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Signed by the father of Agustin Zamorano

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Title: Secretarial Shipping Document Signed as Treasurer and Commissary of War of the Spanish Province of Florida
Author: Zamorano, [Don Gonzalo]
Description: One page document, in secretarial hand, signed. 1 page on folded sheet. 23x19 cm. (9x7½").Summary of the entrance and departure of ten commercial vessels – notably including, the Sloop "La Amistad" - bearing the same name as the infamous Cuban slave ship seized in 1839 by rebellious enslaved Africans who were later set free by a landmark Supreme Court decision. This was a time of undeclared Naval War between the United States and the French Republic, then allied with Spain, and several of the ships named in this document may have been American commercial vessels seized by Spanish or French privateers. Don Gonzalo Zamorano, born in Spain in 1741, received his first government appointment in the Spanish colonies in 1775, as an official of the Royal Treasury of Cuba. When Britain ceded East Florida to Spain after the American Revolution, in 1784 Zamorano and his newly-wed bride moved to St. Augustine, capital of the new colonial province. There he performed duties as provincial treasurer and military commissary, remaining in Florida for 25 years to raise a large family, including his son Agustin, born the year before his father signed this document. In 1810, the Zamoranos moved to Mexico, where young Agustin grew to manhood, living through the Revolution by which "New Spain" become an independent nation, then, as a young Army Ensign, attached to the first Mexican Governor of the Territories of California, with capitals at Monterey and at San Diego - where his father died in 1827. Agustin Zamorano rose rapidly in the small territorial hierarchy, serving briefly as Governor, and, more importantly, in 1834, becoming the first official printer of Alta California - for which pioneering service his name has long been celebrated among California bibliophiles. Only one autograph example of the younger Zamorano has appeared at auction in the last 40 years - and none of his father.
Heading: Place Published: San Augustin de la Florida
Publisher:
Date Published: July 17, 1799