1830. Carta de João Dias de Freitas, boticário, para João Dias Alves Branco, mestre de fábrica da pólvora.

Private business letter from João Dias de Freitas, an apothecary, to João Dias Alves Branco, a craftsman.

The author asks the addressee to deliver him «wine», the codename for gunpowder, to a person of their acquaintance.

João Dias Alves Branco was master craftsman in the Royal Factory of Gunpowder in Barcarena, near Lisbon. He was prosecuted for stealing gunpowder from his own factory and trying to sell it to acquaintances of him. He was also accused of an arson attack to a gunpowder factory in Spain and of making counterfeit money.