the Declaration of Independence issued and a government in being by the 3rd of November—five days after his landing. And not only with everything prepared to the last detail, but with the text of the telegram he was to send announcing the new government and appointing Bunau-Varilla minister plenipotentiary to the United States with unlimited authority to negotiate a concession for the canal. And most important of all, with the firm conviction that this masterful Frenchman had at his command the navy of the United States, and the unbounded power and authority of Richelieu of old.
This last delusion proved the crux of the whole affair. For no sooner had the excited doctor arrived than the conspirators demanded proof. "If Bunau-Varilla is so powerful, let him prove it. He says we shall be protected forty-eight hours after establishing the new Republic. Well? We will believe him if he is capable of sending an American man of war
