Doctor Gordon is to deliver you this Letter. He is going to the Land of
his Nativity, wishing for the best Happiness of his own Country & ours
and hoping that mutual Affection will be at length restored, as the
only Means of the prosperity of both. As he determines to spend the
Remainder of his Days in the Country where he was born, what rational
Man who considers the Ties of human Nature will wonder, if "Esto
perpetua" is his most ardent Prayer for her! But the Attachments he has
made here, his private Friendships and the Part he has taken in our
publick Cause afford Reason to believe that his second Wish is for us.
I am affraid however, that the Doctor builds too much upon the Hopes of
the Return of mutual Affection; for Can this exist without Forgivness
of Injury, and Can his Country ever cordially forgive ours whom she
intended to injure so greatly? Her very Disappointment will perpetually
irritate her own Feelings and in Spite of Reason or Religion prevent
her conceiving a Sentiment of Friendship for us. And besides, she will
never believe that there is a Possibility that we can forgive her. We
must therefore be content, at least for a great While to come, to live
with her as a prudent Man will with one who indeed has professd a
Friendship for him, but whose Sincerity he has Reason vehemently to
suspect; guarding against Injury from him by making it his Interest to
do as little as possible. This is an arduous Task our Country has
committed to you. Trade is a Matter I have had so little to do with,
that it is not in my Power to aid you in this more than in any one
thing else. May He who has endued you with a Strength of Understanding
which your Country confides in afford you all that Light which is
necessary for so great an Undertaking!

The Child whom I led by the Hand with a particular Design, I find is
now become a promising youth. He brought me one of your Letters--God bless
the Lad! If I was instrumental at that Time of enkindling the Sparks of