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52 2 Documents VIII. LlEUTKNANT BRIARLY TO ReAR-AdMIRAL COCHRANE.' Extract of a letter from Lieut. Briarly dated 2"^ May who was at Cumana on the 20'" and 21" of April in a flag of truce. " The country is in a dreadful state, an embargo on every vessel on this coast, no person suffered to quit their dwelling on pain of death, every person under arms that are able to bear them, the prisons full of Miranda's friends and in short everything in the greatest confusion imaginable. In the meantime no person has any knowledge of the pres- ent situation of Miranda nor is it even conjectured in which part of the West Indies he is. this I am certain, he has a multitude of friends who will join him the moment he appears. I fear much delay will injure his plans. ' ' IX. Rear-Admiral Sir .Alexander Cochrane to the Secretary.^ Dolphin, Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes, 8th May 1806 Sir, I have the honor to enclose extracts of two letters which I this day received " respecting General Miranda by which it appears he has not yet landed on the Spanish Main, though he is evidently expected there shortly, as they are under a general alarm, and seem to be much on the alert ; I cannot learn where he is at Present. The Canada, Ettalion and Circe arrived here this morning but were not fortunate enough to fall in with the four French frigates that arrived in those seas lately and I then understood were at Guadeloupe, but Cap- tain Harvey (of the Canada) informs me he has passed round Martinique and Guadeloupe and ascertained that they are not at either of those islands, he has also called at Antigua and St. Kitts and could obtain no intelligence of them whatever, I therefore conclude they have stood on to the Northward to endeavor to intercept our homeward bound trade. I have the honor to be Sir Your most obedient humble servant Alex. Cochrane X. Captain Donald Campbell to Rear-Admiral Cochrane.' His Majesty's Sloop "Lilly" N. P; Barbadoes S. E. by S. Dist 65 Miles, 4'!' June 1806. Sir, I have the honor to inform you on the 26"' day of May when in sight of Grenada I fell in with the American Ship Leander having on ' Enclosure in Cochrane' s despatch of May 8 ; No. w.,post. ^Admiral's Despatches, Leeward Islands, Vol. 25. Endorsed as received June 20. 3 See ante, Nos. vn. and viii., of April 23 and May. •Copy. Enclosed in Rear-Admiral Cochrane's despatch of June 6 ; see fast. No. xi. For Captain Donald Campbell and his services to the expedition, see Marshall, A^aval Biography, X. 399-413, where letters of Miranda and others are printed.