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Autograph Letter Signed by an unidentified official (possibly a Minister of State) of the “Cadiz Cortes”, the liberal constitutional government of Spain during the Anglo-French Peninsular War. Cadiz, Spain. December 18, 1812, 1 page. Text in Spanish. To the Intendente de Exercito at Havana, Cuba. 1 page. 

Untranslated, but concerns the difficulties of administering and financing  “los dos Floridas”, the Spanish colonies troubled by the American acquisition of Louisiana, the political and military chaos of the homeland, and the Anglo-American war which had broken out six months before. Knowing that they lacked the resources to protect their country’s sovereignty in Florida, some Spanish colonial officials at “Panzacola”, administrative capital of West Florida, (like former Intendente Juan Ventura Morales, named in this document) feared the onslaught of the democratic and godless American Republic, which, that very month in Washington, declared its intention of occupying the Floridas before their British enemies might do so. While the formal American acquisition of Florida was still six years away, the Spanish could already read the handwriting on the wall. A rare and significant document of early Florida history during the War of 1812.