I shall certainly come to you without an instant of avoidable delay. The first moment after I receive my orders shall be employed to give you notice of them and my detention after receiving them cannot I imagine extend beyond three or four weeks. I have heard that Lovers count break not hours, unless it be to come before their time.— When I shall be able to fix my time, I hope to prove that I am not inclined to be behind it, but if the most ardent wishes of my heart could give me a conveyance, the wings of the wind would loiter in comparison with its rapidity.— I look again at the picture and it smiles.— May the powers of gentleness and Love beam with all their wonted influence on the countenance of my friend, when she reads the reiterated assurance of unvaried affection from her