Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/521

 Miranda and the British. Idiiiiralty 5 i 1 countenance his jjroject ; ' and during his negotiation France was attacked by the Allied Armies and he was solicitous to enter into her service, which he did conditionally for one campaign. At the expiration of it he was appointed Governor and Captain General of S' Domingo with an army of I 2,000 and an adequate fleet for the purpose of co-operating in his enter- I)rise in favour of South America;-' just at this time however the princi- ples of the French Government under which Miranda first engaged having materially altered, and growing every day worse and worse he hesitated to undertake this expedition and during the time of his suspence he fore- saw that Spain must be inevitably engaged in the War, and he sent Caro' and Narigno the two last emissaries that had arrived from South America to London, whither he soon followed them, and immediately renewed his proposition to the British Government, and although he had reason to expect from the assurances he received, that something would be done, especially as M' King the American minister was taken into the consider- ation, ' and had several conferences with Lord Grenville, yet he was so pressed with letters from South America, that in 1801 he went again to France when he was so disgusted with Bonaparte that he returned to Eng- land in 1S02 and brought with him two of the latest arrived South Amer- ican Commissioners, and sent the rest to South America, with the strictest injunctions to his countrymen to remain quiet till some favourable event happened of which he could profit either by the assistance of Great Britain or America as they were the only two countries on which he placed any reliance. On his arrival in London the British Government offered him im- mediate aid for the execution of his plan, the articles necessary were purchased and a ship named to carry him out, but at this moment the preliminary Articles of Peace were signed and this enterprise then lay dormant. The Government however offered him fair and honorable means of subsistence, not only for himself but for his countrymen who were in England ; and above all a promise of support whenever an op- his countrymen in Philadelphia ; and he repeated his advice to them to remain quiet and not to encourage any premature measure of revolt. Since the present war he has had various communications with His Majesty's Ministers and he pressed for permission to accompany M' King to America, but it was not granted and M' 'ansittart ' assured him in the name of the Government, that although the moment was not yet arrived 'See Sorel, L' Europe ct la Rmilulwn Fraiifaisc, III. 157, 175, as to Brissot, Le- bi^uu and Dumouriez. '- Bri.ssot's letter of November 28, 1792, to Dumouriez, Edinburgh Rrc'iew, XIII. 288, Antepara, p. 169, shows that the ministers agreed that this appointment should be made, if Dumouriez would let Miranda go ; but it doe.~ not appear that it was made. ' For I Ion Pedro Josef Caro, see Miranda's letters of March 24 and August 17, 1798. to John .-Xdams, in Adams's Works, VIII. 569, 581. ♦See King's Rufus King, II. 649-666. 'Nicholas Vansittart, Secretary of the Treasury from March 1801 to April 1804. The British Museum has an extensive correspondence between him and Miranda.
 * )ortunity occurred : this intelligence he sent to South America ; and to