[Illegible Text — Some or all of the pages of this file are wholly or in part illegible. We have not been able either to locate a better copy of the document, or to enhance its legibility electronically.] [from Smith / Lisbon [undecipherable] 1797] [undecipherable] Oct. 31. 99 I have so much satisfaction in re-collecting you again [undecipherable] I feel so much interested in making you think of me a little [undecipherable] time to [undecipherable], the [undecipherable] altho I have already wrote you several letters from hence I have [yet?] received not a single one from you, yet [undecipherable] well [undecipherable] before any [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to the [undecipherable] without giving you a friendly [undecipherable] & reminding you of your friend in Portugal. — Since my last I have been a good deal in the beau monde here, as the winter amusements have commenced. To begin the week, M^rs Pinto, the Lady of the Secretary of State has a Route every Sunday, where there is (after all the Preliminaries of Bows, Ladies, Compliments & Enquiries, which generally last three hours) under & dancing, & as it is at the distance of three or four miles from Town, the preliminaries, with the going & returning, consume the best part of the Evening. Monday is the Opera night; but as, they generally continue the same opera for two months together, none but an Enthusiast in music would think of going very often, unless it were, with a [undecipherable] to see the Company, & that is impossible on account of the width & darkness of the Theatre. Tuesday & Wednesday nights there are routs at the houses of two Noble Persons, much in the same stile as at M^r Pinto's. Thursday is the English Ball; it is every week; the room is very elegant, the music excellent, it is Company numerous & genteel, there are a number of pretty English women, who dance extremely well. — [undecipherable] very grand in [undecipherable] in Portugal, he was on the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] & lost an arm a few years ago in Flanders, he is now, by the Sovereign permission on the [undecipherable] — & it is expected will soon be Generalissimo. He has a very gentlemanlike establishment at the [Republic?] expense. Besides all this there are often private dances, it being very customary to entertain a fiddle whereon any young people are assembled. There is also a Portuguese Play twice a week, but I have not yet made proficiency enough in the Language to attend it, tho I am obliged every day to converse with my Servants & Tradesmen. In addition to these, there are the amusements which I have overlooked, viz, various religious festivals & Bull-Feasts. — I received this morning a very friendly visit from a [undecipherable] [undecipherable] with an account of half an hour chatting on the most [undecipherable] subject; among other things, he informed me, as a fact, that the great success of Buonaparte's troops was his giving every man, immediately before the action, a Dram of [underline: Nectar [undecipherable]acré], a Liqueur composed of wine & cantharides which makes them so furious that they are irresistible. By M^r Secretary at war, you'll take the hint, & imitate the conduct of his great [undecipherable] inquirer as related by a great Sea [undecipherable], if you shall be compelled to fight the Spaniards on the Mississippi, take care however you don't presume the practice against the Indians for as they carry their Squaws to battle with them, the effect of the Nectar [undecipherable] may operate on the wrong subject & be fatal by our own [undecipherable]. Pray tell your neighbor, M^rs Williams, that on opening my Box I miss a Book of [Visits?] of English Country Seats, which I presume some person [undecipherable] had lent it, and not returned; it should the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] proved it true. — Not a Ship has arrived here from Philadelphia since the [undecipherable]. I am afraid some of these are taken by my Courier into the [undecipherable]. M^r Bartholomew sent a few days ago a letter from M^r [undecipherable] of the 4^th Sept. by the way of Falmouth. I wish you would write to that channel, as the Packet arrives here from thence every ten days a fortnight; & the other conveyances are very precarious. By that letter M^r TB. sent the disagreeable intelligence of the yellow fever having broke out in Philadelphia; like a good general, I trust, you made a proper retreat in time from the scene of danger, knowing that your life was too valuable to expose to the ravage of such an implacable foe. By the Disease is now well understood, I flatter myself the [undecipherable] of Inoculation has now been vanquished it. — Adieu. my dear, believe me ever with regard Yours [undecipherable] H. Smith The enclosed is a Duplicate of a letter sent for safety by another [undecipherable]. —