Letter Signed (“Bolivar”), in Spanish, 3 pp recto and verso, legal folio (conjoining leaves), Angostura, July 2, 1818, to Guillermo White, on official letterhead, pages creased, moderately foxed, minor separation at hinge. Written from Venezuela while preparing for campaign to liberate Columbia, this letter is to Bolivar’s Trinidadian friend Guillermo White. Bolivar announces that he has received important news from Admiral Luis Brion [1782-1821], the naval officer whom he had placed in command of the Admiralty and Marine Corps. According to Bolivar, Brion has returned to Isla de Margarita, the first free territory in Venezuela, to review the ports, most likely in anticipation of the 1819 expedition from Margarita to attack the coast of New Granada. Most intriguing is the suggestion that Bolivar is scheming to incite a war between his enemy, the Spanish Crown, and the United States to the north (two powers that, at the time, were delicately negotiating the sale of the Floridas): “La Guerra de Los Estados Unidos con la Espana completa la obra de nuestro Independencia (The war of the United States with Spain will complete the work of our independence.)” Provenance: Sold Sotheby’s London, June 11, 2002. See illustration.
Letter Signed (“Bolivar”), in Spanish, 3 pp recto and verso, legal folio (conjoining leaves), Angostura, July 2, 1818, to Guillermo White, on official letterhead, pages creased, moderately foxed, minor separation at hinge. Written from Venezuela while preparing for campaign to liberate Columbia, this letter is to Bolivar’s Trinidadian friend Guillermo White. Bolivar announces that he has received important news from Admiral Luis Brion [1782-1821], the naval officer whom he had placed in command of the Admiralty and Marine Corps. According to Bolivar, Brion has returned to Isla de Margarita, the first free territory in Venezuela, to review the ports, most likely in anticipation of the 1819 expedition from Margarita to attack the coast of New Granada. Most intriguing is the suggestion that Bolivar is scheming to incite a war between his enemy, the Spanish Crown, and the United States to the north (two powers that, at the time, were delicately negotiating the sale of the Floridas): “La Guerra de Los Estados Unidos con la Espana completa la obra de nuestro Independencia (The war of the United States with Spain will complete the work of our independence.)” Provenance: Sold Sotheby’s London, June 11, 2002. See illustration.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
