attention, is the means which might be best adapted to liberate the
people of the continent near to the Island of Trinidad, from the
oppressive and tyrannic system which supports, with so much rigor, the
monopoly of commerce, under the title of exclusive registers, which their
government licenses demand; also to draw the greatest advantages
possible, and which the local situation of the island presents, by
opening a direct and free communication with the other parts of the
world, without prejudice to the commerce of the British nation. In order
to fulfill this intention with greater facility, it will be prudent for
your Excellency to animate the inhabitants of Trinidad in keeping up the
communication which they had with those of Terra Firma, previous to the
reduction of that island; under the assurance, that they will find there
an _entrepot_, or general magazine, of every sort of goods whatever. To
this end, his Britannic Majesty has determined, in council, to grant
freedom to the ports of Trinidad, with a direct trade to Great Britain.

"With regard to the hopes you entertain of raising the spirits of those
persons, with whom you are in correspondence, toward encouraging the
inhabitants to resist the oppressive authority of their government, I
have little more to say, than that they may be certain that, whenever
they are in that disposition, they may receive, at your hands, all the
succors to be expected from his Britannic Majesty, be it with forces, or
with arms and ammunition to any extent; with the assurance, that the
views of his Britannic Majesty go no further than to secure to them their
independence, without pretending to any sovereignty over their country,
nor even to interfere in the privileges of the people, nor in their
political, civil or religious rights."

This declaration is the key to Great Britain's policy in Spanish America
during the century since it was issued. The conspiracy which evoked
Governor Picton's plain statement of England's attitude toward the South
American colonies, was discovered by the Spanish authorities, and J. M.
Espana, one of its leaders, was executed.[1] William Pitt continued to
scheme for Spanish-American independence, and succeeded in enlisting the
sympathy of Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King, American Minister at
London. President John Adams, however, would have nothing to do with the
movement, which he regarded as a plot to drive the United States into a
British alliance