Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/676

660 of books for the sword. Although a beardless youth of barely nineteen, he inaugurated the guerrilla war in his native province, at first at the head of a mere handful of followers. A born leader of men, and with great military talents, he achieved one success after another, and within two years he had become celebrated throughout Spain as its foremost guerrilla chief, with the official rank of comandante general of Navarre. Captivity placed a sudden check on his career, and later the failure in 1814 of his uprising against Fernando drove him a refugee to England. In company with other exiles, he soon evolved a plan for avenging outraged liberty, by lifting anew the standard of revolt in the colonies. Some Englishmen interested themselves in the scheme, partly from pecuniary motives, and provided a vessel, with arms and money, on which Mina embarked at Liverpool in May 1816, attended by over a dozen officers.