5 1 2 Documents for him to act yet he might send to Trinidada and assure his friends that when it did happen he should have the most liberal co-operation that England could give. I was present at many of his communications with the late administration,' and particularly consulted by M' Secretary Yorke^ and just before the change took place a great proportion of the articles which he required were prepared and a ship ordered to be pur- chased which order was as suddenly countermanded. When the new Government was formed I sent all the papers I had written on this subject since my first intimate connexion with General Miranda to Lord Melville, and I shall now trouble him with two propo- sitions, the first a military one on a respectable scale comprehending all the points of descent in the pacifick, the Southern Atlantick, and Terra Firma from Asia to Europe ; and the other on a more limited footing, dependant on circumstances which can only be decided by the particular disposition of His Majesty's Ministers and the nicety of their feelings re- ciprocally weighed with the conduct of the French Government on the scale of analogy which any countenance or assistance on our part will bear with the conduct of Spain, when she entered into a compact with France to aid our colonies in establishing their independance ; previous and sub- sequent to this, she supplied the Americans with money from the Havan- nah, which was of more service to them in' accomplishing their object, than all the troops and ships that France employed on this service. * In entering upon the subject of South America it is scarce necessary to call the attention of His Majesty's Ministers to its positive wealth, or its commercial faculties, they have been I am persuaded contemplated over and over again, and a universal anxiety has prevailed to turn this never-failing source of wealth into any channel but the one which at present enjoys it ; and I may without any exaggerated calculation suppose that in specie and produce near twenty million sterling is imported into Spain, and two thirds of that at least carried into France, consequently under the peculiar situation that Spain is with respect to that country, she is very little better than the intermediate agent of her own colonies 'till Bonaparte is prepared to offer some political plea for sending an army to Vera Cruz for the purpose of gaining possession of the rich prov- ince of Mexico, and putting an effectual stop to any expedition from the United States. If at the same time he can manage either by secret negotiation or particular exertion to throw a force into the Brazils and to this may I presume to add the possibility of a third point, Rio de la Plata, from the Cape of Good Hope or the Mauritius, especially as the force which he has in the East Indies' can no longer act with any degree of spirit there, and may be recovered from it's panick by a little exertion in a friendly port. If such an operation should ever be realized, the enemy will be in possession of the East, Southeast and N. W. points of that Great Continent of South America (if I may be allowed to call all the 1 That of Addington. 2 Charles Yorke, secretary for war 1801-1803, home secretary 1803-1804. 3 The force under Decaen, which had retired from India to Mauritius and Reunion. See Professor Sloane's article in this Rh:viEv, IV. 442.
