MIRANDA, FRANCISCO (c. , Spanish American soldier and adventurer, horn at Caracas, Venezuela. After serving with the French in the American War of Inde pendence, he began to plot for the independence of Spanish America, was discovered, fled to the United States and thence to England. He travelled to Austria, Turkey, Russia and back to England, always in the vain hope of finding material support for his scheme. In April 1792 he was in Paris; he distinguished him self under Dumouriez, was entrusted in 1793 with the siege of Maestricht and commanded the left wing of the French army at Neerwinden. Although he had given notice of Dumouriez's treachery, he was tried on May 12, acquitted and re-imprisoned till after the 9th Thermidor. He escaped after the coup d'etat of Fructidor to England ; disappointed in his efforts there, in the United States and in Paris—whence he was expelled—he equipped the "Leander" in i8o6 at his own expense with the aid of two American citizens, Colonel W. S. Smith and Mr. S. G. Ogden, and backed by the English admiral, Sir A. Cochrane, landed near Caracas and proclaimed the Colombian republic. A false report
of peace between France and England caused the English admiral to withdraw his support. In 1810 the events which brought about the Peninsular War had divided the authorities in Spanish Amer ica, and Miranda again landed, and declared a republic both in Venezuela and in New Granada or Colombia. Defeated by the Bourbon governor, the count of Monte Verde, he capitulated on July 26, 1812, on condition that he should be deported to the United States. The condition was not observed ; Miranda was moved from dungeon to dungeon, and died on July 14, 1816, at Cadiz.