Excerpt from Trial of Gabriel De Granada by the Inquisition in Mexico: 1642-1645

At the third meeting of the Society, held in Washington in December, 1894, I presented an abstract of the trial of Jorge De Almeida by the Inquisition in Mexico in 1607. This was printed in No. 4 of the Publications, and of the reprints I sent the first copy to Mr. Henry C. Lea, the distinguished historian. In acknowledging it Mr. Lea suggested that I send a copy to Colonel David Fergusson of Seattle, Washington, adding: There is no one who knows more than he about the Mexican Inquisition or takes more interest in it. To this suggestion the present volume is due, and it is hoped that much more that is important for the history of the Jews in Mexico may follow in these Publications from the same generous sources.

Colonel David Fergusson was born in Scotland in 1824 and came to America while a young man. He was Colonel of the First California Volunteer Cavalry in the Civil War, and, with a portion of his command, went over the border and into the interior of Mexico in quest of some Federal cannon that had found their way into the hands of the authorities of a Mexican city. He was also for a time in command of the Department of Arizona. Resigning his commission some time later, Colonel Fergusson took up his residence in the neighboring Republic and resided over twenty years in different parts of the country. He was prominent in mining, banking and railway enterprises, and secured the concessions for the two first roads built by American capital. While residing in the City of Mexico, from 1872 to 1883, he became interested in the collection of rare manuscripts, books and paintings, and was much sought after by antiquarians. He gathered together hun dreds of original manuscripts'of the Inquisition in New Granada, now the Republic of Colombia, and in Mexico. Moving to the City of Washington late in 1883, he resided there until 1888, when he went to Seattle, Washington, where he has established his home on the shores of Lake Washington. While his household goods, library and rare manuscripts were stored in Knox's warehouse in the City of Washington it was completely destroyed by fire, and some twelve boxes containing Inquisition records were reduced to ashes. Colonel Fergusson had translated thousands of pages of these records into English and had sent them to Mr. Lea, so that a portion of this interesting material has been preserved.

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