No bond, whether of force, affection,
or of any other interest, linked the disinherited sons to the
parent country. The separation was already a fact, and the
independence of the South American colonies merely a question of
time and opportunity."
What would have happened had the position of Spain herself in Europe
remained unimpaired is idle to conjecture, but it is practically
certain, with the new light which was now beginning to flood the new
Continent, that the struggle for independence would have been postponed
for a few years only.
The first herald of the great struggle for liberty which was to ensue
was Francisco Miranda. The character of Miranda resembled not a little
that of Bolivar. Both men were of exalted and enthusiastic temperaments;
both were skilled in the arts of oratory and the management of men, and
both possessed a visionary side. For each the situation in the New World
formed an ample and, indeed, justifiable field.
Long before the first outbreak of hostilities in America Miranda had
played the part of stormy petrel in other continents. Born in Venezuela,
he had the advantage of a wider knowledge of the world than many of his
compatriots; he had already taken an active part in the struggle between
North America and Great Britain, and he had joined with Lafayette in the
territories of the then British Colonies in order to assist the
revolutionaries in their campaign.
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