COLLECTION GUIDE
Prepared by Michael F. Fry, June 1980.
Chronologically, the documents fall within the terms of office of Captains General José Merino y Cabellos before 1789, Lucas de Gálvez after that year until 1792, Arturo O'Neill from 1793 until 1800, Benito Pérez y Valdelomar from 1800 to 1811, Manuel Artazo y Forredemer from 1812 to 1815, and Miguel de Castro y Araoz from 1815 to 1820. After independence, numerous Commandants General of Arms follow in quick succession, among them the well-known Antonio López de Santa Anna. Of the 960 letters, more than 230 date from the year 1797, a turbulent year of war in the Atlantic world, and over 400 fall between 1810 and 1815, the period connected with the first movement for Mexican independence.
Topically, these manuscripts may be grouped into three broad areas: economic, military, and legal affairs. In the economic sphere, they deal mainly with the always difficult task supplying the military outposts with maize, clothing, saddles and other provisions. Accordingly, there are records of contracts with civiians for grain, inventories of arms, disputes over the distribution of the spoils of war, agricultural reports of crops grown by the military, and a list of merchants who gave loans to the Treasury.
Militarily, the letters may be divided into those dealing with internal organization and those discussing external threats. Several reports from the garrisons at Campech and Bacalar list deserters, illnesses, vagrants inducted into the army, and battleships under construction. The earlier dispatches concentrate on the British threat, particularly the Belizean strongholds. At times private ships offer their services to the Captain General. Later, apprehension grew over the French. There was concern about French corsairs reportedly arming in New Orleans and the rumor that Bonaparte was sending spies to subvert Spanish rule in the Indies. During the Morelos, movement, letters often report the status of this situation outside Yucatán. After independence concern develops about protection against those countries which opposed independence.
Yet beyond matters dealing strictly with economy or defense, many legal and administrative problems arise. Much correspondence concersn certification of baptisms, promotions, contraband, permission to marry, petitions for pardons, appointments, and pensions.
Finally, a calendar of the collection, prepared as a WPA project under the auspices of the Middle American Research Institute in 1939, provides excellent condensations of the contents of each letter in English. Each document is listed chronologically, and a name index as well as a good glossary of technical Spanish terms used in the letters appear at the end of the calendar. A bound unpublished version of the calendar, bearing the date 1939, has been placed in Box 1 of the collection.
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Last updated: October 30, 1996