15 - COCKBURN (George)

COCKBURN (George) Castle [St. Helena], May 23, 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 tasked with transporting Napoleon to the island of Saint Helena aboard the ship Northumberland. He served as the island’s provisional governor pending the arrival of Hudson Lowe. Here he reports on the personnel recruited to provide security and service for the illustrious prisoner. “Of the persons mentioned in the letter you 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 stable 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 certainly was not hired with my sanction or approval. ” He notes, however, that upon their arrival on the island, the French officers accompanying “General Bonaparte” had hired “servants to wait upon themselves in particular, which did not seem reasonable, as our governments had restricted the number of French servants allowed to accompany them to twelve.” He further specifies that of these twelve people, Napoleon assigned eleven to himself, and General Bertrand one. The person for whom he is being held accountable was likely hired by the Count de Las Cases and brought with him to Longwood. Finally, he states: “I had long seen the inconvenience and impolicy of having people of color at Longwood, it was therefore with a view to eliminating the need for them (as I have previously remarked to you) that I authorized the sending of twelve sailors there as servants, and I certainly would have sent as many more as would have enabled me to remove the remaining slaves and Black men entirely had I not been expecting your arrival daily. ” Cockburn’s suspicion of these employees of color 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, June 24, 2006, lot 193. Bibliography Bondeson (Lars), *Napoleons sista strid* [Napoleon’s Last Battle], BoD, Sweden, 2022, pp. 362–364. Exhibition Skånelaholm Castle, 2015. Catalog: *Minnet av Napoleon – 200 år efter Waterloo* [The Memory of Napoleon—200 Years After Waterloo], no. 53, pp. 68–69, illustrated on p. 69. Provenance: