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title: Official letter from Martín Navarro, New Orleans, to Fernando José Mangino, Mexico
Subject: Documents, Correspondence, Business & finance
Date created ms: 1788-02-28, 1788-02-28
Abstract: Martín Navarro, the Intendant in Louisiana, wrote to the Superintendent of the Casa de Moneda [the Royal Treasury-Mint] in Mexico, Fernando José Mangino, about the state of finances of the Royal Treasury in Louisiana and the late arrival of funds from Mexico. Navarro had received notification that, owing to extraordinary demands on the Treasury in Mexico, the Province of Louisiana was not to receive its entire allotment for the second half of 1787. Savings effected by the Royal Treasury at Veracruz resulted in a balance of 88,132 pesos in favor of the Province of Louisiana. The money was to be shipped to the colony via Havana and would be used to cover past expenditures. If the balance of funds needed was not forthcoming, the consequences would be detrimental to the Province. There was persistent rumors of an impending attack by the Americans which, along with the well-founded fears of the Louisianians, was another reason for not suspending the allotment.

title: Articles of agreement between Robert Brazil and Thomas Rill, both at the Opelousas post
Subject: Documents, Business & finance, Deals
Date created ms: 1788-10-22, 1788-10-22
Abstract: Before Nicholas Forstall, Commandant of the Opelousas post, appeared Robert Brazil, who obligated himself to cut for Thomas Rill 4,000 cypress stakes, each ten feet long, from the cypress grove at Prairie Basse. Rill agreed to pay five piastres per hundred, but if Brazil failed to deliver the stated quantity before December 15, he had to pay Rill one hundred piastres.

title: Personal letter from Prieur, Barcelona, to [Prosper Prieur?], [New Orleans]
Subject: Documents, Correspondence, Business & finance
Date created ms: 1788-03-14, 1788-03-14
Abstract: [Prieur wrote in the familiar form.] He stated that he was in Barcelona to establish a branch of his Montpellier business house. Most of the letter concerned the sinking of the ship Jeune Joseph at the mouth of the Mississippi, with a total loss of cargo. Prosper Prieur, who had been aboard, had escaped death and arrived safely in New Orleans, which news the writer had heard from the firm of Baudoin and Vignes of Bordeaux. Prieur inquired about Mme Vigaraux (née Fides), his mother's niece.

title: Account of the fire that devastated New Orleans
Subject: Documents, Fires
Date created ms: 1788-03-21, 1788-03-21
Abstract: This printed account described the catastrophic fire that destroyed a large part of New Orleans in 1788. The fire broke out about 1:30 P.M. in the center of town. A strong wind quickly spread the flames in all directions. In less than five hours more than 850 buildings had been destroyed. "The next morning," the report continued, "what a spectacle to see: where the day before was a flourishing city, only smoking debris and a pile of ruins remained..., and persons of both sexes and all ages and stations in life wandered about in a silent stupor." The account ended with praise for the Governor and other officials, who gave generous assistance to the people. [Various accounts of the fire appear in Lauro A. de Rojas, "The Great Fire of 1788 in New Orleans," LHQ, XX, 578-589, in which is included a translation of the above report, and in Louisiana Historical Society, Publications, VIII, 59-62.]

title: Marguerite emancipation record, 1788 February 3.
Subject: African Americans, History, 18th century, Free African Americans, Louisiana, Opelousas, Slave records, Louisiana, Opelousas, Slaves, Emancipation, Louisiana, Opelousas, De Villiers, Joseph, born 1747, Women slaves, Louisiana, Opelousas, African American women, Louisiana, Opelousas, Marguerite, active 1788, Legal documents
Date created ms: 1788-02-03
Abstract: A legal document in which Joseph de Villiers grants liberty to his slave, Marguerite, who is described as a mulatto. In French.

title: Map of Louisiana from D'Anville's Atlas
Date created ms: 1767, 1788
Abstract: 1 map 42 x 55 cm.

title: Jean Baptiste emancipation record, 1788 August 1.
Subject: African Americans, History, 18th century, Free African Americans, Louisiana, Opelousas, Slave records, Louisiana, Opelousas, Slaves, Emancipation, Louisiana, Opelousas, Racially mixed people, Louisiana, Opelousas, Forstal, Nicholas, born 1727, Legal documents
Date created ms: 1788-08-01
Abstract: A legal document granting liberty to Jean Baptiste, described as a mulatto, after the death of his master, François Marine. The document is in French and is notarized by Nicolas Forstal.

title: Official letter from Martín Navarro, New Orleans, to Fernando José Mangino, Mexico
Subject: Documents, Correspondence, Fires
Date created ms: 1788-03-26, 1788-03-26
Abstract: Martín Navarro, the Intendant in New Orleans, wrote to Fernando José Mangino, Superintendent of the Casa de Moneda in Mexico, regarding the fire of 1788 March 21. The fire had started about 1:30 P.M. in the center of town. A strong south wind fanned the flames and spread the fire so rapidly that in less than four hours three-fourths of the buildings lay in ashes. Fortunately, no lives were lost and all the goods from the Royal Warehouse were saved. Navarro was rationing out foodstuffs and alms from the Royal Warehouse and Treasury to the hapless victims. Supplies were low, however, particularly flour, and Navarro had had to use money from the Treasury to hire ship captains to procure food. The depleted condition of the Treasury and the misgivings about an attack by Americans increased the need for quick monetary assistance from the Treasury in Mexico, and thus Navarro repeated the request made in his letter of February 28 [q.v.] for a prompt remittance of the Province's entire support allotment.

title: Map of Louisiana from D'Anville's Atlas
Date created ms: 1788, 1788
Name: Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon (1697-1782)

title: Map of Louisiana from D'Anville's Atlas
Date created ms: 1788, 1788
Name: Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon (1697-1782)

title: Beltran Gravier petition, before 1797
Subject: Spanish, Louisiana, History, 18th century, Women landowners, Louisiana, New Orleans, African Americans, History, 18th century, Free African Americans, Louisiana, New Orleans. African American women, Louisiana, New Orleans, Land titles, Registration and transfer, Louisiana, New Orleans, San Juan, Maria (Landowner), Trials, litigation, etc, Gravier, Beltran, died 1797, Trials, litigation, etc, African American landowners, Louisiana, New Orleans
Date created ms: 1788, 1796
Abstract: Petition submitted by mayor Beltran Gravier (i.e., the elder), to [the Governor of the Province of Louisiana?]. Gravier submitted a petition in connection with a suit that he had instituted against Maria San Juan, who is described as a free negro. In an effort to collect money owed to him he had attached a property belonging to her. Gravier named Próspero Prieur as the appraiser to represent his interests in the proceedings. He indicated that the other appraisers should pay particular attention to the deteriorated state of the house and grounds, which had stood abandoned for months. He disagreed with the statements of attorney Felipe Guinault who, according to Gravier, had placed entirely too high a value on the house and the auxiliary buildings. The house was poorly constructed of ships' planks and the shed and kitchen were built with rotten wood. In Spanish.

title: Sale of slave of Edouard Forstall to Baptiste Boutté, both at the Opelousas post
Subject: Documents, Business & finance, Sale of property, Slaves
Date created ms: 1788-09-22, 1788-09-22
Abstract: Before Nicolas Forstall, Commandant of the Opelousas post, appeared Edouard Forstall, who sold to Baptiste Boutté, for 700 piastres cash, a female slave named Charlotte, originally from Martinique, about thirty-five years old.

title: Jean Claude Trénonay to Joseph Allard Duplantier, 1788 Dec. 02
Subject: Duplantier, Armand, 1753-1827, Duplantier, Augustine Gerard, 1762-1799, Health, French, Family relationships, Louisiana, Colonists, Family relationships, Louisiana, Plantation owners, Louisiana, Pointe Coupee Parish, Slaves, Louisiana, Fires, Louisiana, New Orleans
Date created ms: 1788-12-02
Abstract: Claude Trénonay, Pointe Coupée, writes Joseph Allard Duplantier, 'avocat en parlement,' Voiron, France, complaining that the writer's sister must be as lazy about corresponding as is their brother Lagoyette, whom the author believes to be preoccupied with gardening. Trénonay relates his poor health, due in part to renal colic, and how he has handed over the management of his affairs (rendered worrisome by the conduct of slaves) to a 'worthy Englishman.' He mentions the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788 and how victims are still waiting for aid from the Spanish king. Trénonay reports that Duplantier’s son Armand has left the plantation on which he was residing to establish himself on a newly acquired one situated nine leagues from the writer's home. As in the January 3, 1787, letter, Trénonay affirms that Armand and children are in good health, but Armand's wife is not. The writer announces that he will send the recipient and Lagoyette some plants care of 'Messieurs Bassae Alegre et Compagnie' in Le Havre.