MIRANDA, Francisco de (1750-1816, President of the First Republic of Venezuela). Correspondence, in English, with the British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval and his Private Secretary, J. C. Herries, on the future of Venezuela and South America.

MIRANDA, Francisco de (1750-1816, President of the First Republic of Venezuela).  Correspondence, in English, with the British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval and his Private Secretary, J. C. Herries, comprising a letter to Perceval, written from Grafton Street, London, dated March 31 1810, three-pages, requesting Perceval to appoint an official with whom Miranda could confer on the situation in South America, where France was threatening to intervene in the Spanish colonies ("... which circumstances would be attended in all probability with the ruin of [South America's] innocent inhabitants, and an immense detriment to the commerce and interests of Great Britain"). Miranda also encloses a secretarial copy of a similar letter he sent to Viscount Castlereagh on 24 March 1809; and another letter to Herries, written from Caracas, 8 June 1811, three-pages, remnants of wax seal on verso, notifying of his arrival in the capital of Spanish Colombia, where he had raised the flag of revolt against Bourbon rule. Also included is a secretarial note to Herries enclosing a copy of the Spanish language newspaper advocating Colombian independence, "El Colombiano" (No. II, London, 1 April 1810, 8-pages). Miranda's expedition ended in disaster. He surrendered on 26 July 1812 and died in a Spanish prison at Cadiz, in 1816. Spencer Perceval (1762-1812) served as British Prime Minister from 1809 to 1812, when he was assassinated, the only British Prime Minister to suffer this fate. Provenance: Cavendish Philatelic Auctions, Derby, U.K., 17 December 1997, lot 631.