LON 
'paYt of our lives, we have difembarked in this province 
of Caraccas. The opportunity, and the time, appear to 
Us highly favourable for the completion of our defigns; 
hnd all perfons coinpofing the army are your friends and 
countrymen—all relolved to facrifice their lives, if necef- 
fary, for your liberty and independence, under the auf- 
pices of the Britifh navy. The innocent Indians, and 
other men, will conlider us all as brother-citizens, and 
that precedence belongs only to merit and virtue; in 
which belief, they will primarily obtain, moll certainly, 
military and civil recompenfes, the reward of merit alone.” 
An arrangement was announced for carrying the plan of 
emancipation into execution, with due fecurity and effi¬ 
cacy. The principles and views with which the little 
Columbian army had landed on the (hores of South Ame¬ 
rica, were alfo unfolded in other proclamations, and in 
letters to the city council of Coro, and the bifhop of 
Merida. “Their principal objeft was the independence 
of the wdiole Columbian continent, for the benefit of 
all its inhabitants, and the inhabitants of the human 
race.” The members of this council, who, on the 
approach of general Miranda to Coro, had retired to 
Buena Villa, a few miles from town, kept up a fecret 
correfpondence with the general for feveral days ; during 
which time, the moll friendly civilities were interchanged 
between the general and all the refpeftable families of the 
place. But the fmallnefs of his force prevented confi¬ 
dence in his fuccefs. The people dreaded the cruel ven¬ 
geance of the Spanilh government, fn the event of his 
defeat; and, as the captain-general of Caraccas was col¬ 
lecting troops, general Miranda retired from Coro, and 
removed his head-quarters to the /bore; having previoully 
adored the people, in a proclamation, of his juft and 
friendly intentions, and that “it was not in the cities, 
but in the field, that he and his army wiflied to fight with 
the opprelTors alone of the Columbian people.” From 
thence, general Miranda difpatched an officer (captain 
Ledlie) to our naval and military commanders on the Ja¬ 
maica ftation, to reprefent bis profpefts, the abfolute ne- 
celfity there was for a force fulficient to give confidence 
to the South-American people, and to requeft that this 
aid might be lent to him without delay. Sir Eyre Coote 
and admiral Dacres regretted that they were precluded 
from giving the alfiftance which his views demanded, as 
they had not received any official inftruftions from home 
on this fubjeft. Admiral Dacres, however, gave orders 
to his cruizers to afford every poffible protection. Cap¬ 
tain Ledlie immediately returned with this anfwer to ge¬ 
neral Miranda ; who, after difpatching that officer to Ja¬ 
maica, had proceeded himfelf with his troops to Araba, 
a few leagues from Vela-de-Coro, with an intent to feize 
the ftrong poft of Rio de la Hache, and there wait the ar¬ 
rival of fuccours. Soon after, admiral Cochrane fent 
him a fliip of the line, and two frigates, with reiterated 
afiurances of fupport. But, erroneous reports having 
reached the Weft-Indies, that preliminaries of peace be¬ 
tween Great Britain and France had been figned by lord 
Lauderdale at Paris, and thefe reports accompanied with 
an intimation that admiral Cochrane would confequently 
be obliged entirely to withdraw the aid of the naval force, 
general Miranda found himfelf under the neceffity of 
abandoning all farther operations on the Spanilh Main, 
and retired with his companions in arms to Trinidad. 
Had general Miranda been feafonably fupported by the 
co-operation of a Britifh auxiliary force, as lie had reafon 
to expeft, his fuccefs would have been complete. The 
grand defign in which he and his worthy companions were 
engaged, was not marred and difgraced by any felfilh 
and difhonourable confiderations of perfonal gain. On 
the contrary, bis chief care was to direft the views of his 
officers and men to the grandeur and glory of the object 
before them, and to infpire them with a fenfe of the ne¬ 
ceffity of conftantly obferving a fuitable conduit towards 
the people whom they had come to emancipate; while, at 
.the fame time, he ufed all poffible means to convince hi* 
DON. 163 
countrymen of the beneficence of his views, as well as of 
the equitable and conciliatory meafures by which he hoped 
to attain them. In fhort, the expedition to Caraccas, 
under Miranda, conceived in a fpirit the moll liberal and 
generous, formed a dire ft contraft with that which was 
on foot about the fame time to the Rio de La Plata, 
which appears to have originated in a fpirit of rapacity 
and plunder. 
The commander of the land-troops in this laft expedi¬ 
tion (brigadier-general Beresford) difplayed, in his con- 
duft, military fkill, promptitude of decifion, and cool cou¬ 
rage ; and alfo the nobleil generofity and winning affability 
towards the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, and all men. 
And, although he was not authorized to have recourle 
to the conciliatory meafures by which be -might have 
united the interefts of Great Britain with thole of Spanifh 
America, the lives, the property, and the prejudices, of the 
people who had fallen under his power, were refpefted ; 
and the attachment of the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres 
to his perfon, was won by many difinterefted and gene¬ 
rous afts of kindnefs. It was the fuccefs of the expedition, 
a fecure and permanent footing on La Plata, that was his 
objeft, not perfonal gain and plunder. The military 
eye of the general pointed to Monte Video, as the firlt 
objeft of attack, not Buenos Ayres; but, with too much 
facility, he gave way to the earned defire of the naval 
commander of the armament, who was feconded by all 
the captains of fliips, to advance immediately againft Bue¬ 
nos Ayres, the depot of fo much public and private trea- 
fure. It unfortunately happened that the commodore, 
with equal inhumanity, it mull be owned, and impolicy, 
had fent on-fhore zoo Spaniards, the crews of foine veflels 
that had fallen into his hands, on the ifland of Lobos, ia 
La Plata, feveral leagues diftant from Maldonado, that he 
might not be incumbered with fo many prifoners, leaving 
them to the danger of perifhing from famine. The men 
fubfifted fome time on the flelh of feals and fliell-filh. 
At length, a number of them, with the abidance of the 
fkins of feals, formed into fomewhat that abided them ia 
fwimrning, as bladders do, made their way to the fhore; 
when a velfel was fent to the defert ifle, confifting of lit¬ 
tle elfe than a ledge of rocks, to fetch their companions. 
Thefe men came to Buenos Ayres, and, by relating what 
had happened to them, infpired the inhabitants with fen- 
timents of indignation, averfion, and horror. The de¬ 
portment of the commodore, at a meeting with the cabil- 
do, was not of a nature to do away the prejudice that was 
contracted againft him: it was haughty and infolent, 
and altogether that of a proud conqueror; though, when 
our troops took pofleffion of Buenos Ayres, the commo¬ 
dore was at a very confiderable diftance. An incident 
happened, of a kind fomewhat ludicrous, that marked 
how much fir Home, in this expedition to Buenos Ayres, 
was bent upon plunder. At a time when general Beref- 
ford was involved in a conflift with the Spaniards, a black 
boy arrived with a letter from fir Home Popham to the 
general, informing him that in a certain church he would 
find a very confiderable treafure. When matters had 
grown vvorfe and worfe with the Britifh at Buenos Ayres, 
and the general wiflied to concert with the naval com¬ 
mander fome meafures for extrication, fir Home was in a 
great hade to break up the conference, and get on-board 
a frigate that carried him to his fquadron, at anchor a- 
great way down the river, as far as Monte Video. This 
abrupt retreat had greatly the appearance of forfaking-the 
army, and running away ; and evei'y one fa id that the 
commodore had fhown more anxiety about teeming the 
plunder, than co-operating with the army, by taking fuch 
pofitions with the fhips under his command as might 
have tended to intercept the paflage of Spanifh troops 
from Monte Video to Colonia de Sacramento, and from 
thence to the right bank of the Rio de la Plata, on which 
Buenos Ayres is fituated,, to the haven of Las Conchas. 
This unauthorized expedition, inlligated and undertakea 
by fir Home Popham, was not more difhonourable and 
difad vantageou* 
