Transcripts of the records of the Archivo Nacional de Cuba span the years 1770-1911, with the bulk of the material dating from 1770 to 1805. The records are in Spanish and English and concern the Spanish colonial administration of Louisiana and Florida. With the exception of a handwritten “Index of correspondence,” the items are blueprint copies made sometime before 1913 of typewritten transcripts of documents in the Cuban archive. The transcripts may have resulted from the work of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Its Department of Historical Research was dedicated to finding documentary sources for the study of American history in foreign archives and publishing a series of guides. The by Luis Marino Perez was published in 1907. Records in the present collection are described in the Perez book as document numbers 347, 375, and appendix A. A copy of this guide is in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.

The is a collection of Spanish government orders and documents concerning trade and the administration of Louisiana and Florida. The index of correspondence of the Capitanes-Generales of Cuba was copied in 1911 before the records were sent from Cuba to Spain. It indexes 1-958, “correspondientes al Ramo de Guerra,” and includes a brief description for each entry.

The file “Letters of Bernardo de Gálvez,” written by the Spanish governor of Louisiana, consists of transcripts of his copybooks of correspondence to the secretary of the Indies, José de Gálvez, and to the capitanes-generales at Havana, the Marqués de la Torre and Diego Josef Navarro. Some letters are abstracted while others appear to be full transcripts. Many of the letters relate to military matters, including the assistance given by the Spaniards to the American colonists in revolt, the plans of the Americans to capture Pensacola (1777), and the anticipated attack on New Orleans by the British (1778).

William Panton of Pensacola, founder of the firm of Panton, Leslie and Company, was a Scottish trader who held the exclusive charter from Spain for trade with Indians in West Florida. His file contains transcripts of various items documenting the history of the concession, relations with the Indians, and correspondence, primarily in English, of Panton and his agents. Panton and other traders traveled among the Indian tribes of West Florida, and their letters include personal observations and details related to their travels.