Document presented to the government of Cartagena de Indias by Felipe Vergara Azcárate y Caicedo in 1786

Abstract

The following transcription stems from a judicial claim staked by the attorney from Santa Fe Felipe Vergara Azcárate y Caicedo, who by the year 1786 was vexed as the state’s attorney from the government of Cartagena de Indias. In this document Vergara jumped to the conclusion that it was peremptory the abrogation of the so called Matrícula de Mar (Naval Register) or the instauration of a brand new manning system for the Navy based on the specific characteristics of the institutions, people and soil of the viceroyalty. In this document, Vergara analyzes why it was a pessimum decision of the instauration of the Naval Register and why it was important to think over about a new instauration based on the singularities of the Hispano-American soil.