Abstract
The Fajardo affair of 1824, a tortuous episode that has never previously been looked at from American and Puerto Rico viewpoints in sufficient detail, presents a pertinent subject for consideration in terms of Spanish colonial and American relations. At one level, the episode ended the brilliant naval career of Commodore David Porter. More importantly, the saga of Porter is an object lesson in a naval officer doing what authorities at home thought was far in excess of instructions. It is an age-old tale in civil–military relations. But that is only half the story. From the Spanish perspective, it may be seen as the final warning that bringing Cofresí and his men to account had to be accomplished with urgency by them and, if not, by a foreign power. The order of priorities on the seas was changing. Spanish rulers in Puerto Rico as in Cuba would do their utmost, by any measures, to save those islands from falling to an external or internal enemy. Hence derived the efforts to ward off insurgent corsairs and their powerful landing parties. This was seen as more important than bringing Cofresí to account. It was Commodore Porter that forced their hand effected the shift.
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Notes
- 1.
W.H. Beehler, Lieutenant, U.S.N., “The United States and West India Piracy, 1821–25,” 12–13.
- 2.
Nilsa Rivera Colón, Fajardo: Notas para su historia, 6–8.
- 3.
Nilsa Rivera Colón, Fajardo: Notas para su historia, 11.
- 4.
Nilsa Rivera Colón, Fajardo: Notas para su historia, 13.
- 5.
David Porter, An Exposition, 14–15.
- 6.
Possibly Mr. Benitez.
- 7.
David Porter, An Exposition, 15–16, 18, 20.
- 8.
Walter Cardona Bonet, Cofresí, 310.
- 9.
Allen, Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates, 68; also David Porter, An Expedition, 17.
- 10.
David Porter, An Exposition, 94.
- 11.
David Porter, An Expedition, 17.
- 12.
W.H. Beehler, Lieutenant, U.S.N., “The United States and West India Piracy, 1821–25,” 13.
- 13.
David Porter, An Expedition, 17, 29.
- 14.
David Porter, An Expedition, 28.
- 15.
David Porter, An Exposition, 17, 29.
- 16.
David Porter, An Exposition, 17.
- 17.
W.H. Beehler, Lieutenant, U.S.N., “The United States and West India Piracy,” 13.
- 18.
David Porter, An Expedition, 17–18, 27–28.
- 19.
W.H. Beehler, Lieutenant, U.S.N., “The United States and West India Piracy,” 1821–25, 13.
- 20.
Quoted, Long, Sailor-Diplomat, 127.
- 21.
Allen, 69.
- 22.
David Porter, An Exposition, 49.
- 23.
David Porter, An Exposition, 10–11.
- 24.
David Porter, An Exposition, 92.
- 25.
David Porter, An Exposition, 92–93.
- 26.
David Porter, An Exposition, 89.
- 27.
Asociación Interamericana de Ingeniería Sanitaria, Ingeniería Sanitaria, 1956, Vol. 27, 27.
- 28.
David Porter, An Exposition, 55.
- 29.
David Porter, An Exposition, 55.
- 30.
David Porter, An Exposition, 56.
- 31.
David Porter, An Exposition, 56.
- 32.
David Porter, An Exposition, 63.
- 33.
David Porter, An Exposition, 63.
- 34.
David Porter, An Exposition, 63; Howard I. Chapelle, The Search for Speed Under Sail (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968), esp. 3–34, 210–54.
- 35.
David Porter, An Exposition, 64.
- 36.
David Porter, An Exposition, 94.
- 37.
David Porter, An Exposition, 94.
- 38.
David Porter, An Exposition, 96.
- 39.
David Porter, An Exposition, 96.
- 40.
David Porter, An Exposition, 96.
- 41.
David Porter, An Exposition, 100.
- 42.
Allen, Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates, 81.
- 43.
This is the irrefutable view of the Gardner W. Allen, 84–85.
- 44.
Morison, “Old Bruin,” 81–82.
- 45.
Dubois, 261.
- 46.
Albion and Pope, Sea Lanes in Wartime, 146.
- 47.
Quoted, Long, Sailor-Diplomat, 127.
- 48.
Allen, Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates, 73.
- 49.
Allen, 73.
- 50.
Allen, 74.
- 51.
Allen, 76.
- 52.
Allen, 77.
- 53.
Allen, 77.
- 54.
Allen, 79.
- 55.
Allen, 79.
- 56.
David Porter, An Exposition, 101.
- 57.
David Porter, An Exposition, 101–02.
- 58.
Historia Militar de Cuba, 242.
- 59.
Nilsa Rivera Colón, Fajardo: Notas para su historia, 33.
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Gough, B., Borras, C. (2018). Commodore Porter and the Fajardo Affair. In: The War Against the Pirates. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31414-7_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31414-7_7
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