TRANSLATION OF SPANISH DOCUMENTS
Source: “They Tasted Bayou Water”, by Maurine Bergerie ppg 105-107.
Translations of Papeles Procedentes de Cuba which are deposited in the Archivo General de Indias at Seville, Spain.
Legajo no. 567 Immigrant Families.
List of persons who from Malaga boarded the brig St. Joseph with Captain don Antonio Caballero, as follows: On June 1, sixteen families consisting of eighty-two persons boarded ship and on the 13th of the same month disembarked in Cadiz by order of the President and from the 13th of this same month the Captain provided them daily with money until July 21, one child having died June 17. On the afternoon of July 21 sixty-seven persons embarked in which were included the Master (or Chief Craftsman) of bleeding with his wife and one child who in family class are with Senor Don Antonio de Galvez. On August 20 at 5:30 in the afternoon Joseph Villalba at the age on nine died in Pureto Rico. On September 9, sixty-seven persons landed in Habana to whom were supplied their daily expense for maintenance. On October 3, Joseph Molina died at the hour of prayer. On the afternoon of October 10, forty-four persons embarked to continue their journey to Louisiana and on the 14th in the afternoon it was necessary because of illness to put on land a family of three persons. On the afternoon of October 29 Sebastien de Segura died and until now November 11, forty persons remain who have been maintained; New Orleans, November 15, 1778.
By the Captain Caballero Antonio Remon (rubricado)
Antonio Villatoro:
I the undersigned scrivener of Our Lordship, the King, proclaim in all his kingdom and domains, residents of this city, certify and affirm that before me appeared Senor Don Joseph Ortega y Monrroy, priest of this same city, the deed whose contents are as follows: Don Joseph de Ortega y Monrroy commissioned by His Majesty, may God guard him, for the enrollment of families from the kingdom of the Granada Coast to the towns of Louisiana, and Theresa Gomez native and resident of the place Alhaurin de la Torre, forty-six years old, widow and of the farming class, we say and contract, I the second, who am to pass in person and my children, Antonio Villatoro nineteen years old, Rita fifteen years, Marie thirteen years, Juana eleven years and my nephew Francisco Villatoro twenty-one years old, all of this said place and residency, to settle in said towns to which we all go conformed, free and voluntary without other force, violence or promise other that that of which we will be disposed and readily present ourselves to make this voyage as soon as the said Senor Commissioner orders it who will pay the cost of our maintenance from the day we leave our homes, and freight transportation to our arrival in Louisiana and that in the same he will give us comfortable lodgings, build us a house, assign lands to us, provide us with live stock, utensils and implements for cultivating and labor on the lands, paying us the first sowing and assisting us with all the necessities of livelihood to the harvesting of the first crop from which time we will begin to subsist on our own and contribute to Your Majesty that portion which is convenient to our situation to repay the cost of our travel and maintenance keeping for ourselves, our heirs and successors, the possessions and perpetual ownership of the houses, lands and live stock which will be assigned to us with all the other things we acquire and will acquire in said town. All of which obliges us to what is here mutually and reciprocally contained and each one will comply with the correspondent part and for that reason we sign this duplicate contract in the city of Malaga on February 24, 1778, the witnesses being Don Joaquin Pizarro, Don Diego Terron, Don Antonio Soler and signed for all of hers, Theresa Gomz, Antonio Soler, Joaquin Pizarro, Diego Terron,
Don Joseph de Ortega y Monrroy.
Note -- Attention -- Rita Villatoro contracted matrimony with Juan Gonzales, native of Alhaurin de la Torre, nineteen years old so was included in this contract.