PIRATE BRIGANTINE OF BLACK SLAVES WITH ARGENTINE FLAG, CAPTURED BY THE ENGLISH

Letter to Felipe Arana. Antwerp. November 28, 1835.

Quarto (30.6 x 21.5 cm / 12.04 x 8.46 in), 2 sheets, one in white, the other in period manuscript, indicating “Copy” and with the holographic signature of M. de Yrigoyen. Very good copy. (The full transcript of the letter is provided).

The then consul general of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in the Netherlands informs the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Arana, the news made public with the capture of the "brigantine with black slaves Pezzaro, commanded by a former pirate named Juan Polar, and sailing with the flag of Buenos Ayres has been captured by the English cruise ships at the height of Puerto Seguro do Brasil”.

The aforementioned chronicle abounds in macabre details: "the captain wanted to throw the blacks into the sea, plus the second, and many sailors opposed this atrocity and held Captain Juan Polar, who had fired a pistol at them, in his camera”. In the light of the chronicle, about fifty African slaves and six women were found on board, "all sick because of the mistreatment they have suffered”.

In the middle of the press war against the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, the episode encouraged new international complaints, since the ship was sailing under the national flag. SEH-IX