TWO LETTERS OF COLONIAL COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE

AUCTION 27 | Tuesday, February 08th, 2005 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Autographed Letters, Manuscripts, Ceremonial & Graphic Art

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Lot 233

(ANGLO-AMERICAN JUDAICA)

TWO LETTERS OF COLONIAL COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE

Two Autograph Letters Signed: 1) pp. (4) Letter from Admiral George-Brydges Rodney to Lord Egremont, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (later, the British Home Office) recommending the intelligence services of Abraham Buzaglo, a long-time resident of Saint Eustatia, “a small Dutch Island in these Seas [i.e., the North-eastern Caribbean].” Admiral Rodney asks that Buzaglo’s name be concealed , “as he [Buzaglo] has effects of a considerable value in Holland.” Evidently, Buzaglo feared Dutch retribution if it became known that it was he who revealed their schemes to the English. Martinique, March 7th, 1762 WITH: An engraving of Admiral Rodney. 1837. 2) pp. (3) Letter from Abraham Buzaglo to Lord Egremont, signed in English “A. Buzaglo” and in Hebrew “Abraham Buzaglo…S[ephardi] T[ahor].” In this lengthy and highly descriptive letter Buzaglo reveals to Lord Egremont the ongoing collusion between “one William Fletcher, one of the Council of Boston” and “Jan D’Windt, Gouvernour of Statius” and the French and Spaniards, providing the latter with “Intelligence, Amunition, or Warlike Stores.” The letter goes on to describe the nefarious activities of “French and English Privateers.” London. May 9th, 1762

Martinique and London: 1762

Est: $8,000 - $10,000

PRICE REALIZED $7,000

A SEPHARDIC JEW FOILS THE “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.” The Buzaglos were an Anglo-Jewish family that originated in Morocco. The most celebrated member of the clan was the renowned kabbalist, Rabbi Shalom Buzaglo (c.1700-1780), author of the commentary Mikdash Melech, which is indispensable to the study of Zohar. Our correspondent, the rabbi’s adventurous brother, Abraham Buzaglo (1710-1782) is the famed inventer of the Buzaglo stove, of which a specimen is to be found in the Governor’s Palace, Colonial Williamsburgh, Virginia. A third brother, Joseph, even more adventursome than Abraham, died in the the Dutch Antilles isle of St. Eustatius in 1767, after leading a life of intrigue. See Cecil Roth, “The Amazing Clan of Buzaglo,” Transactions of Jewish Historical Society of England, Vol. XXIII (1971); Irene Roth, “Sephardic Images Associated with Cecil Roth,” The American Sephardi, Vol. VI, Nos. 1-2 (Winter 1993), pp. 13-15; EJ, Vol. IV, cols. 1544-1545. One needs to view the present correspondence against the backdrop of European colonial interests in the Caribbean. The war Buzaglo alludes to in his letter is known in the United States as the “French and Indian War,” and in Europe as the “Seven Year War” (1756-1763). In this war, England and France vied for control of the North American continent. The Spanish belatedly joined the French against the British in 1762. In retribution, an English expeditionary force occupied Havana, Cuba in that same year. The war was concluded with the treaty of Paris in 1763, whereby France ceded Dominica, Grenada and Tobago to Britain, and Spain ceded Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of Cuba. Employing trops from New York under General Monckton, Admiral Rodney captured Martinique from the French on 16th February 1762, and soon afterwards took Grenada, Santa Lucia and St. Vincent. He was to take the strategically important Dutch island of St. Eustatius during the American War of Independence in 1781. One appreciates that by colluding with the French and Spanish, De Windt, the governor of St. Eustatia, was violating Dutch neutrality