“Su más fiel servidor”. Reserved news about Robert Hodgson's life between the Atlantic empires of Spain and England, 1767-1791

Abstract

This article deals with the classified news that arrived about the Englishman Robert Hodgson from Bluefields Bay, a territory disputed by England, Spain and the Miskito Indians at the end of the 18th century. In Hodgson's letters and relationships it is possible to reveal the thoughts of a person who, mediating between disputing sides, demonstrates the ability of people to maintain alliances and use survival strategies that kept their businesses and interests alive. The spies, rumors and fear of these men also allow us to understand the capacity that the English and Spanish governments had to seek to take advantage of alliances that at times were ambivalent. For this, then, it is necessary to follow the “reservadísimas” news of those who were considered allies and confront them with those who were in charge of monitoring and spying on the monarch's new vassals. It was above all a global situation that produced an infinite amount of information that, despite being loaded with contrary meanings about the fidelity and interests of these cultural mediators, allowed us to have accurate news about smuggling, the colonization of new territories and the mechanisms politicians to gain allies, integrate them or expel them.