Written from the ship Hannah in Port Fayal, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of October Sept. 21, 1753 To the most gracious lady Dona Hyromima Sebastiana,

As often as I begin to put my pen to paper, my heart straightway fails and orders me, very conscious as I am of my inability, to cease. Yet, confidently depending on that generosity and candor with which I do not doubt you to be endued, I have used this method, since, Ah most unhappy I, I cannot speak in your native tongue to express my thanks for the courtesy with which you received me yesterday.1Although I could understand your conversation only as witty and meant to please, yet I sincerely profess myself to have been well pleased by your character and affability. O, would that in this island I might in any way find tolerable trade, but the Fates, most harsh to me, press me to depart; if it were permitted to remain and trade goods, with great joy and pleasure intermingled I would dedicate much time to entertaining you (if possibly this were acceptable). For sure, I203recognize myself to be universally a lover of ladies, of those especially whose virtures and character shine abroad far and wide with peculiar splendor. Hail, Lady, and may the same Omnipotent who created thee and me preserve us both, as he does all people, and may he grant us hereafter a happy meeting. Therefore? I beg you to excuse the faults of this address and to attribute them rather to my ignorance of manners than to defect of sincerity; by so doing, you will exercise that talent which he particularly lacks and strives for who, with joy and gladness, with respect and profound submission, subscribes himself

ROBERT TREAT PAINE

Dft ; endorsed: "Dom. Hyerom. Sebas: de Asis Epistola 1753."

1.

RTP noted in his diary for Sept. 17: "Endeavouring all day to sell my Cargo but to no Effect. I dined at the Consuls PM I went into Jesuits College and Chhs. Went to St. Johns and convers'd with Donna Sena. Sebastiana de Asis. Spent the Evning On board Capt. Mayersy?."