The Bearer Capt. Wm Thomas of the Scooner Freemason, belonging to & bound for Maryland being the first opportunity that has offer’d for your Excellency’s Neighbourhood Since the War, We with the Greatest Pleasure embrace it, most Sincerely to Congratulate You on the Independence of the United States of North America being so Happily fix’d, & on the General Peace, which has Since taken Place in consequence thereof. This Happy Event, in which Your Excellency Under God was Undoubtedly the Principal Agent, must for ever occasion Us, as Natives & Welwishers to America, as well as all others in that Predicament, to Revere the Great General Washington as long as we live, & We most Ardently Supplicate the Almighty to Grant Your Excellency a long Series of years, Attended with the most Perfect Health & Felicity, that you may live to See & Enjoy the Great Benefits that must Necessarly Result to all the Inhabitants of that New Empire, from this Great & Glorious Event. We call to mind with great Pleasure the Honor which your Excellency conferr’d on Us before the War, of Ordering our House to Ship the Madeira Wines which you had then Occasion for, which Circumstance may however from a Multiplicity of Affairs of so much greater Consequence have escap’d your Memory, but it has not escap’d Ours; And as we are inform’d that choice Old Madeira Wines are exceedingly Scarce & Dear in the United States, we Presum’d it might not be disagreable to your Excellency to receive a small temporary Supply of that Article to go on making Use off untill it may be agreable to you to Comunicate Your orders to Us for a larger One; We therefore have taken the Liberty to put a Couple of Pipes of the choicest Old Madeira Wine of a most excellent Quality & fine Amber Colour on board the Scooner Freemason Capt. William Thomas, which we heartily Wish safe to you & that they may prove to your Excellency’s Liking & for which We inclose Capt. Thomas’s Bill of Lading, & also the Invoice of their amount being £72 Sterling, which when Your Leisure admitts off, You will be pleased to order to be deliver’d for our Accounts to our Relation & Friend Lewis Pintard Esqr. of New York, wch we presume may be more agreable to you than to order it to be paid in Europe, as you us’d to do on former Occasions, but whichever of the Two may be the most Pleasing to Your Excellency, will be the most Agreable to Us. We have desir’d Messr Charles Crookshanks & Co. of Maryland, who are the Owners of the Freemason to take the greatest Care of these Wines, untill it maybe Your Excellency’s Pleasure to Order them to be sent to the place of your Abode, & we are persuaded they will do so Accordingly, & as what we have done on this Occasion is purely from a Motive of giving you Pleasure[.] We shall be extreemly happy in hearing that it meets Your Approbation, And Whatever farther Supply of that Article which you may have Occasion for from Madeira You may Rely on our Shiping with the greatest Punctuality on receiving your Excellency’s Directions, & that it shall be most Excellent Quality. We most Sincerely Wish your Excellency all Possible Health & Felicity, and have the Honor to be with the Highest Respect, Your Excellency’s Most Obedient and Most Faithfull Humble Servants