University of Virginia Library

SPANISH AMERICA.

The number of gazettes printed in the Spanish provinces
cannot be ascertained. It has been mentioned that a gazette
was printed at Mexico early in the eighteenth century;[1]
another was established at Lima, at an early period;
and, it has likewise been remarked that a press was long
since set up in the Spanish part of Saint Domingo,[2] &c.

In May 1807, a printing house was opened with much
ceremony at Montevideo, on the river La Plata, in South
America, when it was in the possession of the British fleet
and army. The first printing performed at the press in
that place was the prospectus of a gazette. The commander
in chief, the admiral, and other principal officers
of the province were present. The first sheet from the
press was presented to the governor, the second to the admiral,
and so on according to their rank. William Scollay,
a young gentleman from Boston, educated at the university
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was appointed conductor of
the press and the editor of the gazette, for which he received
a very liberal salary.[3]

A few years later, presses were established, and gazettes
published under the control of government, in most of the
principal cities of Spain, in America, both on the continent
and on the islands. A number of presses, issuing public
journals, were also introduced by the revolutionists in

the interior of the extensive territories of Spain on this
continent.

CUBA.

Three public papers are now (1810) published at Havana,
on this island, weekly, under the titles following:

El Aviso de la Habana, Papel Periodico, Literario-Economico.
Aurora, Correo Politico-Economico de la Habana.
Mensagero, Politico Economico-Literario de la
Habana.

These, like the Spanish and Portuguese gazettes of Europe,
are in small quarto, and commonly on half a sheet of
pot or crown paper. See Appendix N.