Captured ship: San Francisco Xavier alias La Perla , Don Josef Perez Muente master...

Captured ship: San Francisco Xavieralias La Perla, Don Josef Perez Muente master (José Pérez de Muente) (former master Don Melchor de Alarcón).

Details: Spanish register ship carrying cargo of silver, gold, copper, wool, cocoa and cascarilla, on voyage from Callao near Lima, Peru, to Cadiz, captured off the Azores by the British privateers Sprightly, James Bett commander, and Shark, William Waring commander, on 29 October 1779.

Documents: nos. 1701 to 1899 (except 1858, 1889, 1895 and 1897), 1901, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1946, 1988, 1995 to 1997, SW 1 to SW 80, and GW 1 to GW 5: c200 personal and business letters (mostly in Spanish) from Lima for onward delivery to Cadiz, Madrid and other destinations; silver warrants (libranza de plata) (nos. SW 1 to SW 80); gold and specie warrants (nos. GW 1 to GW 5); two packets of letters and despatches from the Viceroy of Peru, Don Manuel de Guirior, to the Secretary of State in Madrid, Don Joseph de Galvez, containing, amongst other papers, details of the gold and silver cargo carried in El Buen Consejo(Nuestra Senora de Buen Consejo), dated 3 April 1779 (nos. 1988 and 1997); muster and pay rolls of carpenters and caulkers (named) employed in refitting La Perlain 1773 (no. 1996); 'Relación de las rendiciones de moneda de plata que se han executado en esta Real Casa', 1778 (no. 1862); financial accounts of La Maria, Joseph Pérez de Muente captain, 1760 (no. 1890); no. 1857 includes invoices and bills of lading for goods in El Buen Consejonumbered 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 and 27; receipts from the Treasurer-General of Lima, bills and accounts, clearance certificates and other papers relating to La Perlaand the master's previous ships and their cargos (nos. 1726-1750).

Note: the letters and papers captured from La Perlaare in pieces HCA 30/275 and 276, and 311 to 316, and have been re-ordered, as far as practicable, in one continuous sequence using the original numbers given them by the Prize Court in 1779 (nos. 1 to 1993). The sequence has been extended to no. [2111] for papers which either were never numbered or which have lost their association with an original number through damage or separation.

This re-ordering supersedes the previous bundle numbers used as references in Xabier Lamikiz Trade and Trust in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World(2010). References from that work can be traced using the number of the letter, where given, ignoring the piece and bundle numbers. Refer to the catalogue to find in which piece a particular numbered paper is now located.

See the description of piece HCA 30/275 for a list of items which are known to be somewhere among the papers of La Perlabut it is not known in which piece.

The letters and papers of La Perlaas a whole are written in Spanish, with a few in French, Italian, Latin, English, Portuguese, Catalan and Basque