Port Sainte-Marie agent to Newcastle, coded report (1729)

At a glanceKey from adjacent plaintext · complete

The letter: An unnamed British agent at El Puerto de Santa María (Port Sainte-Marie, near Cadiz) to "Milord", the Duke of Newcastle, about July 1729. It was sent on with a covering letter of 8 August 1729.
Where: Huntington Library, William Blathwayt papers addenda, mssBLA 191, p. 5 (Huntington Digital Library p15150coll7 id 61005). Not on DECODE.
The cipher: A one-part French code of numbers from 1 to about 1370. Letters, syllables, words and names are listed in alphabetical order, so 580 is je, 581 ie and 585 ig.
How it was read: 942 code/gloss pairs were copied from five sibling letters in the same file, which were deciphered between the lines in 1729. That gives 379 values. Seventeen more groups were filled from the sense, bracketed by their alphabetical neighbours.
What it says: The agent complains that Mr Keene, the British envoy at Madrid, has left him without orders for weeks during the accommodation with Spain: "Mandez-moi donc quelque ordre pour ma conduite."
Still open: Seven groups: 6, 274, 254, 937, 1052, 726 and 836.

01 The document and its siblings

The covering letter to Newcastle of 8 August 1729 encloses two letters from Port Sainte-Marie. One is in clear French and dated 21 July. The other (p. 5) is a full page of numbers with no gloss. It is shown below.

Numbered code groups in brown ink, each underlined — The first seven lines of the coded page. The groups are separated by dots, and the writer's 7 looks like a ">". Image: Huntington Library, William Blathwayt papers addenda, mssBLA 191 p. 5, via the Huntington Digital Library.

Other letters from the same agent in the file were deciphered in London. Each one carries its reading written under the groups:

The cipher part of the letter of 23 June 1729, deciphered on 19 July (mssBLA 187 p. 3, HDL 60963).
The letter of 29 June, which asks for a new cipher, an address and money (HDL 60917–60920).
The cipher passages of the letter of 14 July (HDL 60887).
Two later letters, one of them dated 3 November 1729 (HDL 60907–60909).

Code numbers with a French decipherment written beneath each line — A sibling deciphered at the time: 1154 731 581 1013 "vous mettr-ie-s", and 822 1109 506 758 is Patiño's name. Image: Huntington Library, William Blathwayt papers addenda, mssBLA 187 p. 3, via the Huntington Digital Library.

02 The reading

Unread groups are shown in brackets, and supplied words are in square brackets.

L'obligation que je vous ai, Milord, est bien grande pour votre lettre du [6]. J'y ai répondu ce six de mars à la première adresse. Quand vous me ferez sçavoir, comme je dis, [il s']agit après le départ du [274]. Car Monsieur Keene ne m'avoit [rien], mais il [254] a aucun ordre des semaines pour moi [937] dans l'affaire passée. Je lui ai fait trouver bon [1052] ce, sans qu'il m'ait jamais dit ce [726] je pouvois faire pour le mieux à l'accommodement. [836]es je ignore vos intentions, et je serai inutile dans l'ignorance. Mandez-moi donc quelque ordre pour ma conduite …

English: The obligation I owe you, my Lord, is very great for your letter of the [?]. I answered it this sixth of March at the first address. When you let me know, as I say, it concerns [what follows] the departure of [?]. For Mr Keene had [told] me nothing, and there has been no order for me for weeks in the past affair. I got him to approve this, without his ever telling me what I could do for the best towards the accommodation. I do not know your intentions, and I shall be useless in ignorance. Send me then some order for my conduct …

The "accommodement" is the settlement between Britain and Spain that was being negotiated in the summer of 1729 and ended in the Treaty of Seville (9 November 1729). Benjamin Keene was the British envoy at Madrid. The page breaks off after the last group with a row of dots.

03 Method

The page was transcribed from the HDL image: 141 groups, 102 of them distinct.
The sibling letters were transcribed group by group with their glosses, giving 942 pairs and 379 distinct values (pairs_A.tsv, pairs_B.tsv).
Applying the table directly read 116 of the 141 groups, and the result already formed French sentences.
Because the code is alphabetical, an unknown group can be bracketed by its neighbours. 585 lies between 581 ie and 588 il, and gives ig-no-re and ig-no-ra-n-ce. 1210 lies between 1209 cinq and 1211 sept, so it is six. 222 lies between 218 conclure and 224 confidence, so it is conduite. On the same reasoning 275 is dans, 816 ordre, 666 lu, 1118 trouver, 689 m (de m-ar-s), 460 fe (fe-re-z), 84 apres, 1152 vos and 805 obligation.
Groups 1240–1370 appear under dashes in the glosses. 1250 is taken here as a separator.

04 What remains open

Readings by grade: 116 groups have the value glossed in the siblings (H). Six have variant glosses (C). Twelve were inferred from context and alphabetical order (M). Seven are unread (I):

6: a number, the date of Newcastle's letter. The code's numbers run 8 vingt and 11 cinquante.
274: a d- word or a name, after "le départ du".
254, 937 (qu-), 1052 (s-), 726 (m-), 836 (p-): none of these is glossed in any sibling.

The agent's other coded pieces in the file (mssBLA 184 and 186) carry no glosses. More of the series may hold the missing values but has not been digitised.

Full texts

The transcription and the decryption of every document on this page, so that the reading can be used and checked. Short files are shown here; all are in the repository.

mssBLA 191 p. 5, agent at Port Sainte-Marie to Newcastle, c. July 1729

The agent thanks 'Milord' for his letter, says he answered on the sixth at the first address, complains that Mr Keene (British envoy at Madrid) has given him no orders for weeks about the accommodation, and asks for orders for his conduct. Written during the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Seville (Nov 1729).

Transcription

p5_transcription.txt

659 805 926 580 1154 26 697 665 941 270 386
137 533 369 835 1176 672 289 6 575 1201 26
974 163 1210 278 689 34 1013 18 660 892 369
21 945 1017 1250 924 1154 695 460 945 1038
208 580 285 594 58 84 661 278 823 1099 289
274 162 737 647 756 690 65 692 588 254 18
100 816 282 1019 711 1013 835 702 937 275 659
53 824 1017 369 580 666 576 26 461 1118 122
1052 163 1016 929 690 26 1099 599 345 163 726
580 831 1143 1150 594 493 835 661 732 18 659
46 836 385 575 585 758 943 1152 623 1013 387
580 1018 26 591 1185 275 659 585 758 942 754 163
694 282 702 357 932 816 835 691 222

Decryption

p5_decryption.txt

l'* obligation que* je* vous ai mi* lo* r d est
bien grand e* pour* votre lettre* du* [6] Je* y ai
repondu* ce six de m ar s* a la premier e*
ad ri ser* — quand vous me fe ri sçavoi
comme* je* di is agit apres le de par t du*
[274] car* monsieur* Ken ne m'* avoit mais il [254] a
aucun ordre des* se* maine s* pour* moi [937] dans l'*
affaire pas ser* e* je* lu i ai fait trouver bon
[1052] ce sans qu'il* m'* ai t jamais dit ce [726]
je* po u vo is faire* pour* le mieux a l'*
accomodement* [836] es* Je* ig no re* vos intention s* et
je* ser ai in utile dans l'* ig no ra* n ce
man des* moi donc quelque ordre pour* ma conduite
134/141 groups known; key size 379

Reading

p5_reading.md

# Port Sainte-Marie report, c. July 1729 (mssBLA 191 p. 5): reading

Unread groups in [brackets]; supplied words in [square brackets with words]; 1250 is a separator.

L'obligation que je vous ai, Milord, est bien grande pour votre lettre du [6]. J'y ai répondu ce six de mars à la première adresse. Quand vous me ferez sçavoir, comme je dis, [il s']agit après le départ du [274]. Car Monsieur Keene ne m'avoit [rien], mais il [254] a aucun ordre des semaines pour moi [937] dans l'affaire passée. Je lui ai fait trouver bon [1052] ce, sans qu'il m'ait jamais dit ce [726] je pouvois faire pour le mieux à l'accommodement. [836]es je ignore vos intentions, et je serai inutile dans l'ignorance. Mandez-moi donc quelque ordre pour ma conduite ...

Translation

p5_en.md

# Port Sainte-Marie report, c. July 1729: English

The obligation I owe you, my Lord, is very great for your letter of the [?]. I answered it this sixth of March at the first address. When you let me know, as I say, it concerns [what follows] the departure of [?]. For Mr Keene had [told] me nothing, and there has been no order for me for weeks [?] in the past affair. I got him to approve [?] this, without his ever telling me what I could do for the best towards the accommodation. [?] I do not know your intentions, and I shall be useless in ignorance. Send me then some order for my conduct ...

Key: key.md

05 Sources

Huntington Library, William Blathwayt papers addenda, mssBLA 191 (HDL 61008), p. 5 = image 61005.
Siblings: mssBLA 187 (HDL 60966), mssBLA 188 (HDL 60924), letters of 14 July (HDL 60892) and 4 Aug 1729 (HDL 60914).
OAC finding aid, Blathwayt papers addenda.

Files, the code table and the transcriptions: targets/portstemarie1729/.

A British agent at Port Sainte-Marie writes to Newcastle in code, 1729