DON FRANCISCO, the founder of the independence of Spanish America, was descended from a noble family, and was born at Caracas, in South America, about the middle of the eighteenth century. He early began to meditate the liberation of his country. While holding the commission of colonel in the Spanish service, he endeavoured to excite a revolution among the soldiers. His designs, however, were detected, and he was forced to flee into exile. After he had travelled through several European countries, acquiring their respective languages, liberalizing his opinions, and receiving encouragement in his patriotic aspirations from the leaders of the English opposition and others, he settled at St Petersburg. The Russian empress, Catherine II., patronized him, and pressed him to enter her service. But Miranda had for some time been observing in the French revolution the outbreak of a freedom that might yet extend to his native country. He therefore repaired to Paris in 1790, was recommended by Pitt to Péthion, and was appointed a major-general by the Girondists. In this capacity he attended Dumouriez in his campaign against the Prussians. Yet in spite of his native sagacity, and his skill in strategy and engineering, he was foiled in his attempt to take Maestricht, and was defeated, along with his superior in command, at the battle of Neerwinden, in 1793. For the latter of these disasters, Miranda was blamed by Dumouriez, and was arraigned before the revolutionary tribunal. But after a trial of eleven days he was acquitted by the unanimous verdict of the jury. The fall of the Girondists, about the same time, left him exposed to the malice of the Mountain party. He was impeached before the Directory on the eighteenth Fructidor, and would have suffered transportation had he not opportunely contrived to escape into England. His return to France in 1803 was met by a verdict of banishment from the government of the First Consul. Miranda now began to use more direct measures for effecting the favourite project of his life. In 1806 he set sail from New York in a vessel manned by volunteers. After chartering two schooners at St Domingo, he was approaching the shore of his native country, when he was stripped of his late reinforcement by Spanish cruisers, and escaped with difficulty in his own vessel. On landing at Venezuela in the month of August, he was received with cold indifference by the inhabitants, and was forced to re-embarke. A more successful attempt was made in 1810, and resulted in 1811 in the triumph of republican principles. But the friends of the Spanish monarchy gained the ascendancy in the following year, and obtained possession of General Miranda. In utter violation of the conditions on which he had surrendered himself, he was conveyed to Spain, and cast into the dungeons of the Inquisition, where he died in 1816.

Saa de, an eminent Portuguese poet, was born of a noble family at Coimbra in 1495. Destined by his parents for the legal profession, he studied law, and was appointed professor of jurisprudence in his native city. But no sooner had his father died, than he threw up his appointment, and resigned himself to the far more congenial pursuit of poetry. A lengthened visit which he then paid to Spain and Italy was the cause of his introducing a new and striking feature into the literature of his country. On his return he began to publish eclogues in the Spanish language, and in the forms of the Italian poets Dante and Petrarch. He was thus the introducer of the Italian style into Portuguese poetry, and of the custom which led many of the subsequent poets of his native country to write in the language of Spain. Saa de Miranda was greatly esteemed and liberally patronized during his lifetime. He held an appointment at the court in Lisbon, until a quarrel with some nobleman forced him to resign it. With no great reluctance he repaired to his country seat near Ponte-de-Lima, in the hope of spending the rest of his days in rural amusements, domestic enjoyments, and the cultivation of his genius. For some time his expectation was not disappointed. From the fondness he manifests of introducing into his poetry rural pictures and rural allusions, we may imagine how pleasantly his days would glide past amid the sights and sounds of the country. But the death of his son in 1553 cast a shadow over this pleasant scene. The loss of his wife soon afterwards surrounded his existence with a settled gloom; and he died in 1558 of a broken heart. Besides elegies, Saa de Miranda wrote two dramas in the style of Machiavelli and Ariosto, and several lyrics and poetical epistles. As a writer of the language of Spain he occupies a high position among the authors of that country. His compositions in his native language also place him in the first rank of Portuguese poets. Of the many editions of his works, that of 1614 is the best.