TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT OF PORTUGAL.
SIRE,
In the long conflict which terminated by severing the ties that
attached the ancient colonies, now the United States of America,
to the mother country, Great-Britain, the Portuguese government,
equitable in its policy to the former, and faithful to its alliance with
the latter, could only have been expected to preserve a strict neutrality.
Some time after the conclusion of that war, it was my
destiny to have been employed on a public mission to her most
Faithful Majesty, for the purpose of cementing and consolidating
the friendship of our two governments and nations. Commercial
and friendly relations, I will dare to say mutually beneficial, of
an enlarged and valuable nature were formed. To have been the
the first Minister from the Unites States of America to Portugal;
to have been instrumental in opening an extensively advantageous
intercourse between the inhabitants of the two countries; to have
never been involved in any unpleasant discussion; and to have enjoyed
the uninterrupted favour of the Royal Family of Braganza,
when accredited as a diplomatic agent near its chief for more
than seven years, are circumstances which will continue to be remembered,
with conscious pleasure, to the latest period of my life.
And never shall I hesitate to acknowledge, with manly gratitude,
the liberal and amicable conduct of the cabinet of Lisbon towards
the United States as a nation, and myself as their representative.
Nor ought my acknowledgments to be expressed with less deference
or cordiality for the distinguished treatment which I experienced
in the particular audience recently accorded by the Prince
Regent of Portugal to me, in my private character, when he signified
his great satisfaction at being presented with the following
Poem.
The Poem, which treats of the national industry of the United
States, was composed on the delightful banks of the Tagus, while
I was thus honourably occupied on a public mission, and when my
days were pleasantly passed in the enjoyment of health, happiness,
and content. To whom, then, could it with more propriety be
addressed than to the Prince Regent of Portugal?
Actuated by a lively sense of such enviable distinction, I offer
sthe tribute of sincerity in inscribing this Poem as a testimony of respect
for a “just Prince;” an appellation which I had the most
satisfactory reasons for applying
when I took leave of the Court
of Lisbon, in 1797, and which has since been confirmed by almost
innumerable titles. If, Sire, I have ever wished for a capacity of
paying a still larger tribute of honour where it is most due, it was
that your princely and personal virtues might be as advantageously
known to the remotest posterity as to the existing generation.
With these sentiments of your munificent public and exemplary
private conduct,
I have the honour to profess myself,
Sire,
Your Royal Highness's most devoted
And most humble servant,
D. HUMPHREYS.
Lisbon, April 14, 1802.
