To Thomas Jefferson from João, Prince Regent of Portugal, 26 October 1802
From João, Prince Regent of Portugal
Lisbon, 26 Oct. 1802. He announces that his wife, the princess of Brazil, has this day given birth to a son. He knows that the United States will receive this news as another sign of his constant readiness to cultivate the relations of understanding and friendship between the two countries.
RC (DNA: RG 59, Ceremonial Letters); 2 p.; in Portuguese, in a clerk’s hand, signed by João as prince of Brazil and countersigned by João de Almeida de Mello e Castro as secretary of state for foreign affairs and war (see Vol. 35:442n); addressed: “A Os Estados Unidos da America que muito amo e prezo” (“to the United States of America, which I very much love and esteem”); endorsed by Jacob Wagner as received 29 Mch. 1803 and “To be answd.”
The baby born at Queluz Palace in Lisbon on 26 Oct. was the seventh child of João and his wife, Carlota Joaquina. They named the child Miguel (José Correia do Souto, Dicionário de História de Portugal, 6 vols. [Lisbon, 1985], 4:83, 306).