Syntactic Trees

Letter from Manuel de Ceballos y Argumora, a farmer, to Juan Antonio de la Colina.

The author requests from Juan Antonio de la Colina, a supplier of the army with whom the author admits to have a debt, a second postponement of the outstanding payment, justifying the request with the health problems suffered by his wife.

Various fellow citizens were accused of betrayal, because they had allegedly helped the French army. These letters had been sent by Manuel de Ceballos, one of the accused, to Juan Antonio de la Colina, a supplier of the army, to whom the author had asked a second postponement of the outstanding payment for the provision of the army. Juan Antonio de la Colina was a rich landowner who loaned money to the poorest people of the town and who declared himself a patriot. It was him who handed the letters over to the tribunal to demonstrate that Manuel de Ceballos, whom he accused of having helped the French army, did not pay the contributions. The accused were eventually declared innocent, and Juan Antonio de la Colina was warned to accuse people of betrayal only when he could prove it.