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708 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
THE JEWS IN JAMAICA AND DANIEL ISRAEL LOPEZ
LAGUNA.
South of the island of Cuba, so much noted recently, lies the island
of Janahina, or Jamaica. Discovered by Columbus on his second
journey, it remained for one hundred and sixty years in possession of
the Spanish, till it was conquered by the order of Oliver Cromwell, no
previous declaration of war having been made. When the English
occupied the island, so rich in gold and spices, they found already
Spanish and Portuguese Jews settled there.
One of the first travellers on the island was Benjamin de Mesquita,
a relation of Jacob and Abraham Bueno de Mesquita, wealthy and
notable citizens of Amsterdam ; and of David Bueno de Mesquita,
who was the Resident of the Elector of Brandenburg, and general
agent of the Duke of Brunswick-Lttneburg. About 1661 Benjamin
petitioned the king " for relief from the provisions of the Navigation
Act," and, at the same time, " to be granted letters of denization V
Although his request was granted, the permit was useless to him,
and he could not enjoy his denizenship. Some Jews of Barbadoes,
Isaac Israel de Pisa, Aaron Israel de Pisa, and their brother, Abraham
Israel de Pisa, who lived in Jamaica, said that they had discovered
gold mines, and had, in this way, put Sir William Davidson to
considerable expense and loss. Their punishment was that they were
expelled from Barbadoes. But the same punishment was also, quite
undeservedly, inflicted upon Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita and his
two sons ; upon Abraham Cohen, who had sent out Aaron Israel
de Pisa's mother with her other children to Barbadoes ; upon Jacob
Ulhoa, and upon Abraham Soarez 2 . Abraham Israel de Pisa, who
had indeed discovered some vanilla and pepper, but no gold, and
was therefore called, in derision, "the gold-finder 3 ," departed for
England. He addressed a statement to the chief lieutenant Thomas,
the president of the Council of Jamaica, in which he made suggestions
as to the way of discovering gold, but found hardly any credence.
Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita and the other Jews, banished from
1 Publications of (he American Jewish Historical Society, V, 49.
7 Ibid., V, 69 sq. (Colonial Papers, vol. XVIII, no. 79), 91 sq.
' Ibid., V, 69 (Calendar 0/ British State Papers).
JEWS IN JAMAICA, DANIEL ISRAEL LOPEZ LAGUNA 709
Jamaica, took up their abode in New York. There Benjamin died
on the 4th of Cheshvan, 5444=October 24, 1683 '.
It was in the year 1660 that Jacob Josua Bueno Enriques, presum-
ably a relation of Elias Bueno Enriques and Moses Bueno Enriques,
who lived in Amsterdam about 1675, petitioned the king to be
allowed to work a copper mine, bought from a Spaniard, to lay
out plantations, and to have, for these purposes, a sufficient number
of negroes placed at his disposal. In his petition, which was composed
in Spanish, he named, as a reference, the "Hebrew Manoel da Fonseca,
who lived at that time in London, as interpreter of the Spanish
ambassador, in order to learn the English language V Bueno
Enriques, who lived in the Funta de Cagoe in Jamaica, and who was
called by the English " the French Jew," on account of his frequent
intercourse with the French, asked for himself, and for his brothers
Joseph and Moses Bueno Enriques, firstly, to become naturalized,
and, secondly, to be allowed "to live openly and undisturbed,
according to the tenets of their religion and to have a synagogue."
1 His Spanish (not Portuguese) epitaph is given incorrectly in Publica-
tions, I, 9a. It reads : —
Debajo desta Lo[s]sa sepultado
Yace Binjamin Bueno de Mesq'*
Falesio y deste mundo fue tornado
En quatro de Hesvan su alma Bendita
Aqui de los vivientes apartado
Espera por tu Dios que resuscita
Los muertos de su pueblo con piedades
Para bivir sin fin de Eternidades.
5444-
M. N. Taylor Phillips read Ya se instead of Yace, and translated accordingly
Be who was ; he read Para Bruir — Bruir is no Spanish ; it should read
Para bivir for vivir, Old Spanish. The English translation would be thus :
Beneath this stone is buried
Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita,
Who died and whose blessed soul
Was taken from this world
On the fourth of Hesvan.
Here from the living separated
Wait for thy God who revives
The dead of His people in mercy,
To enjoy without end Eternity.
* . . . un brevo de nombre Manoel da Fonseca que sta oy en Londres
en casa del Embagador d'Espagnia de Interprete por saber hablar la
lengua Inglesa.
3 A 3
7IO THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
We aee, therefore, that as early as 1660 several Jewish families lived
at Jamaica. For further information about himself, he referred to
General Dall and the royal consuls, who lived with him on the island
in 1658 and 1659, and also to the Englishman Peter Pino, who carried
on a banking business in Jamaica 1 .
The number of Jewish residents increased from year to year ; they
were allowed to reside there on condition that they took the oath of
allegiance before the governor. Thus in the year 1668, Salomo
Gabay Faro and David Gomes Henriques, two years later Abraham
de Soza Mendes, and in 167 1 Abraham Espinosa and Jacob de Torres
came from London. They all of them possessed the rights of English
citizens. The English government, in order to increase the number
of industrious settlers on the island, instructed the governor, Sir
Thomas Lynch, to absolve the new arrivals from taking the oath
of allegiance, and to grant all inhabitants the freedom of their
religious worship.
Although the obligation was, to a certain extent, put upon the
Jews who settled in Jamaica "to settle and plant 2 ," yet, they mostly
occupied themselves with trade, and opened large shops. This aroused
the jealousy of the English traders to such an extent, that, in 1671,
they presented a petition to the council, urging that the Jews should
confine themselves to wholesale commerce, and leave the retail trade
in the hands of the Christian traders, and that all Jews who had not
been naturalized should be expelled. There were only sixteen in
all of the latter' description. The governor was opposed to the
suggestion, as being against the interests of the island, for "he
was of opinion that His Majesty could not have more profitable
subjects than the Jews and the Hollanders ; they had great stocks
and correspondence." These words occur in a letter from the
governor, dated December 17, 1671, to the secretary, Lord Arlington.
He proceeds to say that he had personally convinced himself of their
usefulness. " He sent a Jew to the inland provinces, where the wine
grows, to see whether he can procure any vanilla for the king
and his lordship*." The petition was dealt with in this way, that
the council resolved " that for the better settling and improving of
Your Majestie's island of Jamaica, due encouragement may be given
1 The petition is published : Publications, V, 65, from Colonial Papers,
vol. XV, no. 74.
8 The reply to the Baron de Belmont's petition contains the following
words : "Their first introduction into the island was upon condition that
they should settle and plant," Publications, II, 168.
3 Puolications, V, 71 sq. {Calendar of British State Papers, Colonial, no. 697,
p. 398 sqq.). The petition of the traders, ibid., V, 73 sqq.
JEWS IN JAMAICA, DANIEL ISRAEL LOPEZ LAGUNA 711
to the Jews, the Dutch, and other nations, to settle and inhabit
there 1 ."
A number of Jewish settlers soon arrived, including Moses Henriques
Cotinho, or Coutino, who had relations in Amsterdam*, and who came
from Barbadoes; Abraham Lopez Telles 3 and others, who came from
Amsterdam and London. Their number was already in the year 1683
so considerable that they appointed as their Rabbi, R. Josiahu Pardo
of Curacao, the brother of the London Chazan David Joseph Pardo,
and son-in-law of the Amsterdam Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira.
Although the Jews of Jamaica possessed civic rights, they were not
on the same footing as the English as regards taxes. When, in the
year 1693, after an attack of the French had been repelled, a sum of
over four thousand pounds was levied within the space of three months,
the Jews had to contribute seven hundred and fifty pounds, almost
a fifth of the whole sum, towards it. The council of the island did not
tax the Jews individually, but made the wealthiest and most important
among the Jews responsible for the prompt payment of the tax by the
collective body. The document says "... to be rated, assessed, taxed,
collected, and paid in by Solomon Arari, Jacob de Leon, Moses Toiro
(Toro), Jacob Mendes Guteres, Jacob Henriques, Jacob Rodriguez de
Leon, Moses Jesurun Cardoso, Samuel Gabay, Jacob Lopes Torres,
Ishac Coutinho, Ishac Nunes Gonsales, and Abraham Nunes, or any
five of them." The amount had to be paid before June 10, 1693,
in default of which two hundred pounds more would have to be paid
as a fine. Should one of the persons rated refuse to pay, payment
would be legally enforced, his slaves or chattels would be confiscated
and publicly sold ; if no goods could be found, the recalcitrant person
would be arrested and detained in custody, till payment should have
been made. The same regulations applied to another payment of
one thousand pounds, which was levied from them in the same year,
as their quota of a sum of nine thousand four hundred and seventy-
three pounds 4 . A few years after this they were compelled to pay
a special tax of one thousand seven hundred and sixty pounds, and on
another occasion again, a tax of four hundred and thirty-seven pounds.
In the years 1698 and 1699, not less than five thousand two hundred
and fifty pounds was demanded of them. They were not able to bear
such a crushing burden of taxation ; they were a comparatively poor
community of not more than eighty persons ; and had besides to
provide for the wants of their poor. The Baron de Belmonte, whom
1 Publications, V, 75 sq. (Colonial Entry Book, No. 95, p. 97).
2 Ishac Henriques Coutino, Abraham Mendes Coutinho, and others.
3 Publications, I, 108.
* Ibid., V, 87 sqq.
712 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
we conjecture to have been a son of Manuel de Belmonte, the Spanish
Resident in Holland, found it, therefore, necessary to address, in the
year 1700, a memorial in reference to this affair to Sir William
Beeston, the governor of the island, in which he proved that the
Jews had paid during the last years three thousand four hundred and
seventy pounds over and above the quota which could be legally
demanded of them. He further complained that the Jews had been
recently compelled by several officers to bear arms, and do active
service on Sabbaths and festivals, although no urgent circumstances
required it l .
The council replied to this memorial that the Jews, as a separate
people, were separately taxed ; that their taxes bore no proportion to
their large trading establishments, and that they must proportionally
pay more than the English, whom they had beaten out of the field by
their commercial capacities. " As for their bearing arms, it must be
owned that, when any public occasion has happened or an enemy
appeared, they have been ready and behaved themselves very well ;
but for their being called to arms on private times, and that have
happened upon their sabbath or festivals, they have been generally
excused by their officers, unless by their obstinacy or ill language
they have provoked them to the contrary ; the law of this country,
without regard to the Jews or any other, giving power to the officers
to call all men to arms when there is thought occasion for it."
When Antonio Gomes Sorra, Andrew Lopez, and Moses de Medina,
in the name of their co-religionists, again lodged a complaint, this
time with the king, the Board of Trade of Jamaica was required to
forward a copy of De Belmonte's memorial and of the reply thereto *.
The Jews of Jamaica had, in spite of their being naturalized
citizens, to submit to several exceptional laws. Thus, in the year
1703, it was ordained: "That all Jews that are or shall be hereafter
masters or owners of slaves within this island, shall supply their
deficiencies by their own nation or by hired white Christian men, and
not by indented Christian servants under the penalty of five hundred
pounds current money of this island 3 ." Eight years later they were
precluded, like negroes, Indians, and mulattos, "from being employed
as clerks or any of the judicial or other offices 4 ."
The most noted and respected Jew who lived at Jamaica for a
number of years was the Spanish poet Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna.
Only very few of those who wrote about him took notice of his
1 The Memorial of the Jews about their Taxes, from Che Entry Book, Jamaica,
57 sqq., by Prof. Dr. Charles Gross in Publications, II, 165 sqq.
* Publications, II, p. 171. * Ibid., V, p. 89.
4 Ibid., V, pp. 57, 9»-
JEWS IN JAMAICA, DANIEL ISRAEL LOPEZ LAGUNA 713
poetical work, which, be it observed, was a splendidly got-up book,
and is now extremely rare.
Lopez Laguna, whose parents were maranos of Southern France,
went in his youth to Spain to study classics. There he was im-
prisoned for several years in the terrible dungeons of the Inquisition,
until he succeeded at length in regaining his freedom by flight. He
found a refuge in Jamaica, where he openly confessed his Jewish
faith, for which he had endured so many tortures. Here he put in
song the holy poems which had offered him consolation in the times
of his sufferings, and which had kept his hopes alive. He undertook
a poetical paraphrasis of the Psalms, a plan conceived by him when
still in prison. He himself gives information about the history of his
youth and of his sufferings in the following poem, which forms the
Acrostic, "A el zeloso Lector," "To the kind Reader": —
"I was devoted to the Muses
From my childhood.
My youth was passed in France,
And I studied in pious schools.
I learned sciences in Spain,
And was kept in dark prisons.
Then I opened my eyes and looked,
I escaped from the Inquisition.
Now I sing to the accompaniment of my lute,
Here the Psalms, happy and joyful 1 ."
The work, which the poet entitled Espejo fiel de Vidas, " Faithful
Mirror of Life," is one of the most remarkable products of Jewish-
Spanish literature. Abraham Pimentel, the son of the author's very
intimate friend, Jacob Henriques Pimentel, also called Don Manuel
de Umanes, tells us in the preface that the work was the product of
twenty-three years' labour, and a further twenty-three years " dig-
1 A las Musas
Ynclinado
E sido desde mi ynfan
Sia
La adolecensia en la Franc
Ya
Zagrada escuela m
E ha dado,
En Espana algo han
Limado
Las
Artes mi Yoventud
Ojos abriendo en
Virtud
Sale de la
Inquisicion
Oy Yamayca en can
Sion
Los Psalm
Os da a mi Laud
En my Pricion los
Deseos
Cobr6, de hacer
Esta obra.
See also Ps. vi. 8.
714 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
turbed by war, fire, and tempests," elapsed before it appeared before
the public.
Lopez Laguna's Espejo fid de Vidas is not, as Gratz and others
thought, " a faithful translation of the Psalms." He was not nearly
enough master of the Hebrew language to be able to furnish "a
translation, faithful to the original." It is a paraphrasis, in the
composition of which the author made use of the Spanish translation
of the Psalms with paraphrasis of Jacob Jehuda Leon, which appeared
in Amsterdam in 1671, under the title of Las Alabancas de Santitad.
He frequently follows Leon to the letter ; e. g. Psalms v, lxxviii, lxxx,
and others. He is, however, honest enough to admit, in his poetical
prologue, that he was guided by Jacob Jehuda Leon Templo, and
that, besides, he owed much to the writings of Menasse ben Israel,
" that brilliant and lucid sun," as he calls him l .
As already mentioned elsewhere 2 , the poet gives quite a free
rendering of several of the Psalms, in which he makes allusions
to his sufferings and the tortures inflicted by the Inquisition. Thus,
in Psalm x : —
"We are persecuted by tribunals,
Which malice designates as holy.
Cursed be slanderers, and godless boasting,
Blessing itself, may it end in shame 3 ! "
1 Supliendo faltas de Ciencia
Regir mi nave el Timon,
Por Jacob Jehudah Leon
Templo de sacra excelencia.
Tambien logro my Pincel
Alguna Luz del Farol
Del clara y lucienta Sol
Menasseh ben Israel.
Sus lineas observo fiel
Siguiendo la Beal doctrina
De la Eterna Ley Divina.
Among the works mentioned by Menasse ben Israel, as either com-
menced or completed, but not printed, there is also the work "De la
Divinidad de la Ley de Moseh," which was already projected in 1641.
This unpublished book could hardly have been known to Laguna ; nor
would it have served his purpose much. He probably consulted the
Menasse ben Israel's Conciliador, which appeared in 163a.
* Sephardim, Romanische Poesien der Juden in Spanien, p. 300 sqq.
5 Presa sea el malsin que audaz se alaba. The Hebrew }'s»d , which has
come into the Spanish vocabulary, malsin, malsindad = nwoto , the slan-
derous accusation ; malsinar, to accuse.
JEWS IN JAMAICA, DANIEL ISRAEL LOPEZ LAGUNA 715
He prays to the just Judge, in Psalm xxxix : —
"Oh, deliver me from all my sins,
And of the terrible tribunal
To proclaim the complaints of falsity ! "
There is no lack of outbursts of his hatred of the religious tribunal
and his cruel torturers ; but we will not reproduce all of them '.
Lopez Laguna resolved at last, after much hesitation, to publish
bis work, not for the purpose of becoming famous as a poet, as the
above-named Abraham Henriques Pimentel asserts — no laurels could
be obtained in those days by poetical productions— nor was he
induced by prospects of material gain. His sole incentive was
his pious zeal ; he only intended to make the Book of the Psalms
accessible to such of his co-religionists as had escaped from the
Inquisition, but who, in their ignorance of the Hebrew tongue,
did not know what they read : he, therefore, wished to lay it before
them "in the lovely and intelligible mother tongue, in beautiful
diction, and musical verse." In order to enable them to read the
Psalms on various occasions, when agitated by different moods, he
selected all sorts of poetical forms — redondilos, quintilos, terzettos,
decimes, madrigals, romances, &c.
He went from Jamaica to London to have his work printed, and
found there a Maecen in the person of Mordechai Nunes Almeyda ; he
met also with a friendly reception from the cultured Spanish and
Portuguese Jews of that city. Rarely has a work been so joyfully
received and so frequently praised in verse, as that of Lopez Laguna.
His above-mentioned Maecen, the latter's mother Manuela Nunes
de Almeyda, his sisters Bienbenida Cohen Belmonte and D. Sarah de
Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, her husband Manuel Fonseca Pina, his son
Moseh de Manuel Fonseca Pina, all sang the poet's praises in Spanish
sonnets. The same was done by the poet's eldest son, by the latter's
nephew Jacob Lopez Laguna, by his intimate friend Jacob Henriquez
Pimentel al. D. Manuel de Umanes, " Corrector de la Orthographia y
Poesia," by a nephew of the Maecen, by the latter's sons Abraham
and David Henriquez Pimentel, and by Abraham Gomez Silveyra,
who was a member of the Academy founded in Amsterdam by
D. Manuel de Belmonte, and published sermons 2 . The physician,
David Chaves, and Ishac de Sequeira Samuda, sang his praises
in Latin hexameters; Samson Guideon, a young financier 3 , and
1 Vid. Ps. xvi. a ; xliv. 33 sqq. ; lxxiii. 14 sqq. ; civ. 4, 5 ; cix. 16 ; cxxxix.
19 sqq.
1 About Silveyra, v. Biblioteca Espattola-Portrtgueza-Judaica, p. 102.
3 L. Wolf, Plan of a Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish Biography (London, 1887),
p. 6.
716 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
Abraham Bravo, an intimate friend of Laguna's ', lauded him in
English verse.
1 Members of the Bravo family lived at Jamaica. Benjamin Bravo
and David Bravo were naturalized there in 1740. Vid. Publications of
American Jewish Historical Society, V, 3 sq. Samson Guideon and Abraham
Bravo belong undoubtedly to the earliest Anglo-Jewish poets. We cannot
abstain from reproducing here the latter's poem in its entirety : —
As when the eagle to the vaulted skies
Aspiring mounts, and to those regions flies ;
Delighting in the lucid fields of air
To view the bright and shining wonders there.
So I, to sing thy praise exalt my muse,
Would you but her imperfect notes excuse.
1.
Oh, heavenly bard ! how well by you described
Are David's psalms, how gloriously revived;
As if thy harp, tuned by his sacred hand
Did equal force, and melody command.
11.
How great's thy wisdom, how sublime thy art,
Since you to us such heavenly truths impart ;
Had you been present when the monarch writ
His thoughts you could not with more truth transmit.
in.
Such rays of bright divinity are shed
Throughout these works, and every line o'erspread,
That by the streams the spring is clearly shown,
And the translation makes the author known.
IV.
Sure you were inspired by the God-like king
His Hebrew prose in Spanish verse to sing ;
Thy muse will fire with devotion those
Whom verse admire and not the Hebrew knows.
v.
Even cherubims will to thy verses throng,
And will their voices tune thy sacred song ;
Then in chorus sung thy melodious verse,
While we with Hallelujah the Almighty bless.
VI.
The merit due to your immortal name
Will be a pyramid to speak your fame ;
Other attempts are vain; since you excel,
Others may imitate, but not so well.
JEWS IN JAMAICA, DANIEL ISRAEL LOPEZ LAGUNA 717
The work, provided with an approbation in Spanish by the Haham
R. David Nieto 1 , and ornamented with an artistic Geroglifico by
Abraham Lopez de Oliveyra, appeared under the title Espejo fiel de
Vidas que contiene los Psalmos de David en verso. Obra devota, util,
y deleytable compuesta por Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna.
Dedicado al muy benigno y generoso Senor Mordejay Nunes
Almeyda.
En Londres con Licencia de los Senores del Mahamad y Apro-
vacion del Senor Haham. Afio 5480= 1720. 4.
Lopez Laguna returned from London to Jamaica to Riki his wife,
and his three sons, David, Jacob, and Ishac. We presume that the
family remained on the island; Abraham, Jacob, and Rebecca Laguna
were naturalized there in 1740 and 1743 2 .
We do not know the date of Laguna's death ; he was nearly seventy
when he died.
M. Kayserling.
VII.
Nor may you fear the poem's common lot,
Read and commended, but withal forgot ;
The brazen mines and marble rocks may waste,
Yet we shall even retain thy savoury taste.
vni.
Oh ! then let 's ever chant Laguna's praise,
Success and glory crown his happy days.
Ah ! may the heavens to him be ever kind
Since he to virtue only sways his mind.
1 Nieto says in his approbation " . . . su autor tan fecundo en lo Heroico
como fecundo en lo Lirico, tan fiel en la translacion como energico en la
expresiva."
Joseph ibn Danon commences : —
Ml »n"nM 'iwfi JHO IOTW 01331
•rr3i3 tfn wmoin j"p wch
' Publications, V, nasqq.
