Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica, in fact, all became Centers of revolutionary agitation and havens of refuge for.
Spanish American radicals in the troublous years to follow.
Foremost among the early conspirators was the Venezuelan, Francisco de Miranda, known to his fellow Americans of Spanish stock as the "Precursor." Napoleon once remarked of him: "He is a Don Quixote, with this difference--he is not crazy....

The man has sacred fire in his soul." An officer in the armies of Spain and of revolutionary France and later a resident of London, Miranda devoted thirty years of his adventurous life to the cause of independence for his countrymen.

With officials of the British Government he labored long and zealously, eliciting from them vague promises of armed support and some financial aid.

It was in London, also, that he organized a group of sympathizers into the secret society called the "Grand Lodge of America." With it, or with its branches in France and Spain, many of the leaders of the subsequent revolution came to be identified.
In 1806, availing himself of the negligence of the United States and having the connivance of the British authorities in Trinidad, Miranda headed two expeditions to the coast of Venezuela.

He had hoped that his appearance would be the signal for a general uprising; instead, he was treated with indifference.