"Pyracie Spoyle and Outrage at Sea" : the Trials and Tribulations of Samuel Pallache: triple agent, envoy, merchant, peace negotiator, Rabbi, privateer, pirate.

This archive, the majority of which is unpublished, offers a unique and richly documented window onto the career of Samuel Pallache (d.1616), the Fez-born Jewish rabbi, merchant and diplomat who stood at the centre of one of the earliest, and long-lasting, treaties of friendship and free trade concluded between a European Christian power and an Islamic state, of the early modern period. A man of the Jewish diaspora, Pallache operated as a triple-agent between Spain, Morocco and the Dutch Republic, helped to engineer an unprecedented accommodation between Christendom and Islam, for which he was awarded a heavy gold chain and medal from the Dutch for his services, while simultaneously becoming the protagonist of one of the most politically sensitive piracy trials in early Stuart London.

At the heart of the archive lies the contradiction that made Pallache so indispensable and so dangerous: he appears, in these papers, as trusted envoy, practising Jew, broker of military aid, international merchant, litigant, and alleged pirate. The documents allow the reader to follow the same man as he negotiates war-ships for Muley Zaydan with the States General, carries commercial consignments for Amsterdam merchants, and then finds himself in London prisons while Spanish, Dutch, English and Moroccan authorities argue over whether he is to be honoured as an ambassador or condemned as a criminal. The material is both narrative and evidentiary: it speaks in the formal voices of kings, ambassadors and admirals, and in the anxious, often defensive language of merchants, ship-owners and mariners whose fortunes have been entangled with his.

Samuel Pallache and the Christian–Islamic treaty

The Treaty of Friendship and Free Trade of January 1611 between the Dutch Republic and the kingdom of Morocco – one of the first formal instruments of its kind between a European Christian state and an Islamic power, of the early modern period – is unintelligible without the figure of Samuel Pallache. Born into a family of Iberian Jews expelled or driven from Spain in the aftermath of the pogroms of 1391 and the expulsion of 1492, Samuel was the son of Isaac Pallache, Rabbi of Fez in 1588, and grew up in a milieu where service to Muslim rulers could coexist with deep attachment to Jewish learning and communal authority. By the first decade of the seventeenth century, he had become an indispensable go-between for the Saʿdian sultan Muley Zaydan, charged with courting European allies against Spain, while also cultivating Spanish favour and selling information to Philip III.

When Pallache and his brother Joseph first presented themselves at Amsterdam in 1608, their passports described them simply as Jews from Fez, refugees from Moroccan civil war, omitting their recent and compromising service in Spain. Within a year, he was back in the Dutch Republic as interpreter and effective fixer for Zaydan's ambassadors, Hammu ben Bashir and later Ahmed ben Abdallah al-Hayti al-Maruni, who were tasked with negotiating a comprehensive agreement of military and commercial cooperation. In February 1609, Zaydan's request for three warships led the States General to dispatch two, under Wolfert Hermansz, with Pallache aboard, laden not only with arms and troops but with merchandise supplied by an Amsterdam consortium for sale in Morocco – an early indication of the inextricable entanglement of trade, diplomacy and private profit in his career.

The treaty eventually signed in January 1611 guaranteed free trade between Morocco and the Dutch Republic and provided a framework for military collaboration against Spain, explicitly recognizing the interests of the Moriscos – the recently expelled Spanish Muslims now swelling the ranks of Barbary corsairs. Pallache's signature appears alongside that of al-Maruni on the treaty itself, and that the States General immediately resolved to honour him with a gold chain, a heavy gold medal weighing some 17.5 ounces, and a payment of 600 florins. In a world in which Jews had been formally expelled from England since 1290 and were only just beginning to enjoy secure communal life in Amsterdam, it is extraordinary to find a Jewish rabbi, still signing his own name occasionally as Palatio, recognized by a leading Protestant power as formal party to a diplomatic instrument with a Muslim king.

It is this combination – Iberian Jew by ancestry, Moroccan by political service, Dutch by patronage and protection – that made Pallache the indispensable hinge of the one of the earliest, long-lasting, treaty-based relationship between a European Christian state and an Islamic monarchy. His ability to move between languages, courts and legal systems, and to exploit simultaneously the anti-Spanish agendas of both Muley Zaydan and the Dutch States General, enabled him to be instrumental in presenting, as interpreter, not only the words but smoothing the practical mechanisms of a treaty whose provisions on trade and naval assistance would shape the geopolitics of the North Atlantic and western Mediterranean for decades.

Biography

The documents sketch, in outline, the life of a man who embodied the displacements of the late medieval and early modern Jewish diaspora. Descended from Iberian Jews who chose exile over forced conversion or death in the riots of 1391 and the expulsion of 1492, the Pallache family left Spain for North Africa, adopting along the way the name Pallache (or Palluche, Palache, Palatio) in place of Palacio. By 1588, Samuel's father Isaac appears in Fez as rabbi of the Jewish community, part of a long-standing Jewish presence encouraged and protected by the Marinid dynasty, which had established the Mellah, the first formal Jewish quarter in North Africa, at Fas al-Jadid (New Fez).

Samuel himself first enters the surviving record around 1602, when, in his late forties, he and his brother Joseph travelled to Spain with a passport from the sultan Ahmad al-Mansur of Morocco, tasked with purchasing gems in Lisbon and covertly offering Spanish officials "secrets to sell". On al-Mansur's sudden death from plague in 1603, Morocco descended into civil war between his sons Muley Zaydan, Muley al-Shaykh and Abu Faris, and the Pallaches opportunistically offered their services to Philip III, promising to assist in the capture of the strategically vital port of Larache – while at the same time making much the same offer to Henri IV of France and Ferdinand I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. By 1607, suspect promises to have Joseph's sons baptised and the family's deep entanglement in Spanish intelligence had attracted the attention of the Inquisition, and they fled across the French border.

From 1608 to 1614, Pallache's base of operations shifted decisively to the Dutch Republic. He emerges as a founding member and haham (reverend) of the Sephardi congregation Neve Shalom in Amsterdam, whose services were initially held in his own house, and as a figure of immense prestige within the emerging Iberian-Jewish community of the city; tradition held that the first minyan in Amsterdam was formed in his home, and that he was the first Sephardi to arrive in the Netherlands openly as a Jew rather than as a crypto-Christian Marrano. His Sifré Tora, the scrolls of the Law he carried with him on his journeys as envoy, were bequeathed after his death to Neve Shalom by his widow Malca and their son, in a transaction carefully recorded for the considerable sum of a thousand guilders.

Professionally, this period saw him make at least five voyages between Amsterdam and Morocco, negotiating on Zaydan's behalf with the States General, retrieving and forwarding funds, and repeatedly over-promising to both Moroccan and Dutch patrons. He was sued by Amsterdam merchants and declared bankrupt after failing to remit proceeds from goods carried on the Moroccan voyages; he dealt simultaneously with the Duke of Medina Sidonia on intelligence concerning Dutch plans for a fort at La Mamora; he offered his services at various moments not only to Zaydan, Philip III and the States General but also to Henri IV, Ferdinand I, Ahmed I of the Ottoman Empire and James I of England. It was this constant triangulation – always in search of leverage, always hedging against the collapse of any single patron – that eventually set in motion the events documented in this archive and brought him to a London courtroom in 1614.

London, Piracy and Diplomacy

The trial, in London, of Samuel Pallache, on charges of committing "pyracie, spoyle and outrage at sea", in 1614-1615, became a national, and international, cause célèbre: raising several very delicate diplomatic questions, pertinent to the febrile balance of power between the nations, and religions, of the North Atlantic Coast, and western Europe. The charge of piracy was far from a mere maritime technicality, because the Treaty of London of 1604 between England and Spain had ended officially sanctioned English privateering, and Spain's ambassador in London, Count Gondomar, was determined to see the new regime enforced. At the same time, England's relations with the Dutch Republic were formally cordial but practically strained by commercial competition and James I's attempt to tax foreign fishermen, while Anglo‑Moroccan contacts via John Harrison revolved around trade in arms and the ransom of captives.

In this delicate context, the seizure of a ship associated with Pallache, and his presence as a Moroccan envoy and Dutch protégé in English waters, posed intractable questions. Was he to be treated as a lawful privateer acting under letters of marque from an allied Muslim ruler, as a merchant risking his cargo in dangerous seas, or as a pirate whose activities threatened Spanish shipping and thereby the "peace" purchased by James I in 1604? The documents in this archive preserve the competing answers offered by James and his Lords of the Admiralty, by Gondomar on behalf of Philip III, by Muley Zaydan from Morocco, and by Prince Mauritz and the States General, who had every interest in ensuring that a man who had signed their treaty and worn their gold chain did not end his days on a London gallows.

The archive represents not only formal diplomatic exchanges, but also the legal minutiae: warrants, indictments, depositions and affidavits in which ship‑owners contest title to vessels, mariners swear to routes and captures, and Pallache himself attempts to frame his actions within the lawful categories of early modern maritime warfare. In the end – and this is part of the archive's narrative appeal – he emerges victorious: against the odds, and despite his enemies in Madrid and the suspicions of some in London, he avoids a criminal conviction, but at the cost of his health, his fortune and, within a year, his life. When he died in 1616, Prince Mauritz is recorded as having accompanied his body to burial in the Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, a gesture that encapsulates both the honour and the ambiguity attending his career.

Historical Significance

Taken together, the twenty documents form the core of an archive that will be of exceptional interest to historians of early modern diplomacy, Jewish studies, Atlantic history and the law of the sea. They provide a ground-level view of the messy negotiations, broken promises, lawsuits, and polished documents, that underpinned Pallache's life and the nation states he worked for. They demonstrate the centrality of a Jewish go-between – signing his name Pallache or Palatio, serving in turn (and sometimes simultaneously) the king of Spain, the sultan of Morocco and the States General – to the creation and maintenance of that new diplomatic architecture.

The documents are also a rich source for the history of Sephardi settlement in the Dutch Republic. They intersect directly with the work of Gans, Prins and Zwarts on the first rabbis and synagogues of Amsterdam, who argue that Neve Shalom's services began in Pallache's own house and that his Sifré Tora remained objects of value and memory in the community after his death. For legal historians, the London material speaks to questions raised in Abrahams's classic article on "Two Jews before the Privy Council and an English Law Court in 1614–15", while for historians of Morocco and Spanish North Africa the papers resonate with the documentary traditions collected by de Castries and analysed by Garcia-Arenal, Wiegers and Israel.

This is therefore not merely an assemblage of interesting seventeenth-century papers but a tightly focused dossier on a single, extraordinary individual, Samuel Pallache – rabbi pirate, triple agent, and servant of three masters – whose life and work connect the Papal Bull forcing Jews of medieval Madrid to pay tithes, the Moroccan Mellah of Fez, the infant Sephardi synagogues of Amsterdam, and the Admiralty Court in London.

Contents:

1.
Antisemitism in the Iberian Peninsula
POPE BENEDICT XII; and Pedro Martínez de LUNA Y PEREZ DE GOTOR. Transcript of a Papal Bull, in a clerical hand, signed [Alfonso Domingo, public scribe], July 17th, 1376.

Folio. Manuscript in pen and ink on vellum, 51 lines in Spanish, docketed on verso in Spanish.

Transcribed for local dissemination in Madrid, this is a re-iterative "official" transcript of a Papal Bull first delivered by Pope Benedict XII in August of 1337, caused all Jews living in the Parish of Madrid to pay tithes on everything they produced.

2.
The fateful voyage begins
[JOHNSON, John; Richard CHANDLER; Edward BEALE; George PRESTON; and George ELLIOT]. Affidavit, in a clerical hand, signed by Janielis le Blancq, notary public, and witnessed by Farobi Sutton. [...], 21st November, 1614.

Single sheet, manuscript pen and ink in English on recto, docketed on verso.

An 'Affidavit' in which John Johnson and his associates, Richard Chandler Beale, and George Preston, affirm that they sold the good ship 'George Bonaventura' to Samuel Pallache, "about three yeares now last past"; and have no further claim on it, or its cargo.

3.
Pallache's commission from the States General
AERSSENS, Cornelis. Autograph Document Signed "Cornelius Aerssens", on behalf of "The generall estates of the United Low Countries", "To all Governers, Admirals officers and Magistratesof the Townes and Colleges of the Admiraltie, Superintendants Captains, and ordinarie soldiers horse and foote by Water and Lande, finalli to all other to whom it shall appertaine and intimation be
made thereoff greetinge". The Hague, March 3rd, 1614.

Single sheet, folio, manuscript pen and ink on paper, in English, and a little bit of Dutch.

This official letter, drawn up by influential Statesman Cornelis Aerssens (1545-1627), shows Samuel Pallache would be permitted, as Muley Zaydan's agent in the Dutch Republic "to recruit a crew to be employed on a warship and a "jaght" [yacht] that Pallache had prepared in Rotterdam.

4.
"To damnefie the enemi"!
MULEY ZAYDAN, SULTAN OF MOROCCO. Autograph Letter of Marque Signed "Zidan", to "all Suche, as shall see or heare thes[e] present letters redd". Morocco, 30th June 1614.

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on the first in French and translated into English, docketed in English on the last.

Giving "Commission unto Sr. Agent Samuel Palache to take With our shippes all Spaniards and Pirates w[h] thei mai meet w[it]h or find, as well in their voyage going for Holland, as after their arrival in the said countrie, and to go and seeke after them in the maine sea, or upon their retorne hither...to damnefie the Enemi".

5.
Pallache, in his own words
[PALLACHE, Samuel]. Unsigned Document, in a clerical hand. [London, c.early October, 1614].

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on all sides in English, docketed in English on the last.

A synopsis of Samuel Pallache's deposition, taken shortly after his arrest at Dartmouth, in which he is at pains to establish his credentials as a privateer, with commissions, from first the States General, and then Muley Zaydan. How could Pallache be a pirate himself, when his commissions were to attack the real pirates, and other enemy ships?

The document begins with a brief outline of the differences between legal "privateering" and illegal "piracy", the latter of which Pallache is accused. This is followed by a bite-sized history of the civil war in Morocco, between Muley Zaydan and his bother Muley al-Shaykh.

6.
Whose ship is it, anyway?
HALINGE, Ludovicus de. Autograph Declaration Signed "Ludovicus de Halinge". [Plymouth, c. October, 1614].

Single sheet, folio, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on the recto in Latin, docketed in English on the verso.

A statement from Ludovicus de Halinge regarding ownership of Samuel Pallache's ship in Plymouth, the 'George Bonaventura', which being "made and purchased in Holland (by Samuel Palachi as an Agent of the King of Barbary", confers no rights of ownership to the Spanish.

7.
James I stands up for Pallache
[ANONYMOUS]. Unsigned Document. [Whitehall, c. early November, 1614].

Single sheet, folio, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on the recto in English, docketed on the verso in English.

Recording the various steps in the decision-making of the Lords Admiralty to grant bail to Samuel Pallache.

8.
Samuel Pallache is granted bail
[JAMES I, KING OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND]. Unsigned Document, in a clerical hand. [London], 25 die Octobris anno Domini, 1614. [i.e. 4th November, 1614].

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, pen and ink on paper, written on the first in Latin, and docketed on the last in English.

In response to a letter received from the States General in November of 1614, Samuel Pallache is granted bail, and given into the custody of Sir William Craven.

In this document, James I grants Pallache safe conduct.

9.
Questioning witnesses
[CLEYSON, Cornelis; Clayse CLAYSON; Symon CORNELISON;
Crine GARRETSON; Barnard CORNELISON; and Henry CLAYSON]. Unsigned Document, in a clerical hand. [London], Tertio die Novembris 1614. [i.e. 13th November 1614].

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, pen and ink on paper, written on all sides, in English, docketed in Latin on the last.

A lengthy deposition of the Crew of the 'George Bonaventure', after their arrest in Dartmouth. "Cornelius Clayson of Horne in Holland, sailor" attests: that all of the company, bar Pallache, and his dresser, are Christians.

10.
The Dutch stand up for Pallache
[THE STATES GENERAL]. Unsigned letter, to "Roy de la grande Bretaigne", from the States General, in a clerical hand. The Hague, 26th November, 1614.

2 sheets: folio, one folded to make 4 pages, with an additional single sheet, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on 5 sides in French.

From Dartmouth, on the 2nd of November, 1614, Pallache had written to the States General, a letter at turns pleading and threatening, claiming that the motive of the Spanish [i.e. the Spanish Ambassador in London, Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, count of Gondomar (1567-1626)] in pressing charges of Piracy against him was intended to "undermine the good understanding between Holland and Morocco and to discover details of the pacts between the two countries.

This letter is the States General's fulsome and frank response: outlining in the greatest detail the legitimacy of the commissions given to the Pallache by the States General, and the "King of Barbary" (i.e. Muley Zaydan).

11.
Prince Mauritz stands up for Pallache
PALLACHE, Samuel. Autograph Letter Signed "Samuel Pallache" to "Nobliss.mo Princephe" [i.e. Prince Mauritz of Nassau]. 20th December, 1614 [i.e. 2nd January, 1614].

Single sheet, folio, manuscript pen and ink on recto, in Spanish.

Pallache had written to the States General, upon his arrest at Dartmouth, on the 2nd of November, 1614. In testament to the regard in which Pallache was held by them, the States General, and Prince Mauritz responded to Pallache's supplications, and threats, by writing directly to James I.

This is Pallache's very grateful reply to Prince Mauritz of Nassau.

12.
The warrant for Pallache's re-arrest
BARON HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM, Charles, Earl of Nottingham, and second Baron Howard. Autograph Letter Signed "Carolus comes Notinghem Baro Howard de Effingham" [, to "Williamo Smith", 27th December, 1614 [i.e. 6th January 1615].

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, manuscript pen and ink, written on the first in Latin, docketed in English on the last.

In this Warrant, the Lord High Admiral, famous commander of Queen Elizabeth I's fleet against the Spanish Armada (1588), demands "Prefect, William Smith, Marshal of England and Ireland" on behalf of James I, "that you do not omit to arrest and capture Samuel Palach the Jew wherever you find him, and keep him safely and securely under guard, or keep him under guard under guard", until he can appear before the Admiralty, at the behest of the Spanish Ambassador, the Count of Gondomar, on a charge of civil Piracy.

13.
Still on trial
[ANONYMOUS]. Unsigned Document, in a clerical hand. [Whitehall, c.13 Jan: 1614. [i.e. c.23 January 1615].

Single sheet, folio, manuscript pen and ink on paper, in English, docketed in English on verso.

The conundrum at hand, for the Admiralty, is whether Samuel Pallache can be tried for criminal Piracy, at the insistence of the King of Spain, if he is an Agent of the King of Morocco (who is at war with Spain) to the Dutch Republic (who has a Truce with Spain), and has letters of safe-conduct from King James (previously granted in November).

The question is further dissected in the next document:

14.
Envoy, privateer, or pirate?
[ANONYMOUS]. Unsigned Document, in a clerical hand. [Whitehall], 13 Jan: 1614. [i.e. 23 January 1615].

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on side sides, in English.

This legal document gives a formal opinion on whether, or not to convict Samuel Pallache of Piracy, at the insistence of Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, count of Gondomar. The lawyer gives six good reasons why Pallache should not be found guilty, starting with the premise, "supposing", he is an Agent of the "king of Barbary", (i.e. Muley Zaydan, sultan of Morocco), employed as ambassador to the Dutch Republic.

15.
Gondomar pings his master
GONDOMAR, Diego Sarmiento de Acuna. Autograph Letter Signed "Don Samiento de Acuna" by hand of Julian Sancheze, to "Rey Catolico mi senor" [i.e. Philip III, King of Spain]. London, 8th February, 1615.

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on the first in Spanish, docketed in English on the last.

An official diplomatic communique to the King of Spain, from his ambassador Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, count of Gondomar, informing his majesty that he has "complained before the most serene King of Great Britain and the lords of his Council of State, criminally, against Samuel Palache, a Jew, for the plunder and homicides he has unjustly and piratically committed against vassals of the King, my lord" and has commissioned two lawyers to "carry out all the necessary diligence in the said case".

16.
Privy Councillors pronounce on the charge of "piracy, spoyle and outrage at sea"
CALVERT, Sir George. Autograph Document Signed. Whitehall, 20th March, 1614 [i.e. 30th March 1615].

Single sheet, folio, manuscript pen and ink on paper, in English.

At a special meeting of the Privy Council, Pallache's immediate fate is announced: he had been tried not by the Admiralty, but by a special tribunal, which had included the Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Julius Caesar, and the Master of the Rolls, found not guilty of a criminal charge. Gondomar should seek restitution for Spain in the civil courts.

17.
But Gondomar just won't give up!
WINWOOD, Ralphe. Autograph Letter Signed to "My very lovinge friend S.r Daniell Dunn knight judge of the Admiralty". Greenwich, 20th March, 1614 [i.e. 30th March, 1615].

Single sheet, folio, manuscript pen and ink on recto, address on verso.

In which Ralph Winwood, James I's Principal Secretary of State, writes to Admiral Sir Daniel Dun alerting him to the fact of another angle of Count Gondomar's campaign against Samuel Pallache. Winwood was a member of the Privy Council that announced the verdict on Samuel Pallache the same day as this note was penned.

18.
Gondomar protesteth way too much
GONDOMAR, Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, Count. Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Daniel Dun, March 21st, 1614 [i.e. March 31st, 1615]; continued March 23rd, 1614 [i.e. April 2nd, 1615].

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on all sides, in Latin.

Since November of 1614, Samuel Pallache had been living, on bail, with Sir William Craven, lord Mayor of London. Throughout, the Count of Gondomar, who was twice Philip III's ambassador to the court of James I (1613-1618, and 1619-1622), had been working against Pallache. He insisted that Muley al-Shaykh (Muley Zaydan's brother) of Morocco was an ally of Spain and had been supported by it,... even though he had died in 1613... The point being, that if Spain and Morocco could not be considered warring nations, then it would be impossible for Pallache's raids on Spanish ships to be the actions of a privateer,... he must, and could only be, a pirate.

19.
Final judgement
[ANONYMOUS]. Unsigned Document, in a clerical hand, signed by "William Hareward, notary public" in the presence of "Sir Daniel Donne" [i.e. Dunn]. 27th March, 1615 [i.e. 6th April, 1615].

Single sheet, folio, folded to make 4 pages, manuscript pen and ink on paper, written on the first and second in Latin, docketed in English on the last.

This is the judgement of the court, that in the criminal case for piracy brought by the plaintiff, Count Gondomar, legate of the Spanish King, against Samuel Pallache. It is the judgement of the court that the petition is found to be unsound, and should therefore be rejected, and that Pallache should be awarded costs.

20.
One last roll of the dice
PHILIP III, KING OF SPAIN. Autograph Letter signed "Yo El Rey", El Pardo, 14th December, 1615, to his brother-in-law, Archduke Albert of Brussels, "Archiduq Alb.o", in the fine clerical hand of, and countersigned by, his Secretary of State, Juan de Cirica.

Single sheet, folded to make 4 pages, written on the first page, address on the last, papered seal.

Provenance: 1. The Property of the late Andre de Coppet of New York [Sold by Order of the Executors], Sotheby's, New York, Monday, 1st April, 1957, lot 2307.

Virtually with his dying breath, Samuel Pallache secures one last, and cunning, contract with Spain to work on their behalf, and against their enemy nations.

This letter, dated 14 December 1615, was written while Samuel Pallache's trial in London was ongoing, and was delivered to Philip III's brother-in-law Alberto, with other relevant documents, by hand of the friar, Brother Gregorio of Valencia. The letter informs Alberto that, with the advocacy of the Marquis of Guadalestre, the King has taken Samuel Pallache "Hebrew by birth" into his service.

Full description available on request.

Notes on the text:

Pallache: In this archive Samuel Pallache signs him self this way, although others often refer to him as "Palache", "Palachie", or "Palatio", and variants thereof.

Dutch Republic: this is the state composed of the seven united northern provinces of what we now refer to as The Netherlands. The southern provinces are usually referred to as Flanders. Holland, is an actual province, of that name.

Dates: Letters written in England, bear dates according to the Julian calendar. These have been translated into the Gregorian calendar, and appear in parallel in [...]. Letters written elsewhere, whether in English or not, bear dates according to the Gregorian calendar.