Neeson Hartwig, 3 AUTOGRAPH NOTES SIGNED, on front and back of 1 leaf.  Buenos Ayres, Argentina, November 17 and December 9 and 17, 1847, To Captain J. Goodrich. (Folds, Good condition overall)

Yankee traders found that shipping goods from Europe to turbulent Latin America could be a risky business in the mid-19th century. 

Uruguay was in the grip of a civil war, and the British and French were blockading Buenos Aires because of the Argentine Government's support of one Uruguay faction against another that was backed by the Europeans.

Captain Goodrich had first sailed his vessel to Liverpool, arriving after "many troubles at sea", only to be delayed in the British port. Hartwig had expected him for some time at Montevideo, Uruguay. Now he was urged to hurry to Buenos Aires because, in a few weeks, "no vessel can enter at this Custom House” after first stopping in Uruguay. If he might secretly sail to Buenos Aires, Hartwig could tell him how to evade “the strictness of the Blockade", which had theoretically closed Argentina to all maritime commerce - though, in reality,  the harbor was "full of Vessels of all Nations."