Italian dispatches: Filippo Mazzei

 The series of Italian in USA is very amazing, sometime emerges somebody: Cristoforo Colombo(1451-1506), Amerigo Vespucci(1454-1512) Giovanni Caboto(1445/1450-1498-1501), that after Colombo, he was the first to land in American continent, to Canada precisely; but since for Italian is a mission to deal other affairs, above all of other nations, hence Philip Mazzei(1730-1816), born near Florence, whose the name says nothing because he is an unknown; anyway he was an agent of Virginia State, and we can read, thank the Public library of New York, that has purchased the dispatches in year 1927, that Mazzei written to future presidents as Jefferson(1735-1826)., where we can also know some episode of uneasy, because also the agents, no certainly secret and after we will because, has had some illness, in fact Mazzei confesses: “MAZZEI TO THOMAS JEFFERSON [Dispatch No. 1-Nantes, Nov. 27, 1779. It is 8 days since I arrived at this place from Rochelle, near which City I was set a-shore in an Island by a Portuguese vessel from Cork in Ireland. The various circumstances, which have contributed to my liberty, and several other anecdotes since I left the Capes of Virginia, deserve I think that I should trouble you with an account of them ; but an illness of 2 months & half, & the constant uneasiness of the mind during 5 months, have reduced me so low, that I can scarcely write at all”; but why Mazzei hasn’t been an secret agent? A note of the comment explains because: “Mazzei's account of his capture, captivity, and escape from the British…”, hence has been guest of British jails; it is normal because after the revolution of colonies, every employed of American govern was suspect. Evidently Mazzei has had subscription to illness, because after the departure from New York he has had trouble, a note says: “Two or three days after his departure from New York, Mazzei suffered an attack of malaria…”, but other note explains that: “When his ship was captured by the British, and he and his family were taken prisoners, Mazzei, in order to destroy the evidence against him, threw overboard his instructions and commission. “; it is normal because the American ships were become enemy. But beyond the precarious health emerges also a suggestion in the text of this dispatch, because Mazzei, for a psychological tranquility he imagined to write to his friend, Bellini, Carlo(1735-1804), a native of Florence, Tuscany, whom Mazzei encouraged to come to America. For twenty-four years, from 1779 to 1803, he was a professor at the College of William and Mary, teaching French, Italian, Spanish, and German.”. Mazzei could not justify this suggestion through these thesis that are to modern psychology, but it is also an example of importance that Mazzei given to his employed, because he was writing to the president of thirteen colonies, by now become ex colonies, and in fact he precisely: “I could not with any degree of prudence attempt from New-York, or Long-Island, to write to Virginia…”, and after the my thesis about the suggestion is proved from the following text: “…but having signified to those persons, who under hand favored me as much as possible, that I wanted to write to an Italian Gentleman in Williamsburg about his domestic affairs in Italy…”; because thinking a letter to a compatriot, and not to a president the suggestion is scant. The aid of French is shown from a dispatch from Nantes: “Nantes, December12, 1779. A very good piece of intelligence, which I recorded yesterday, has been followed by very mortifying news arrived in Town to day yesterday I was informed, that 9. days since it was resolved in the King's council to lend Congress, in arms and such other things as they want, to the amount of 16. millions of livres.”; the king mentioned is Louis 16^th king of France, that has gain to create difficult both politic and economic to England; and further proof is given to the following text, that says: “By 2 persons from l' Orient and letters from Brest we have heard the disagreeable news of Count D'Esteings's defeat in America, supposed to have happened on Long-Island”, a note to this script explains who is Count D'Esteings, and the note says: “Estaing, Charles Hector Theodat, Comte d', 1729-1794. French Admiral in command of the fleet sent to aid the United States against Great Britain”. The French evidently liked very much this emprise of Count D'Esteings, because the text of Mazzei followed: “D'Esteing is reckoned a hero, and is now the darling of France ; but in this town they are downright mad for him.”; it is a representation of pressure that Great Britain was making toward the French, evidently for mere commercial motive, because this enthusiasm for D'Esteing, certainly with participation of bourgeois, active in merchants, and that after guaranteed the birth of French revolution.     

 

Alessandro Lusana