Having imparted to our mutual Friends Messrs: W. & J Willink of Amsterdam, my wish to procure the Appointment of American Consul at this Port, they very politely presented me with the enclosed Introduction, & recommendation to your Excellency, for that purpose, the Necessity of the Appointment,1 I make no doubt is well known to your Excellency, as well as the general Advantage and Conveniency, which would result from it to the numerous Citizens of the United States, who have occasion to touch at this Port for the Purpose of obtaining Information as to the Situation of the different European Markets for American Produce, or otherwise, & I flatter myself the Recommendation of our abovementioned will fully Satisfy your Excellency as to the respectability of the Person for whom they Interest themselves, and his Capacity, & inclination to discharge the Duties of the Office, with Honor to himself, and every possible Attention to the Interests of the Subjects of the United States, therefore I presume it needless to mention any thing further, on that Subject, than to assure that during a long residence with them, we ever Coincided in our endeavors to Promote the Interest of the United States on every Occasion.

Having said thus much, I take the Liberty to Sollicit of your Excellency such an Appointment; or shou’d it remain in the Province of the Secretary of State, that you will be pleased to hand him this Letter, accompanied with Messrs: Willink’s Recommendation, which I presume will have equal weight with him as your Excellency.

With Assurances of Profound respect, I have the Honor to Subscribe myself Sir / your Excellency’s Most Obedient / Humble Servant

The bearer of this Letter, Mr: D’Hauteval, is a french Gentleman from the Island of St: Domingo, where he had lately the misfortune to lose a plantation of great value, by the devastation of the insurgent negroes.1 He has been about two months in this town, where I have frequently had the pleasure of meeting him in Company, and where his amiable manners have entitled him to as much esteem, as his misfortunes had claimed respect. He now proposes to spend a short time at Philadelphia, and I take the opportunity in compliance with his wishes, and at the same time as a gratification of my own, to introduce him to your acquaintance.

I am, dear Sir, your affectionate Son.

I thought I had agreed with you at Hartford that you should take my Horses from Mr: David Bulls and send them on to NYork where I expected to hear of their arrival in three or four days, and at an expence of four or five dollars, or at the utmost of seven or eight, for this was the amount of the conversation, between you & Mr. Briesler who attended me.1 You may judge then how much I was surprized, when an account was brought to Philadelphia amounting to more than Five Pounds, of New England Lawful money; barely for riding or leading the Horses and their keeping on the road, and this 162 surprise was not a little encreased when another account arrived amounting to more than Five Pounds more for keeping the horses at Hartford; besides in this last Account, I was charged for keeping the Horses at Hartford from the 19th of Novr:, the day I set off from my own House at Quincy near Boston. It was the 26th of Novr that I left Mr: David Bulls House, and I have his receipt for the money I paid him for keeping the horses, till the time of my departure from his house— In short, I cannot comprehend the Mystery, that an expence which ought to have been four dollars has been swelled to more than Ten Pounds; nor can I see why four days which were amply sufficient to have removed the horses to NYork has been protracted to near as many weeks.

I suppose however it is too late for me to obtain compleat Justice without an appeal to the laws which I have neither liesure nor Inclination to do. I therefore desire that either you or Mr: David Bull would settle with the person who carried the Horses to NYork and correct the manifest errors in both Accounts, form them both into one, sign it, and send it to me, and I will pay what shall be justly due or necessary to be paid.

I am Sir your most obnt: & humle: Sert