Mr Lee is sensible that these intentions are measured by the magnanimity of a great and opulent prince, and becoming the character of so illustrious a monarch as the king of Spain. He is satisfied they will raise the strongest sentiments of gratitude and veneration in the breasts of those whom they regard. At the same time he trusts, that the Spanish nation will receive no inconsiderable retribution from the freedom of that commerce, the monopoly of which contributed so much to strengthen and aggrandize her rival and her foe; nor can anything give more lasting satisfaction to the royal mind, than the reflection of having employed those means which God has put into his hands, in assisting an oppressed people to vindicate those rights and liberties, which have been violated by twice six years of incessant injuries and insulted supplications; those rights which God and nature, together with the convention of their ancestors and the constitution of their country, gave to the people of the States. Instead of that protection in these rights, which was the due return for the sovereignty exercised over them, they have seen their defenceless towns wantonly laid in ashes, their unfortified country cruelly desolated, their property wasted, their people slain; the ruthless savage, whose inhuman war spares neither age nor sex, instigated against them; the hand of the servant armed against his master by public proclamation, and the very food which the sea that washes their coast, furnishes, forbidden them by a law of unparalleled folly and injustice. _Proinde quasi injuriam facere id demum esset imperio uti._ Nor was it enough that for these purposes the British force was exhausted against them, but foreign mercenaries were also bribed to complete the butchery of their people, and the devastation of their country. And that nothing might be wanting to make the practices equivalent to the principles of this war, the minds of these mercenaries were poisoned with every prejudice, that might harden their hearts and sharpen their swords against a people, who not only never injured or offended them, but who have received with open arms and provided habitations for their wandering countrymen. These are injuries which the Americans can never forget. These are oppressors whom they can never again endure. The force of intolerable and accumulated outrages has compelled them to appeal to God and to the sword. The king of Spain, in assisting them to maintain that appeal, assists in vindicating the violated rights of human nature. No cause can be more illustrious, no motives more magnanimous.[14] ARTHUR LEE. TO THE COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE. Vitoria, March 18th, 1777. Gentlemen, I had the honor of writing to you on the 8th from Burgos, since which I have had another conference at this place for greater secrecy and despatch.