PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BUONAPARTE LAMAR 283 and 3. with your cousin Charles in Savannah. That I have as good officers & men as we could desire; that wealthy ·planters are selling their property to come with us, both in Savannah, Mclntosch [ ?] & Florida, that they are all delighted to serve under you, and as Govr. Towns told me, even in Milledgeville there would be 10 or 12 who would go, if •with you; that 200 & more noble Hungarians and Poles have been enlisted, with expectations of having from 3 to 400; all vet- erans & tried republicans :- that the news from Cuba are such as to make it painful to receive them here: that Cap Scott of this city & Mr Sidney Lanier, of do, have just arrived from Havana by the Gabel & they speak with, highest terms of the perfect unanimity of the Cubans and of the acknowledged fact that one half of the troops will join us, that the latter are not allowed a moment of repose for fear of their con- cocting plans with the people and that they are only allowed to remain for a very short time at any of the garrisons for the same motive. That I have a magnificent plan of cmbarcation and one which I have kept entirely to myself: that in three weeks hence we will be at the [pla]ce of rendezvous that for that reason & to converse with you I expect you will come hither as soon as you can, as this is the central point: that as you know already, in all probability, we have all been discharged, under circumstances amounting to an acquittal; that this result is to have a powerful influence both at present & hereafter; that just now your letter upon Cuban matters would he most opportune; and finally, that upon your exertions at this eleventh hour depend to a very great extent the amount of men we shall take over and what is of more im• portance, the possession of two steamers. Two steamers will not only. carry over in one trip the 1800 men we have in the Southwest ready to follow us armed and equipped under Cols. Downman & Clendennin, but will insure 100 fold our own operations of embarking, crossing, & landing; will give _ad~itional confidence to all: will under all circum- stances give each other important aid and even in some contingencies make themselves respected to our very enemies, as they will be armed. I beg of you therefore as a very signal favor to induce our friends in Columbus and Capts. Davis & Forsvth can f1oint out the gentleme1\ to you, to take our Cuban Bonds. I will sell them now for the sake of raising this sum on the spot, at 10 cents on the dollar so that by _giving $2,000 any of those gentlemen will receive from me 40,000 in Bonds and have besides the satisfaC'tion of doing us a very great serv- ice; a service too that falls back upon their own interests as gentlemen & americans. I know that importuning for money is a thing as strange to yon as it is to me bnt we do certainly do things for human- ity that we would never do for our own selves. To beg & entreat for the redemption of the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who labor under Spanish tyranny and the selfishnrss of a few of their own peo- ple, contemptible Sf1eculators flTI the misery & thraldom of their broth- ers; as vou know some of them to he, is rharitableness indeed, not by the handful, hut hv tl1e cartload. Your life. 'disinterestedly & bravel:v spent for the 1100d of ~'our fellows is deRtineil to close under increased radi:mce and if Lafavettr is ralleil in the Pariidan hvmn ''la liberte de deux mondes", whirh. as r('o-ards France is incorred. v011 will with more propriety be called, ''la liberte de deux peupleEi" and the pride
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