wout, the United States Marshal, and John Adams's son-in-law, Colonel William Smith, Surveyor of the Port, all offered their enthusiastic support. A vessel, the Leander, was chartered from Samuel Ogden, and Colonel Smith undertook the furnishing of supplies and the enlistment of men, the latter, frequently, under false pretences. The affair was a matter of common knowledge, the officers of Government could not have remained entirely in ignorance of it, and in December General Miranda was at Washington, conferring with Mr. Madison and picking his teeth-it was his "constant habit"-at Mr. Jefferson's dinner table.

And what did they talk about? Mr. Madison said afterwards that the General had outlined his plan and that he, Madison, had told him that the United States could not countenance it. The General, on the other hand, wrote to Colonel Smith and informed him that Mr. Madison was prepared, at least, to look the other way; and upon his return to New York, the South American leader referred openly to the American Government's connivance. "We are encouraged in our belief that our Government has given its implied sanction to this expedition," one of the adventurers recorded. And on January 22, 1806, General Miranda wrote to Mr. Madison, taking formal leave of him before he sailed. The General did not doubt that the important matters which he had communicated to the Secretary of State would be kept "in the deepest secret until the final result of this delicate affair." He had acted "on that supposition, conforming myself in everything to the intentions of the Government,"

1

which he hoped he had "seized and observed with exactitude and discretion." And Mr. Madison filed the letter with an endorsement to the effect that the important matters in question merely referred to General Miranda's previous negotiations with England. But did they?

On February 2, the Leander sailed, unmolested, to her South American destination; carrying with her General Miranda, Colonel Smith's son-"a number of Americans, some of them gentlemen," one of them wrote, "though mostly, I believe, of crooked fortunes"-and the other members of that filibustering expedition for which according to Henry Ingersoll, it had not been "so easy to engage any to enlist as soldiers. Great circumspection was necessary not only to prevent public alarm but to allay any suspicion which might arise in the breasts of those who were engaged. In this transaction I cannot but admire the cunning and skill of Miranda or his agents, as well as reprobate the falsehood and duplicity resorted to." Mr. Ingersoll was languishing in a Spanish prison when he wrote his disgruntled journal, but it was true that some of his comrades had been engaged "to enlist as soldiers to go to New Orleans to serve as guard to the United States Mail." But the Leander was not bound for New Orleans.

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The Miranda expedition was to bear an extraordinary resemblance to Colonel Burr's so-called conspiracy. Each was in effect, although the details varied, a filibustering adventure organized on Amer

ican soil against a technically friendly nation; each was reported to have enjoyed the private support of the Government; each resulted in a trial involving the testimony of administration officials; and each was betrayed by a traitor, necessitating, perhaps, a hasty repudiation by the Executive.

In the case of General Miranda, it was Mr. Dayton-that eager vendor of secrets-who came, in December, to the Marquis Yrujo with the news. Whether he came of his own accord, or whether he came under instructions from Colonel Burr, is a question which must be asked. "Colonel Burr will not treat with Miranda whom he considers imprudent," Mr. Dayton told the Marquis. Did the Colonel consider General Miranda an interloper, did the Colonel see in a betrayal of his movements an opportunity of securing money from the Marquis Yrujo-Mr. Dayton was actually given three thousand dollars for his information-these questions have not been answered. At all events, Mr. Dayton revealed to the Marquis all the details of the Leander's voyage, and reported to him that Mr. Madison had told General Miranda that his official approval was out of the question, "but that if private citizens . . chose to advance their funds for the undertaking the Government would shut its eyes to their conduct, provided that Miranda took his measures in such a way as not to compromise the Government." And if there should be war with Spain, "this undertaking would prove to be a diversion favorable to the views of the American Government."

One seems to see Mr. Jefferson saying exactly the

same thing to Colonel Burr about his expedition to Mexico. As for General Miranda, someone was lying-and the benefit of the doubt has inevitably always been granted to the American Secretary of State. The Marquis Yrujo, for his part, sent the necessary warnings to the Spanish authorities; the Leander, with the assistance of the British Admiral Cochrane, landed her men near Caracas where they achieved a temporary success; but the withdrawal of British help, owing to a rumored peace, forced the Miranda party to flight.

But the Marquis Yrujo did not content himself, naturally, with a mere notifying of his own people. He was already, in January, quarreling with Mr. Madison over the President's "war message,' 'war message," concerning which the Marquis had expressed himself very vigorously in the newspapers, so that Mr. Madison had informed him that his presence at Washington was dissatisfactory to Mr. Jefferson. To which the Marquis had replied that he would remain in Washington, "this city four miles square," as long as it suited the interests of his King or his own convenience, and that "the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of his Catholic Majesty in the United States received no orders except from his sovereign." And the Marquis Yrujo further hinted to Mr. Madison that he, at all events, was not in Washington to "hatch plots"-which, in view of the Marquis's dealings with Colonel Burr was not exactly true, but most annoying to Mr. Madison, especially when General Miranda's farewell letter reached him.

And now, in February, after the sailing of the