Francisco de Miranda, born under Spanish rule in Caracas, conceived of an idea to free his country, and in 1806 organized a revolutionary expedition to South America. Miranda secured financial support and a small ship, the Leander, in N.Y., and through various pretenses obtained a crew of Americans to serve under him. One of these was Henry Ingersoll, a printer from Stockbridge, Mass. The Leander sailed to the West Indies, where Miranda acquired two pilot schooners. The tiny fleet encountered the Spaniards off Caracas and the Leander fled, leaving Ingersoll and some sixty Americans to fall into enemy hands. Ingersoll's narrative was written in two parts sometime after his release from captivity in 1809. Besides giving a description of the voyage, his capture and the fate of the other Americans, Ingersoll includes the text of Miranda's proclamation to the people of South America, and letters between Miranda and officials in Washington, which suggest connivance of the part of the U.S. government in Miranda's abortive rebellion. Includes 56 p. narrative (incomplete?) and a 10 p. partial draft of the concluding chapters. Bound in is a letter from Ingersoll, Ithaca [N.Y.] 1839 Oct. 28, in which he entrusts the manuscript to the care of J.L. O'Sullivan of Washington, D.C., the son of a fellow captive.
