1801. Carta de Francisco José de Almeida, membro Sociedade Real de Medicina de Paris, para Dom João de Almeida de Melo e Castro, diplomata.

Letter from Francisco José de Almeida de Melo, a medicine doctor, to his friend João de Almeida de Melo e Castro, a diplomat.

The author excuses himself for his late answer, bus he has been preparing a Memoir to be presented to the Royal Medicine Society of Paris. He tells the addressee how a recently published book on Portugal's Geography was very offensive to the nation. He expects to receive some official help from Portugal's sovereign and travel for his own benefit and the country's. He finishes the letter by hoping that the addressee enjoys the countryside accompanied by his beloved.

João de Almeida de Melo e Castro (1756-1814), the 5th Count of the House of Galveias, was a Portuguese diplomat who, given the pluri-continental nature of the monarchy he represented, had to be very subtle, while dealing with foreign powers, in the management of the resulting Portuguese political ambiguity. He was a plenipotentiary minister in London, the Hague and Rome and an ambassador in Vienna. After 1801 he had different government functions: foreign affairs minister, war minister, navy and overseas minister. He had also several honorary titles. He married Dona Isabel José de Meneses but they had no children, so the 6th Count of Galveias was his brother Francisco (1758-1819).