GEORGE ROGERS CLARK Selected Papers From The 1985 And 1986 George Rogers Clark Trans-Appalachian Frontier History Conferences

Oliver Pollock's activities during the American Revolution are well known to students of history. His role as the congressional agent at New Orleans has earned him a deserved reputation as "The Financier of the Revolution in the West." [1] He arranged shipments of gun powder from Spain and Cuba to George Washington's army in 1776 and 1777. He is best known, however, for his supply efforts which provisioned the military expedition of James Willing down the Mississippi River and his substantial financial support of George Rogers Clark, this latter in large measure enabling that American commander to hold the Illinois country.

Pollock's financial contributions to the Revolution have been the subject of investigations by two historians in particular: James A. James and J. G. Randall. [2] These scholars, making extensive use of the ledger books of George Rogers Clark and the records of the Continental Congress, have provided an accurate account of the tremendous amount of money and supplies which Pollock advanced for the American cause. This is only part of the story. It does not explain how Pollock raised the money to support Willing and Clark. This paper will address that issue.

The documents and financial records upon which James and Randall based their studies of Pollock were not the contemporary accounts kept by the merchant. Pollock's personal papers, including his financial records, were destroyed by fire when a Federal gunboat shelled his family's plantation at Bayou Sarah, Louisiana during the Civil War. [3] Lacking these, all historical investigations of Pollock until this date have been based upon a variety of legal records, claims papers, and memorials which were presented after the fact to various authorities either by Pollock or his creditors during the 1790's or early 1800's. These documents provide general information about the money owed to the New Orleans merchant by the United States or the State of Virginia, but they do not permit the historian to reconstruct Pollock's personal finances on a transaction-by-transaction basis during the American Revolution.

My investigations in the archives of Spain and the notarial records of the City of New Orleans, however, have located a relatively large holding of previously unused materials directly related to Pollock's personal finances dur ing the 1770's and 1780's. Research in these documents supports the basic conclusions offered by historians such as James and Randall regarding the total amount of support which Pollock advanced for the American cause. It also sheds new light on the merchant's personal financial situation during the revolt. Their studies characterized Pollock as a wealthy merchant of substantial fortune with ample cash reserves, but my review of the methods which he employed to finance the American expeditions in the West suggests otherwise. An overview of the strategies by which he raised money highlights a previously unconsidered side of Pollock. What emerges is a portrait of an under-capitalized, middle class merchant of limited means struggling with short term, deficit financing in order to support the American cause.

An understanding of Pollock's activities as a general merchant specializing in the Latin American trade is important in assessing the nature of his personal wealth. Born in Ireland, Pollock moved to the Pennsylvania frontier as a young man. By the late 1750's he had become a resident of Philadelphia, where he forged lasting bonds with successful merchants including Robert Morris. After a short time, Pollock moved to Havana where he represented the firm of William and Morris in Cuba. There he joined in the activities of Havana's Irish and Italian Roman Catholic merchant communities, which included Alexander Munro, Geronimo Enrile and Geronomo LaChiapelli. These individuals, including Pollock, were heavily involved in the slave trade, a commerce permitted foreign merchants by the laws of Spain. [4]

In 1769, Pollock went to New Orleans, following on the heels of the military expedition sent from Cuba to assert Spain's control of Louisiana. General Alejandro O'Reilly, its commander, awarded Pollock a contract to supply New Orleans with flour. This contract provided Pollock with the firm base upon which he established a successful merchant house in Louisiana. [5] Pollock quickly opened a profitable trade between Spanish New Orleans and Philadelphia by way of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic. Still acting as agent for Willing and Morris, he invested in plantation lands along the Mississippi for his backers. Between 1772 and 1776, Pollock bought four large plantations along the Mississippi and Amite Rivers in British West Florida. Most of the capital for these land investments came from profits which he earned in the slave trade. One parcel thirteen miles above Manchak on the Mississippi, for example, was bought from Phillip Comyn in direct exchange for slaves. [6]

In fact, much of Pollock's operating capital seems to have been generated by trading in slaves, both in Spanish Louisiana and British West Florida. His first major sale came in March 1773, when he imported eighty blacks. All of them were apparently recent arrivals in the New World since the bills of sale described them as "brutish males, females, and children who were not baptized." In 1774, Pollock undertook a trip to the Atlantic coast, returning with "a good number of Negroes" News of this shipment caused considerable interest along the Mississippi Valley as planters in West Florida and Louisiana contacted Pollock about selling slaves.

Pollock also brokered slaves already in the region. Members of the Spanish government in Louisiana and their families seemed to favor Pollock as a supplier of slaves. Bernardo de Otero, the colonial treasurer, bought three house servants from Pollock. Don Joseph de Peña, commander of Natchitoches post, traded Pollock a slave originally brought from the Red River. Although Pollock showed a profit in most of these transactions, there was always an element of risk. In February 1776, for example, he purchased a thirty-two year old mulatto woman named Teresa from Doña Luisa Gromel for 500 pesos. After almost eighteen months, Pollock finally sold Teresa to Andreas Reynaud for the amount originally paid.

Pollock's other commercial transactions rested on a wide variety of commodities besides slaves, although these did not produce as much income for him. As a merchant, he traded in goods imported into the Mississippi Valley from the Atlantic Coast or England. During 1772, Pollock took Thomas Willing's brother James as a partner in the operation of trading posts at Natchez and Manchac. The Willings were one of Pennsylvania's best established mercantile families. Pollock operated as a correspondent all along the river for the parent firm of Willing and Morris. He seems to have specialized in the importation of flour and manufactured goods to the Mississippi Valley. Exports of wood, peltry and some tobacco insured profits for him in return. [8]

As well, Pollock engaged in private banking, especially dealing in Bills of Exchange. As part of these services, he loaned money at interest. A typical transaction was his loan to one Franciso Mainard of the Arkansas post for over a thousand pesos. In return Pollock required of Mainard collateral of a farm, the house on it, five horses, twenty-six cows and the maize crop produced during 1773. Pollock also traded in real estate. He bought a house on Royal Street in New Orleans at public auction in December 1777, reselling it to James Harris less than three months later. Pollock as well increased his personal land holdings in West Florida, buying land along the Mississippi. [9] By 1776, Oliver Pollock had emerged a prosperous merchant in New Orleans. He was able to invest in lucrative ventures and had capital for various business transactions. Much of his wealth, however, existed in the form of land investments, thereby limiting its liquidity. Other than the regular sale of slaves, he engaged in no commercial activity which generated large amounts of specie.

The American Revolution had an immediate impact on the lower Mississippi Valley because of the proximity of British West Florida to Spanish Louisiana. [10] Oliver Pollock quickly became a partisan of the American cause. Largely through his efforts, envoys of the Continental Congress and the Virginia state militia were welcomed in New Orleans by the Spanish Government. By 1776, Pollock had become the unofficial agent and spokesman in lower Mississippi Valley for the American rebels. In early 1778, he received an official appointment from the Continental Congress as its agent in Louisiana. He also received a similar commission from the Governor of Virginia on behalf of that state. For the next four years, he steadfastly supported the American cause by arranging for supplies and money to meet rebel needs. [18]

Pollock's first major opportunity to fulfill his commission came with his efforts to supply the American force led by James Willing. [12] These activities, although not related directly to the George Rogers Clark expedition, assume some importance for understanding later events. The methods of generating cash (especially the sale of slaves and the issuing of Bills of Exchange) which Pollock later employed for Clark in the Illinois country were first used by the New Orleans merchant to underwrite Willing. Unlike in the later case of George Rogers Clark, these efforts on behalf of Willing were successful.

James Willing had been a personal associate of Pollock prior to the Revolution. Unable to prosper in Spanish Louisiana, he returned to Philadelphia at the start of the revolt. Willing thereupon petitioned Congress for permission to lead a military expedition against West Florida. By the early spring of 1778, he was commanding a small force of Americans as they floated down the river plundering the holdings of West Florida planters. [13] Willing and his men took valuable prizes, including a large number of slaves. Upon arriving at New Orleans, Pollock interceded with the Spanish Governor to have Willing granted freedom of the city and the right to sell the expedition's prizes. Governor Bernardo de Gálvez, primarily because of Pollock's support, permitted the Americans to dispose of their plunder, but only after an investigation insuring that the prizes had been obtained according to the customs of war. In some cases, Willing could not establish such. For example, the governor ordered the return of a slave belonging to George Ross, the boat Neptune, the goods of Stephen Shakespear, slaves belonging to Pansset and Marshall and a batteaux belonging to a Mr. Rapicault. Willing, however, was permitted to sell most of the seized goods including the majority of the slaves. [14]

On April 6 and 8, 1778, Pollock sponsored a public auction at which the Americans disposed of the majority of the slaves taken during the Willing raid. In all, seventy-four slaves crossed the block, raising a total of 16,518 pesos for Pollock and Willing. Leading citizens of Spanish Louisiana, including Antonio de Marigny, Philipe de Mandeville, Gilbert Antonio St. Maxent and Carlos Oliver, all purchased slaves, although in many cases cash money was not on hand to complete the sales. Pollock met this lack of specie by financing most of the transactions on promissory notes due the following January first. [15]

It was only a few months after this auction that Pollock received his first requests for financial support from Lieutenant-Colonel George Rogers Clark. The Committee of Commerce of the Continental Congress had earlier instructed Pollock to support Clark's expedition and purchase in New Orleans any supplies which it required. Aware of this, Clark wrote to the Louisiana merchant on July 18, 1778, informing him that "I have succeeded agreeable to my wishes and am necessitated to draw bills on the state and have reason to believe that they will be accepted by you, the answering of which will be acknowledged by his Excellency, the Governor of Virginia." [16] The support provided by Pollock came in two forms: the Bills of Exchange which Clark gave to Illinois area merchants drawn on Pollock and actual materials purchased in New Orleans for shipment north up the river system. Pollock kept careful record of these amounts, noting both the Bills which he received and the supplies which he purchased.

The successful slave sales which financed the Willing raid impressed Pollock with the additional profits which could come to the American cause by raiding British slave holders in West Florida. Pollock's men thus captured British sympathizer David Ross's schooner, the Dispatch, in the late summer of 1778. It had aboard some fifty slaves and one hundred barrels of flour. Although Ross requested restoration of his property from the Spanish government, his solicitations were in vain. Pollock sold the captured slaves and used the money to purchase goods and supplies for Clark. [17]

These profits convinced Pollock to regularize this source of income. Willing's men had earlier captured a small British vessel on the Mississippi. Pollock outfitted this vessel as an American privateer, naming it the Morris in honor of his Philadelphia associate. He commissioned William Pickles as her captain. The Morris immediately began raiding English plantations along Lake Ponchartrain and Mississippi Sound. The taking of slaves to finance the American cause seems to be one of its primary motivations. In October 1779, Pickles arrived in New Orleans with a prize of thirteen blacks whom he had taken from a British subject living on the coast near Mobile. Pickles petitioned Martin Navarro, the acting governor in Bernardo de Gálvez's absence, for permission to sell the slaves at public auction. After examining the cargo, Navarro approved the sale. Two government appraisers fixed the value of the slaves at 1,260 pesos. At noon on October 12, the slaves captured by the Morris were offered at public auction under the direction of Navarro. Eight of the slaves were purchased, but the remaining went unsold. It took two additional sales before the remainder of the slaves found buyers. Even with the paucity of purchasers on the first day, the total sale netted the Americans almost 600 pesos over the pre-sale appraisal. [18]

These slave sales provided an initial fund of money which could be diverted easily to the American cause. Pollock was thus able to meet fully Clark's initial requests for assistance and, in so doing, perhaps unintentionally gave the American commander and his subordinates the impression that ample support was to be had on his behalf. The following year witnessed the arrival in New Orleans of a continuing series of Bills drawn on Pollock by American commanders in the Illinois region. [19]

In many cases, Pollock had no prior knowledge of these Bills until the time at which creditors presented them to him for payment. By the end of 1779, his ability to pay these Bills had been outstripped both by the lack of cash on hand and his inability to raise funds. His chances to sell slaves had been seriously curtailed by several factors: the Revolution had reduced routine slave-trading in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean; his earlier successes in capturing slaves from neighboring English subjects had diminished the supply; and the military victories of Louisiana Governor Gálvez in British West Florida during 1779 and 1780 brought the region, including its residents, under the protection of Spain, an informal ally of the Americans.

Pollock therefore resorted to four additional measures which he hoped would generate cash for Clark and the Illinois posts. First, he borrowed money from the Spanish Government. In all, Governor Bernardo de Gálvez lent the American agent more than 74,000 pesos. Second, Pollock borrowed freely from individual merchants in New Orleans, creating an almost thirty thousand dollar debt guaranteed by his personal assets. [38] Third, he enlisted the assistance of other merchants who sold him supplies on credit against eventual repayment by the American government. He received, for example, numerous supplies from the New Orleans merchant Daniel Clark, an anglo trader not related to Colonel Clark. The merchant Clark kept a detailed accounting of the various materials furnished. Fourth, Pollock began transferring the Bills of Exchange to other investors who were willing to purchase them at discount against future repayment at face value. Some of the investors in this latter funding-raising attempt were Louisiana residents Martin Navarro, Narciso Alba, Mario Olivares and Santiago Beauregard. [31]

New Orleans investors were willing to purchase these Bills as speculative ventures largely because of the public support given Pollock by Thomas Jefferson, who then served as Governor of Virginia. Jefferson had earlier written the Governor of Louisiana, noting that the State of Virginia had created a trust account with the French firm of Penet, Da Costa and Feres to cover Bills of Exchange written by George Rogers Clark and his subordinates. Virginia, through the congressional agents in Europe, would be selling tobacco and other products to maintain these accounts. Jefferson subsequently instructed Pollock to present Bills from the Illinois country for payment to the French firm. Based upon this information, Pollock instead transferred the Bills to local New Orleans investors in an effort to increase his short-term cash reserves. Santiago Monlon, the Creole planter and merchant, became the heaviest investor in these Bills. [33]

In early 1781, Pollock's ability to finance the American debt without sufficient cash on hand or collateral came to an end. In January of that year, Lieutenant Robert George, the American commander at Fort Jefferson, drew a Bill of Exchange on Pollock in the total amount of $237,320, a sum greater than all of Pollock's personal assets. [33] As well, the debt which the New Orleans merchant had already created in the name of the State of Virginia and the Continental Congress was considerable. He owed the government of Louisiana some 74,087 pesos which had been borrowed in the name of the Continental Congress. In addition, he was a debtor in the additional amount of 29,440 pesos to various New Orleans residents including Bernardo de Otero, Joseph Foucher, Narciso Alba, Luis Toutant Beauregard, Juan Prieto and others. [34] Pollock's ability to maintain solvency ended when the French merchant firm of Penet, Da Costa and Feres refused to honor the Bills of Exchange supported by the State of Virginia. That state had failed to make deposits to its trust account. Since Pollock had already renegotiated these French Bills of Exchange with local residents in Louisiana, he rather than Virginia became personally liable for them with the creditors. The refusal of the French Bills left him penniless. Bankruptcy was his only recourse.

Pollock embarked on a full-scale selling of his personal possessions in an effort to reconcile with his creditors. In January and February 1782, Pollock liquidated his holdings. On January 29, he began to sell his slaves at auction. He owned half interest in four slaves with William Henderson, who purchased Pollock's half interest. Francisco Bouligny, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, bought a slave couple for 602 pesos. Joseph Porell, Julian Vienna, Patrick Conway and Maurice Conway were among the other buyers. In all, Pollock sold a full interest in fifteen slaves for a total price of 5,846 pesos. [25]

Pollock sold his residential property in New Orleans along with some of his upriver lands. These transactions were not without their legal difficulties. In one case, Pollock sought to sell two estates which he had been managing for Willing and Morris. The plantation manager, Alexander Henderson, brought suit against him in New Orleans courts in an effort to stop the sale proceedings. Henderson contended that Pollock owed him unpaid salary, had failed to reimburse for expenses incurred in buying supplies, and that Pollock's accounts were in error. In return, Pollock charged Henderson with improperly paying carpenters and jobbers on the plantation, not accounting for two year's worth of rice crops, squandering a year's hire of thirty-four slaves who were supposedly kept in idleness, and incurring unnecessary medical expenses for the slaves. This dispute was submitted to a board of arbitration following Spanish legal custom. The court appointed two arbitrators who examined the claims. They were unable to reach a decision and recommended that the matter be referred to Willing and Morris in Philadelphia. [26]

Pollock, however, did not wait for a complete resolution of his failing business matters in New Orleans. In late April 1782, he requested a passport from Governor Esteban Miró in order to leave Louisiana and return to the Atlantic coast. Pollock saw this as the only successful way to convince Congress to pay the loans he had negotiated in New Orleans on its behalf. He thus left for Philadelphia and what he hoped would be an end to his financial troubles. His absence from Louisiana would last six years, take him to a Cuban prison, and see both Congress and the State of Virginia question his claims for reimbursement. [27] He did not receive full compensation for his debts from the State of Virginia until 1813.

The story of Pollock's subsequent career is well-known to the readers of studies by James A. James and J. G. Randall. It needs little elaboration here. What does emerge from a study of Pollock's personal finances of the Revolutionary era, however, indicates that he was not the person of considerable financial substance as portrayed by his biographers. Although a person of comfortable means, Pollock was still building his fortune when the American Revolution came to the Mississippi Valley. A review of his liquidated assets indicates that he was not wealthy, especially when his holdings are compared to those of New Orleans residents Luis Toutant Beauregard and Santiago Monlon who enjoyed such reputations. Aside from land-holding and slaves amounting to approximately thirty thousand dollars, his prosperity instead rested on profits from trade and commerce. As long as he was able to engage in these mercantile activities, especially slave-trading, Pollock could generate the capital necessary to support the American cause. When the fortunes of the revolt diminished this trade, Pollock resorted to various means of short term financing in order to maintain cash on hand. All of these measures proved inadequate and his efforts resulted in a financial disaster which would take him the rest of his life to rectify.

FOOTNOTES

¹The best biographical treatment of Pollock is James A. James, Oliver Pollock: The Life and Time of an Unknown Patriot (Indianapolis, 1937). See also: John Walton Caughey, Bernardo de Gálvez in Louisiana, 1776-1783 (Berkeley, California, 1934); William F. Mulloney, "Oliver Pollock: Catholic Patriot and Financier of the American Revolution," Historical Records and Studies of the U. S. Catholic Historical Society, (1937), 164-236.

²The classic study of Pollock's supply efforts on behalf of the military forces in the Illinois country is: J. G. Randall, "George Rogers Clark's Service of Supply, Mississippi Valley Historical Review, (1921), 250-263. See as well an earlier study on this subject: Margaret B. Downing, "Oliver Pollock: Patriot and Financier," Illinois Catholic Historical Review 2 (October 1919), 196-207.

³Horace E. Hayden, A Biographical Sketch of Oliver Pollock (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1883), p. 6.

⁴James, Oliver Pollock, pp. 4-6; Horace E. Hayden, A Biographical Sketch of Oliver Pollock (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1883), pp. 6-19; William Henry Egle, Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical, Chiefly Relating to Interior Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1894), I, pp. 475-481.

⁵Oliver Pollock to the Captain General of Cuba, June 22, 1796, Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain (hereafter referred to as AGI), Papeles de Cuba, Legajo 1469; Pollock to Lúis de las Casas, July 14, 1796, Ibid.; Pollock's contract was for the supply of flour. For the Cabildo deliberations on the scarcity of this commodity, see Actas del Cabildo, New Orleans, October 5, 1770, August 2, 1771 and August 16, 1771, Vol. I, p. 20, 32, 33, WPA Transcripts in Spanish on Microfilm, New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, Louisiana.

⁶For Pollock's land purchases, see: State Land Office, Baton Rouge, Greensburg Land Claims, Book II, Part II, pp. 69, 94, 109-110; American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. III, p. 46, and Vol. IV, p. 313; Orleans Parish Notary Archives, Civil District Courts, New Orleans, Louisiana (hereafter referred to as Orleans Notary Archives), Acts of Andres Almonaster y Rojas, Vol. 9, March 5, 1778, f. 176. The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress contains several maps by British cartographers which note lands owned by Pollock: "Map of the Mississippi River from the Mount of the Yazoo River to the Southern Part of Louisiana, 1774:" and "Plan of the Rivers Mississippi, Iberville, Mobile and Bay of Pensacola in the Province of West Florida, September 1772; Phillip Comyns to Oliver Pollock, January 21, 1774, Peter Force Collection, Library of Congress (hereafter referred to as Force, LC).

⁷Orleans Notary Archives, Acts of Juan Baptista Garic, Vol. 4, March 10, 1773, f. 73; David Hodge to Oliver Pollock, February 14, 1775, Force, LC; Orleans Notary Archives, Acts of Andres Almonaster y Ro jas, Vol. 3, September 1, 1773, f. 225 and Vol. 6, February 6, 1776; Acts of Juan Baptista Garic, Vol. 7, February 1, 1776, f. 32 and Vol. 8, November 25, 1777, f. 437.

⁸"Partido de Nueva Orleans," June 15, 1778, AGI, Papeles de Cuba, Lagajo 191; John Blommart to Oliver Pollock, January 29, 1775, Force, LC; Oliver Pollock to General Frederick Haldimand, December 1, 1772, Haldimand Papers, British Museum Additional Manuscripts, Library of Congress.

⁹Orleans Notary Archives, Acts of Andres Almonaster y Rojas, Vol. 23, March 4, 1773, f. 45, Vol. 4, March 7, 1774, f. 68, Vol. 8, February 15, 1777, f. 130; Acts of Juan Baptista Garic, Vol. 5, July 30, 1774, f. 143, Vol. 8, July 8, 1777, f. 280.

¹⁰J. Barton Starr, Tories, Dons, and Rebels: The American Revolution in British West Florida, (Gainesville, Florida, 1976), pp. 87-88; Caughey, Bernardo de Gálvez, pp. 112-113.

¹¹James, Oliver Pollock, pp. 113-114.

¹²Robert V. Haynes, The Natchez District and the American Revolution, (Jackson, Mississippi, 1976), pp. 62-66, 73.

¹³John W. Caughey, "Willing's Expedition Down the Mississippi, 1778" Louisiana Historical Quarterly 15 (January 1932), pp. 5-36.

¹⁴Bernardo de Gálvez to Jóse de Gálvez, March 11, 1778, nos. 130 and 131, AGI, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, Legajo, 2547, folios 445-457, 461-462. For a list of prizes returned, see Ibid., f. 546.

¹⁵Orleans Notary Archives, Acts of Juan Baptista Garic, Vol. 9, April 6-8, 1778, ff. 202-224.

¹⁶James, Oliver Pollock, p. 140; James A. James, George Rogers Clark Papers, 1771-1781 Vol. 3 (Springfield, Illinois, 1912), p. 55.

¹⁷David Ross to Bernardo de Gálvez, April 11, 1778, Public Record Office, London, Colonial Office (PRO/CO) 5, p. 631.

¹⁸Presa hecha por el Corsario la Corbetta de la Fragta. la Moreis de los Estados Unidos de America Capn. Guillermo Pickles," no. 116, 1779, AGI, Papeles de Cuba, Legajo 701.

¹⁹For examples of these Bills, see: Orleans notary Archives, Acts of Leonard Mazange, Vol. 5, February 5, 1781, f. 72.

²⁰"Lista de los creditos que contra si tiene en la Luisiana Don Olivero Pollock," February 19, 1789, AGI, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, Legajo 253, f. 627.

²¹Orleans Notary Archives, Acts of Rafael Perdomo, Vol. 13, May 5, 1789, ff. 230-250.

²²Thomas Jefferson to Bernardo de Gálvez, November 8, 1779, AGI, Papeles de Cuba, Legajo 2370; Santiago Monlon v. Oliver Pollock, April 20, 1782 (1), Spanish Judicial Records, Louisiana Historical Center, Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans.

²³Robert George to Oliver Pollock, January 1, 1781, in James, George Rogers Clark Papers, Vol. 3, p. 496.

²⁴"Resolution Setting Forth the Value of Oliver Pollock's Services as U. S. Commercial Agent at New Orleans during the Revolution and Urging a Settlement of his Accounts," October 22, 1782. Parsons Collection, Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin; Orleans Notary Archives, Acts of Rafael Perdomo, Vol. 13, January 16, 1789, f. 19, and Acts of Leonard Mazange, Vol. 3, February 1781, f. 66.

²⁵For representative liquidations see: Orleans Notary Archives, Acts of Andres Almonaster y Rojas, Vol. 13, February 5, 1782, f. 99; Acts of Leonard Mazange, Vol. 2, August 7, 1780, f. 621, Vol. 3, March 3 and April 11, 1781, ff. 171, 248, Vol. 4, November 6, 1781, f. 495, Vol. 5, January 28 and February 4, 1782, f. 102, 136.

²⁶"Proceedings instituted by Don Olivero Pollock for the purpose of settling certain accounts with his principals through an arbitration board," April 27, 1782 (1), Spanish Judicial Records, Louisiana Historical Center.

²⁷Oliver Pollock to Esteban Miró, April 27, 1782, AGI, Papeles de Cuba, Legajo 2370.