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304 presence would give fresh impulse to the idea of independence, and invited him to accompany the envoys on their return. Miranda accepted the invitation, and they landed at Caracas in December.

When news of the revolution in Venezuela reached Cadiz, the Regency proclaimed the leaders of the movement rebels, and, declining the mediation of Great Britain, declared war against them, and ordered a blockade of the coast. Cortabarria, a member of the Council of the Indies, was charged with the task of subduing them, and Miyares was appointed captain-general in place of Emparán. In the Spanish West India Islands preparation was made to sustain the decrees of the Regency by force. Thus the first link in the chain which bound the colonies of the Spanish Main to the mother country was broken.

The Central Junta of Caracas responded by raising an army of 2,500 men; placed the Marquis Del Toro in command, and sent him against Coro, the head-quarters of the Royalist reaction. On the 28th November the army attacked the town, but was beaten off. Its retreat was intercepted by a division of 800 men, but it forced its way on and reached Caracas with heavy loss, harassed on the way by a hostile population.

When Miranda again landed on American soil he was sixty years of age. The people received him with ovations; Government appointed him lieutenant-general of their army; youthful citizens looked to him as the oracle of their future destinies; the soldiery regarded him as the herald of victory; yet at first his influence was not felt in public affairs.

Grave, taciturn, and dogmatic, with unflinching opinions formed in solitude, Miranda discussed nothing, though he sought to make proselytes. Government appointed him, with Roscio and Ustariz, republicans of the North American school, to draw up a plan for a Constitution on the basis of the federation of the Provinces. The old dreamer, who mixed up classic traditions with modern theories,