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previous: Chapter 8 This webpage reproduces a chapter of The Life of Miranda by William Spence Robertson The University of North Carolina Press 1929 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Chapter 10

Vol. I
p188 Chapter IX

New Affiliations and Fresh Financiering

As was his custom at this epoch, Miranda confided his sentiments to writing. In a diarial note dated May 3, 1799, he wrote this commentary about his treatment by English ministers:

The notion of Captain Thomas Graves apparently was that England should furnish Miranda with arms, munitions, some officers, and a small naval force "in order to promote the liberty and independence of the Spanish colonies on the American Continent from which there would flow to east more honor and profit than from the bloody and expensive European war." The captain's idea naturally pleased Miranda, they formulated a project for a South American expedition, and Graves brought the scheme to the attention of Lord Spencer, first lord of the admiralty, and other government officials. However Miranda recorded that, as he had expected, Lord Spencer shattered their hopes, and that in consequence he again undertook to request a passport. But William Huskisson, under secretary of war, declared that no order had been given to issue such a permit, "and added 'that General Miranda had recently become an object of suspicion to the government.' Behold how despotism always seeks to arm itself in its calumny in order to find fault with one who is blameless!"​2 Such was the egoist's bitter comment!

Subsequently Miranda repeated his efforts to leave England. On May 25, 1799, he reminded Wickham of the desired passport for Trinidad or the United States.​3 A month later the indigent petitioner wrote to Mr. Flint at the Alien Office to state that about two weeks earlier he had for the third time asked permission to proceed "to the United States where he had been offered an asylum against the proscriptions of the French Directory and its Allies." He complained that his long delay in England had reduced him to "the dreadful alternative of contracting debts or soliciting alms."​4 On July 1 Miranda sent Pitt copies of his notes to Wickham and Flint. He alleged that the extraordinary delays in granting his legitimate request proved that there was a prejudice against  p190 him. Hence he appealed to the Prime Minister to expedite the granting of his passport.​5 There is no doubt that Miranda again had to eat crow; for in August, 1799, Rufus King made an attempt to get permission for him to leave England: in extenuation of his efforts, King pleaded Miranda's pecuniary embarrassments. Though the Venezuelan seems to have secured passage on the ship Washington for America, and though the American Minister even wrote a letter to Colonel Pickering introducing him as a man of "uncommon Talents and rare acquirements"; yet on October 18, King added a postscript to the effect that his friend could not secure permission to sail for the United States.6

During these tantalizing experiences, either through friendships that he formed in London or through correspondence with sympathizers in the West Indies, Miranda was steadily improving his relations with Spanish Americans. After Caro reached Trinidad, where he assumed the alias of "Josef de Oquendo y Atney," he communicated with Miranda to inform him about conditions on that island as well as about tendencies on the neighboring Continent. On February 19, 1799, the emissary wrote his chief to declare that Venezuela was still much agitated and that only two thousand men and a leader were necessary to insure success for the revolutionary cause. Six days later Caro stated that with the aid of the governor of Trinidad he expected soon to depart from the island, but that he was disturbed because of the lack of recent news of Miranda.​7 On April 21 the Cuban reported that he was planning to leave Trinidad for South America in disguise. He added that he was transmitting to Miranda a valuable map of the Isthmus of Panama.​8 On April 29 Caro discerningly expressed his views about conditions in the province of Caracas. He lamented the fact that the Venezuelans neither had a concerted plan nor did they "work with foresight. They  p191 are better prepared to change their masters than to become free. They believe that it is the same to acclaim independence as to be independent and that independence will be accomplished simply by rejecting the yoke of Spain and placing themselves under the protection of any other nation."9

On May 12 Caro assured Miranda that merely with the aid of their friends in the West Indies they could undertake the arduous task of emancipation. "A gust of wind would be enough to kindle the fire."​10 Two days later he added that their last recourse would be to start the revolution alone: "a dilatory system exposes us to many risks; the secret will become known."​11 On June 3, 1799, Miranda replied to Caro declaring that audacity was necessary for the execution of their enterprise; that they ought to strike at Spanish power at the proper moment; and that he expected soon to embark for Trinidad. On September 2 he wrote to this conspirator to explain that he was trying to obtain permission to go to the United States and to instruct him to join his compatriots without delay.12

However the mysterious movements of Caro soon rendered him an object of suspicion to Governor Picton of Trinidad. That governor believed him to be an emissary from the court of Madrid who had inveigled himself into Miranda's confidence. In the midsummer of 1799 Picton accordingly ordered him to leave the island.​13 Hence Caro was deported to London. There he soon attempted to secure a bonus from the English Government. Apparently in a contented mood, early in May, 1800, he left London on a strange mission to Hamburg.​14 The sequel, however, proved either that he had become dissatisfied with the financial emoluments which Miranda allotted him or else that he had become weary of his rôle.

From Hamburg on May 31, 1800, Caro sent a humble petition to Charles IV in which he deplored his disloyalty. He asserted  p192 that his treasonable acts were due to disappointment over his failure to secure employment or fortune in the King's service. Of Miranda's credentials Caro declared that although at first he had believed them to be authentic, yet time and circumstances had made him aware of their farcical character. In regard to the promoter's governmental plans he said that an "Inca-Dictator" was to rule over liberated Spanish America on behalf of the future supreme ruler who was to be none other than Miranda himself. Caro besought the King to pardon his treason and either to permit him to pass the rest of his life in a remote corner of the earth or else to allow him to expiate his crime in the royal service.​15 That mercenary adventurer thus flits out of our story.

The principal Spanish-American agent also carried on a correspondence with his boyhood friend, Manuel Gual, who had escaped from Venezuela upon the discovery of his complicity in a revolutionary conspiracy. On July 12, 1799, Gual wrote to Miranda from the West Indies to declare that, since the failure of the uprising against Spanish rule in 1797, the desire for independence had only increased in Venezuela, that to accomplish its liberation the enterprise only needed to be launched with English aid, and that he desired no greater honor than to serve under Miranda's orders. On September 30 following, Miranda sent a copy of this epistle to Secretary Dundas, accompanied by a plea for aid that his fellow conspirator had presented to the English commander at the Windward Islands.​16 In a postscript to his note to Gual of October 4, 1799, Miranda gave an introspective exposé of his own ambitions:

On February 4, 1800, Gual wrote to Miranda and declared that a smile from their native land was more precious than all the perfidious favors of tyrants. He inquired when the day would arrive upon which he would be able to embrace his friend, — a glorious day when they would be able to march against the Spaniards who tormented and dishonored Venezuela. He vowed that only after he had beheld that day could he "die content. I desire that you should be convinced of the ease with which the revolt may be undertaken. Because of the atrocious oppression of these monsters, the enterprise needs only a slight impetus. I expect that the breach once begun will be made absolute by the lance of Achilles."18

A month later Miranda wrote optimistically to Gual to inform him that measures were secretly under way in England for the liberation of Spanish America:

Yet Miranda's hopes fluctuated. In a disappointed spirit he soon sent word to Gual that the destination of the expedition intended for Spanish America had been changed and that no one actually knew whither it was bound.​20 On June 4 his mood had changed again; for, hinting that in a few days he might transmit important news, he addressed a letter to this friend and urged him to assemble all the sympathizers with the cause of Spanish-American independence who might be in Trinidad, Martinique, and Curaçao.​21 However, the result proved that Miranda had been again deceived or else that he had deceived himself.

As a link in the international relations of Miranda there figured at this time a bizarre Frenchman called Louis Dupéron. In Paris they had reached an agreement that, if circumstances in England favored the liberation of the Spanish Indies, Dupéron was to follow Miranda. Under an assumed name the Frenchman deviously made his way to London in the midsummer of 1798. There he was employed as Miranda's scribe. In less than a year, however, the secretary had a difference with his master.

Like other disputes in which Miranda was at one time or another involved this one was largely due to his inability to meet pressing financial obligations. Dupéron maintained that after a service of eight months, he had received no salary. Consequently on January 30, 1799, he demanded that he be paid one hundred and twenty pounds to return a loan, to relieve the needs of his family, and to meet the expenses of his return to the Continent.​22 After receiving a portion of his claim, Dupéron vanished. He had meantime transferred to an ex‑inspector general of the secret police of Paris named Du Bois, alias D'Ossonville, copies of valuable manuscripts preserved in Miranda's papers. Du Bois soon attempted to sell  p195 these papers to the Spanish Ambassador at Vienna.​23 After reaching France, however, Dupéron was incarcerated on suspicion of being implicated in a royalist conspiracy. Meantime the court of Madrid again warned officials in the Indies to beware of Miranda's iniquitous schemes.

At this epoch the plotter learned of a strange character who sometimes went under the name of "Rossi." This person had evidently tried to transmit to English ministers information about Spanish rule in South America. A fragment of a letter addressed by the "Jesuit Rossi to the English Government in 1797," which is preserved among Miranda's papers, mentioned the discontent prevailing in Peru. It suggested that all that was necessary to start an uprising against Spanish rule was something to rally around. Rossi declared that "all the rest of Spanish America" suffered the same wrongs as Peru and that its inhabitants were animated by the same spirit.

With this letter is found a note, which was perhaps written by Miranda, to the effect that the fragmentary letter was found among the manuscripts of "the ex‑Jesuit Don Viscardo, a native of Arequipa in Peru."​24 Apparently this mysterious revolutionary had enjoyed a pension from the English Government to which he had presented plans for the liberation of the Spanish Indies. Whether or not Rossi was simply another name for Viscardo, it is clear that shortly after the latter's death in London in February, 1798, Miranda came into possession of his inedited papers. In January, 1799, the plotter wrote to Caro to state that he was engaged in revising what their "compatriot Viscardo had done."​25 On September 2, 1799, Miranda informed the Cuban that he was transmitting to him "a copy of the Letter of Viscardo."26

This was the Lettre aux Espagnols-Américains of Juan  p196 Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán, which, presumably at the instance of Miranda, was published at Philadelphia in 1799. One of the earliest and most ardent pleas for Spanish-American emancipation that found its way into print, Viscardo's Lettre was soon used as a vehicle of propaganda. In a letter to Gual on October 4, 1799, Miranda directed him to ask the governor of Trinidad for a copy of this pamphlet which he had sent out in order that it might be circulated in South America. "Ask him for it," said Miranda, "and you will see with what solid, august, and evident reasons our compatriot Viscardo victoriously supports the justice and beauty of our cause." Four months later Gual informed his master that he had read the tract with "holy enthusiasm."27

Miranda certainly became acquainted with an aspiring young South American youth who was in England. In a dinner invitation which was probably extended in 1798, John Turnbull expressed the hope that Miranda would bring with him "the young Gentleman from Chile" in order that he might converse with him and perhaps form some commercial connections.​28 Among the annotations inscribed on Miranda's copy of his remonstrance of March 19, 1799, to William Pitt is a note that reads as follows: "A young Peruvian who is actually in London would voluntarily undertake to transmit the decision that England might take on this important matter, if this decision were satisfactory or important for his compatriots." Adjoined to that commentary is Miranda's illuminating explanation: "Don Riquelme, a native of Santiago de Chile, offered to carry the decision to his compatriots; but, as I did not receive any favorable news, shortly afterwards he left London in order to return to his native land."29

That Chilean was undoubtedly the youth who was then  p197 known as Bernardo Riquelme. He was the natural son of an adventurous Irishman named Ambrosio O'Higgins who terminated as Viceroy of Peru a picturesque career in the Spanish service. In his reminiscences Bernardo O'Higgins stated that when he encountered Miranda in 1798, that general was engaged in instructing some Spanish-American youths how to enjoy "the sweet fruit of the tree of liberty." Bernardo further declared that he became Miranda's favorite disciple, that when he heard from his master's lips the vivid story of his revolutionary endeavors he viewed the narrator as another Washington, and that with tearful eyes he threw himself into the arms of this revolutionary Father and inquired if "the breaking of the first link of a chain in North America caused a new nation to appear," were there not much stronger motives for "the destruction of the rest of this chain" that fastened other sections of the New World to European sceptres. He asked to be allowed to kiss the hands of the personage who was destined by Providence "to break those fetters which so ominously burden our compatriots." He predicted that from their labors there might "be born republics greatest that will some day become the example for nations of the Old World. Behold in me, Sir, the melancholy remains of my countryman Lautaro! In my breast burns the same spirit as that which liberated my native land Arauco from its oppressors!"30

Bernardo O'Higgins as Supreme Dictator of Chile. Reproduced by courtesy of the Chilean Legation at Washington.

O'Higgins went on to declare that, embracing him tenderly, Miranda said:

Miranda's company was also sought by Pedro de Vargas. This character, who bore as an alias the name "Pedro Oribe," represented himself to have been one of the leaders in Nariño's abortive conspiracy. Fortunately he escaped from the toils of the Spanish Government, and finally made his way to England where he met Miranda in November, 1799.​32 The latter became so much interested in the designs of the fugitive that he soon addressed to William Pitt a letter which inclosed a memorial from this "commissary." It would be difficult to say to what extent this petition merely reflected Miranda's views.

In his plea Vargas avowed that the evils of Spanish rule in northern South America had reached a climax. "The population of the country is large enough so that it can aspire to independence; today the Viceroyalty of New Granada is like an eldest son who must be emancipated." He argued that this liberation was earnestly desired by all classes. "Despoiled even of our homes, assassinated in them, or reduced to slavery for three consecutive centuries, what is more natural for us than to attempt to overthrow tyranny by force?" He thus described the purpose of his mission: "My associates ask from England aid in men, arms, and munitions, besides some warships to protect the contingents and to hinder or to intercept the reënforcements  p199 that Spain may send. They pledge themselves to negotiate an alliance with Great Britain and fully to reimburse her for all the expenses of the expedition."33

Between the years of 1798 and 1800 the lodgings of Miranda thus became known to discontented Spanish-Americans who had drifted to the English metropolis. Other compatriots than Caro, Vargas, and O'Higgins presumably consorted with the self-styled agent of the Spanish-American colonies whether his abode was in Queen Charlotte Road, or Great Pultney Street, or New Road. A Spanish minister aptly said that the famous rebel, General Miranda, was the focus of those persons who conspired against Spain.

An hypothesis which is not inconsistent with the rest of Miranda's activity is that during this period he founded in London a society which developed into an influential international association of Spanish-American revolutionaries that became known as the Logia Lautaro. There is no doubt that this club later became active in South America where it mysteriously promoted the revolution directed by San Martín. But though works dealing with the Masonic Order were listed in a catalogue of Miranda's library as early as 1783, and though he displayed an interest in Masonic establishments during his trip through Europe, yet an examination of his inedited papers reveals nothing to prove either that he belonged to the Masonic Order or that he was the founder of the Lautaro Lodge. Nor has evidence elsewhere been found to show that he ever initiated such revolutionists as San Martín and Bolívar into an association of South American Carbonari. In truth, there is no evidence to indicate that Miranda ever met San Martín.

The chief indication of Miranda's possible connection with a revolutionary association, is found in the fragmentary reminiscences of Bernardo O'Higgins which we will therefore use again. Writing in the third person the Chilean averred that the continuance of hostilities between France and England  p200 "furnished a new theatre that stimulated the meditations of Miranda," who had awaited this war to initiate his operations. "O'Higgins left England for Spain with plans that had been framed in London with the South Americans, Bejarano, Caro, and others, — plans that upon the arrival of O'Higgins in Spain he presented to the Great American Reunion, reserving for its secret committee the most private measures which he could not reveal to the members of the Great Reunion. This society fixed its headquarters at the Columns of Hercules whence there sallied forth the emissaries who were to destroy the tyrant's throne in South America: O'Higgins for Chile and Lima, Bejarano for Guayaquil and Quito, Baquijano for Lima and Peru, as well as the canons Cortés and Fretes who were also bound for Chile."​34 There is a possibility that the historian of the future may by the aid of hidden South-American archives some day indisputably link such associated conspirators to the monster web that Miranda was spinning in London.

The Chilean historian Vicuña Mackenna printed "the advice given by an old South American to a young compatriot upon his return from England to his native land." In this breviary Miranda gave his favorite disciple the sage counsel of one who had long been tossed on the stormy billows of the world:

Let us next consider General Miranda's finances. As he was not fully remunerated for his military services in France, and as he had to find some means of subsistence, his activities in England in 1798 and 1799 again raise the question respecting his financial relations with that government. At this juncture John Turnbull not only advanced money to him but also acted as his fiscal intermediary with English ministers. A letter of Turnbull dated February 18, 1799, which was addressed to Under Secretary George Hammond, explained the situation thus:

A curt reply from Downing Street furnished little consolation to either Miranda or Turnbull. "Having submitted your letter of yesterday's date to Lord Grenville," said Hammond, "I have been directed by His Lordship to inform you that he cannot hold out the smallest expectation that His Majesty's government will defray M. de Miranda's expences in this country."​37 A letter from Turnbull to Miranda dated May 11, 1799, thus analyzes his financial prospects at that time:

 p204  Yet, in September, 1799, Miranda temporarily relinquished his plan to go to the New World. Through Turnbull he was given a message from Under Secretary of State King to the effect that the English ministers had decided that for the present he should not leave England, and that they wished him to have "a sufficient allowance" so that he might live in an easy and comfortable manner during the period which it might be judged expedient for him to stay there.​39 Turnbull further informed him that the government entertained a high opinion of him "as Mr. Pitt's man," and that in the near future his hopes would be realized and his fine plans carried out. However, when the ministers gave him a stipend of three hundred pounds a year, without any reimbursement for his expenses, he complained that this was "capricious conduct."​40 On September 30 he addressed a letter to Under Secretary King hinting that he was dissatisfied at the financial remuneration which he had been allowed. As indicative of his sentiments he quoted his letter to Pitt of January 28, 1791, and declared that upon this basis he had authorized Turnbull to receive on his account "any money that His Majesty's ministers may be willing to advance to me: — and it being always understood by me, that my detention in England is with the view on the part of its government of fulfilling, at a convenient opportunity, its promises towards South America."41

Perhaps Miranda's ardently expressed desire to proceed to that Continent had some relation to the modest size of his stipend. On December 2, 1799, he addressed a letter to the Duke of Portland, who was secretary of state for home affairs, about his desire to leave England for America. He requested to be informed who was the proper person to ask for information "upon this distressing business" and complained that he had been detained in England for two years.​42 The South American was evidently in sore financial straits, for he had to borrow small sums from his friends. Among the kind letters  p205 that he received from his old friend General Melville was one dated December 17, 1799, in which that gentleman stated that at many periods "he would have been happy to have accommodated Genl. Miranda with a loan of a sum ten times greater than the one in question, and to have waited his convenience for the repayment," but that as his private fortune was at present "barely adequate to his unavoidable expenses" he was under "the disagreeable necessity" of asking him to repay the small sum which he had borrowed.​43 The financial condition of Miranda is mirrored in the following letter to him from John Turnbull dated February 5, 1800:

Meantime Miranda had rented lodgings in New Road,  p206 where he sought relief from tribulation in his beloved books. As early as December, 1799, he employed a servant to look after his household; for in his diary he mentioned a maid named "Sally."​45 He renewed relations with his old crony, Thomas Pownall, with whom he again discussed his projects. Of the ex‑governor Miranda wrote in an undated memorandum: "I have passed some pleasant hours in the society of this good friend whose taste for letters and love for liberty unite us more and more."​46 At Pownall's residence in Knightsbridge the two enthusiasts subscribed to a new scheme for the revolutionizing of northern South America by native insurgents who were to be aided by the English garrison from Trinidad. A unique feature, which was probably suggested by Pownall, was the provision that when Cartagena was captured it might be placed in the hands of the English as security for the fulfillment of commercial or political pledges.​47 This occasion seems to have been one in which Miranda contemplated a transfer of territory in South America to England.

In the end of 1799 his perennial hopes blossomed again. In a diarial note dated December 15 he wrote that he had been visited by a relative of one of his American friends, Captain Rutherfurd of the Royal Engineers, who desired to gather information about the condition of South America. Miranda furnished Rutherfurd with a list of books and maps for study. He soon divined that the captain was forming a project for military operations against the Spanish Indies. Upon learning that, with the approval of English ministers, Rutherfurd was sending this data to Sir Ralph Abercromby, the conqueror of Trinidad, who was then in Scotland with Secretary Dundas, Miranda recorded that this was being done "for the independence and liberty of Spanish America, without which it would be infamy for me to acquiesce." In a continuation of this note dated February 10, 1800, Miranda wrote of Rutherfurd:

It was evidently from letters sent him by Miranda that Gual gained the impression that the chief promoter expected to proceed to Jamaica whence an English force of some twelve thousand men would be sent against Venezuela and New Granada.​49 In response to an inquiry of Rutherfurd, who evidently did not fancy a war of castes similar to that which had broken out in Santo Domingo, Miranda affirmed that the great majority of the people in northern South America were "Indians and whites, with pure customs and in that stage of civilization which would have suited Plato for the establishment of his republic."​50 The Spanish Government meantime got wind of the interest that Englishmen were taking in the schemes of  p208 Miranda, Caro, Vargas, and Gual; it sent a warning to the Captain General of Cuba to the effect that the chief intriguer was destined to lead a military expedition from Trinidad against Puerto Cabello.51

Yet, perhaps because of the sudden departure from London of General Abercromby, who was sent to Egypt where he met an heroic death at Alexandria, the promoter was compelled to relinquish hope of immediate action. In a diarial entry concerning the abrupt termination of the conferences in conjunction with one and another "shameful contradiction" on the part of English ministers, Miranda commented that "an interpreter was not necessary for an understanding of the text."​52 On March 18, 1800, Pownall, who had vainly attempted to lay his views before the Prime Minister, wrote to Pitt announcing that he had reluctantly retired from the transaction, and that his Spanish-American acquaintances had withdrawn their propositions.​53 In a letter addressed to Rutherfurd, Miranda regretted that "the most favorable opportunity" had been allowed to slip away. He expressed his hope that Abercromby and Rutherfurd would never make use of the information which he had furnished except to promote "the absolute Liberty and Independency of the Hispano-american Colonies."54

Meantime progress had been made in the contraband case in which Miranda had been involved. After General Cagigal had proceeded from Cuba to Spain, being unwilling to divulge the whereabouts of his favorite aide, he was ignominiously thrust into a castle at Cadiz.​55 As the result of a petition to Charles III recounting his long and faithful service, a royal order was issued that his case should be heard by the Council of the Indies which acted as the supreme court for Spanish America.​56 An American acquaintance who saw Cagigal in a miserable plight at Cadiz warned Miranda that the  p209 only condition on which the prisoner could expect justice was to deliver his protégé to Spain.57

On December 10, 1799, Cagigal wrote that the suit had at last been decided in his favor. He transmitted an extract from the judgment of the Council of the Indies which stated that Colonel Miranda was "a faithful subject" of His Catholic Majesty and "deserving of his royal favor."​58 He invited Miranda to proceed to Spain in order that they might jointly enter a claim for damages at Madrid.​59 With due prudence, however, the creole declined to risk crossing the Spanish frontier. He wrote to his old commander to declare that in Spain the situation of an honest man would always be very precarious and that a bad man ordinarily enjoyed with impunity the fruit of his crimes.​60 The conspirator's commentary on that correspondence preserved in his papers furnishes his interpretation of this incident: "New attempt of the Court of Madrid to deceive Miranda by using as an instrument of its perfidy his esteemed friend Don Juan Manuel de Cagigal."61

In the summer of 1800 Miranda again tried to leave England in spite of the Alien Act that placed restrictions on the movements of foreigners. In a memorandum concerning his application for a passport he mentioned certain motives that animated him. He declared that, having withdrawn his application for a passport he had solicited English assistance in his designs, he had "no further Business in England." In a diplomatic fashion he asserted that, as his conduct while in the Spanish service had been justified because it was directed against "an ungrounded and false accusation under which he had suffered persecution for nineteen years from the court of Madrid," and as his property rights had been restored, it was necessary for him to return to his own country. He expressed gratitude for the protection which England had afforded him, but maintained that he was entitled to a passport on the following  p210 grounds: that he was not a prisoner of war, that he had come to England under a safe conduct, and that he was not accused of having performed any acts against the English Government.62

On July 18, 1800, Miranda wrote to Gual in words that were more indignant than truthful. The treatment that he was receiving at the hands of ministers, who declined to allow him to leave England for the West Indies, had provoked his intense disgust. He expressed the opinion that the tyranny of the French Directory had completely ended and that the Revolution had now returned to its original principles. "In this country," he continued, "every promise that has been made to us has been broken; I see nothing but perfidy and bad faith." He declared that all the Spanish Americans who were in London had gone to Paris. "I have demanded with vigor my passport to leave the country and perfidiously they detain me." After this intimation that he was contemplating a return to France, he added that he had not received a single letter from his compatriot. Rightly did he divine that his correspondence was being intercepted by English officials. "If by any chance you write me," he concluded, "let it be under cover to Mr. King, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America."63

A letter from the Secretary of State for War dated three days later presents the English official view regarding Miranda's detention:64

The correspondence cited in this chapter shows that in 1798 and 1799 Miranda was in much closer contact with his compatriots than has been hitherto supposed. Although the information transmitted to him from his correspondents may occasionally have been misleading, yet he was kept in touch with revolutionary sentiment in northern South America. Among the important results of Miranda's residence in London were the significant affiliations that he formed with those Spanish Americans who made his residence a rendezvous. Though the English Government neither executed his plans nor permitted him to proceed to the West Indies for the purpose of executing them himself, yet it liquidated some of his expenditures. Though the ministers did not grant him a regular pension, yet through the firm of Turnbull and Forbes they advanced him money enough to pay his expenses and to insure him a comfortable living in London. After so many rebuffs, this financial assurance must have served Miranda as a solace.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

2 Diario, ibid.

3 Ch. MSS., bundle 160.

4 Ibid.

5 Ch. MSS., bundle 160.

6 King, II, 664‑65.

7 Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

8 Ibid. On the map see Robertson, Miranda, pp517‑18; it is found in A. N. F7, 6285, no. 5819.

9 Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Picton to Dundas, Sept. 28, 1800, C. O., 295/1.

14 Miranda to Vargas, May 8, 1800, Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

15 A. G. I., audiencia de Caracas, legajo 4.

16 Castlereagh, Memoirs and Correspondence, VII, 273‑75.

17 Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

18 Ibid., vol. 45.

19 Mar. 4, 1800, Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

20 April 4, 1800, ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 Dupéron to Miranda, Jan. 30, 1799, Mir. MSS., vol. 24.

23 Du Bois, "Causes secretes de la detention du Citoyen D'Ossonville," Sept. 17, 1801, A. N., F7, 6318 B; in part, in Ô'Kelly de Galway, Les généraux de la révolution française, pp113‑16.

24 "Papier trouvé parmi ceux desº Jesuite Rossi addressé au governement Anglais en 1797," Mir. MSS., vol. 45.

25 Miranda to Caro, Jan. 16, 1799, ibid., vol. 46.

26 Ibid.

27 Aguilar, "Aportaciones á la biografía del precursor de la independencia sur‑americana," in Boletín del centro de estudios americanistas de Sevilla, año V, no. 20, pp8‑9. Viscardo's rare tract was reprinted in 1911 in Villanueva, historia y diplomacia: Napoleón y la independencia de América, pp295‑321.

28 Undated, Mir. MSS., vol. 22.

29 Ibid., vol. 45. In the same tome is the following undated note addressed to Miranda:

30 O'Higgins, Epistolario, I, 29, note. There is a tradition that Miranda taught mathematics to O'Higgins — see Moses, The Intellectual Background of the Revolution in South America, p30; Vicuña Mackenna, La corona del héroe, pp238‑39.

31 O'Higgins, I, 29‑30, note.

32 Diario, Nov. 17, 1799, Mir. MSS., vol. 45.

33 Nov. 20, 1799 (copy), inclosure in Miranda to Pitt, Nov. 25, 1799, ibid.

34 O'Higgins, I, 30, note. The view that Miranda was the founder of a Spanish-American revolutionary club is taken by Mitre, Historia de San Martín, I, 135‑36; Mitre, Historia de Belgrano, I, 113, II, 272‑73; Vicuña Mackenna, Vida de O'Higgins, p62; Mancini, Bolívar et l'émancipation des colonies espagnoles, pp272‑75; Hemenway, "The Relation­ship of Masonry to the Liberation of Spanish America," in the Builder, I, 259‑64; Alemán, "Aus der Vorgeschichte der Mai‑Revolution," in Die Kette, IV, no. 13, pp17‑24; Zuñiga, La logia "lautaro" y la independencia de América, pp33, 37‑38, 40.

35 Vicuña Mackenna, La corona del héroe, pp240‑43.

36 Copy, Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

37 Hammond to Turnbull, Feb. 19, 1799, ibid.

38 Ibid., vol. 22.

39 Endorsed, "Sept. the 18th. 1799," Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

40 "Conferencia," ibid.

41 Ibid., vol. 45.

42 Ibid., vol. 46.

43 Ibid., vol. 22.

44 Ibid.

45 Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

46 Ibid.

47 Jan. 5, 1800, ibid.

48 Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

49 Aguilar, "Aportaciones á la biografía del precursor de la independencia sur‑americana," loc. cit., año V, no. 20, p15, note 1.

50 Diario, Feb. 10, 1800, Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

51 Orguiso to the Captain General of Cuba, July 3, 1800, Cub. MSS.

52 Diario, Feb. 12, 1800, Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

53 Copy, ibid.

54 May 6, 1800, ibid.

55 O'Reilly to José de Gálvez, Sept. 16, 1783, A. G. I., audiencia de Santo Domingo, 84‑2‑9.

56 Cagigal to Charles III, Aug. 22, 1783, ibid.

57 Sayre to Miranda, May 15, 1788, Mir. MSS., vol. 23.

58 Antepara, South American Emancipation, p257.

59 Ibid., p256.

60 Ibid., p260.

61 Mir. MSS., vol. 45.

62 "Case of General Miranda on which he claims his passport," Mir. MSS., vol. 46. In a letter of June 15, 1800 (copy), to Dundas, Pownall used similar arguments, ibid.

63 Robertson, Miranda, p344.

64 Mir. MSS., vol. 46.

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