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COCKBURN (George)
See original version (French)
15
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COCKBURN (George)
See original version (French)
Estimate €500 - €800
Voluntary lot
Description
COCKBURN (George)
Castle [St Helena], 23 May 1816.
Autograph letter signed ‘G. Cockburn’ to [Hudson Lowe].
3 p. ½ gr. in-8, traces of mounting in an album.
The beginning of Napoleon’s exile on Saint Helena.
Admiral Cockburn had been given the task of transporting Napoleon to the island of St Helena aboard the ship the Northumberland. He served as the island’s provisional governor, pending the arrival of Hudson Lowe.
Here he reports on the recruitment carried out to provide for the guard and the care of the illustrious prisoner.
‘Of the persons mentioned in the letter you have sent me from Captain Poppleton, only Alister Vesey and Patrick Sleven were hired with my immediate knowledge and approval.’ He also enlisted the services of a ‘black man to assist in the stables and in the kitchen […] and another to wait upon and cook for the Captain of the Guard and Dr O’Meara, but I know nothing of the person said to be residing with Comte Las Cases, and he was certainly not hired with my sanction or approval. ’ He does, however, state that upon their arrival on the island, the French officers accompanying ‘General Bonaparte’ had engaged ‘servants to attend to their own needs in particular, which did not seem reasonable, as our governments had restricted the number of French servants allowed to accompany them to twelve’. He goes on to specify that, of these twelve people, Napoleon took eleven for himself, and General Bertrand one. The person for whom he is being called to account was probably hired by the Count de Las Cases and taken with him to Longwood.
Finally, he states: ‘I had long seen the inconvenience and impolicy of having people of colour at Longwood, it was therefore with a view to removing the necessity for this (as I have previously remarked to you) that I authorised the sending there of twelve sailors as servants, and I should certainly have sent there as many more as would have enabled me to remove entirely the remaining slaves and Black men had I not been expecting your arrival on a daily basis. ’ Cockburn’s misgivings regarding these employees of colour certainly stemmed from the fear that they might be influenced by the French captives, to the detriment of the British.
Provenance
Public auction, Fontainebleau, Osenat, 24 June 2006, lot 193.
Bibliography
Bondeson (Lars), *Napoleons sista strid* [Napoleon’s Last Battle], BoD, Sweden, 2022, pp. 362–364.
Exhibition
Skånelaholm Castle 2015. Catalogue: *Minnet av Napoleon – 200 år efter Waterloo* [In Memory of Napoleon – 200 Years After Waterloo], lot 53, pp. 68–69, illustrated on p. 69.
Provenance:
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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