Editing Gregor MacGregor (section)

===New Granada; defence of Cartagena===
With Miranda imprisoned in Spain, Bolívar emerged as the new leader of the Venezuelan independence movement. He resolved that they would have to take some time to prepare before returning to the mainland. Growing bored in Curaçao, MacGregor decided to offer his services to General [[Antonio Nariño]]'s republican armies in Venezuela's western neighbour, [[United Provinces of New Granada|New Granada]]. He escorted Josefa to lodgings in Jamaica, then travelled to Nariño's base at [[Tunja]] in the eastern [[Andes]]. Miranda's name won the Scotsman a fresh commission in the service of New Granada, with command of 1,200 men in the Socorro district near the border with Venezuela. There was little action in this sector; Nariño's forces were mainly engaged around [[Popayán]] in the south-west, where the Spanish had a large garrison.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=152–155}} Rafter reports positively on MacGregor's conduct in Socorro, writing that "by the introduction of the European system of tactics, [he] considerably improved the discipline of the troops", but some under his command disliked him. An official in [[Cúcuta]], the district capital, expressed utter contempt for MacGregor in a letter to a friend: "I am sick and tired of this bluffer, or [[Don Quixote|Quixote]], or the devil knows what. This man can hardly serve us in New Granada without heaping ten thousand embarrassments upon us."{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=152–155}}

[[File:Sunset-cartagena-tower-Igvir.jpg|thumb|Battlements at [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena de Indias]], where MacGregor took part in the defence against Spanish attackers in 1815|alt=Old, somewhat decayed battlements, with a sunset in the background over the sea.]]
While MacGregor was in the New Granadian service, Bolívar raised a force of Venezuelan exiles and local troops in the port of [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena de Indias]], and [[Admirable Campaign|captured Caracas]] on 4 August 1813.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=155–156}} The royalists quickly rallied and crushed Bolívar's [[Second Republic of Venezuela|second republic]] in mid-1814. Nariño's New Granadian nationalists surrendered around the same time. MacGregor withdrew to Cartagena, which was still in revolutionary hands,{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=155–156}} and at the head of native troops destroyed hamlets, local infrastructure and produce to prevent the Spanish from using them. A Spanish force of about 6,000 landed in late August 1815 and [[Siege of Cartagena (1815)|lay siege to the city]]. After repeatedly failing to overcome the 5,000 defenders, they deployed to subdue the fortress by [[blockade]]. Sinclair records that MacGregor played an "honourable, though not conspicuous" part in the defence.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=158–159}} 

By November 1815, there remained in Cartagena de Indias only a few hundred men capable of fighting. The defenders with the aid of the French corsair [[Louis-Michel Aury]] resolved to use the dozen [[gunboat]]s they had to break through the Spanish fleet to the open sea, abandoning the city to the royalists; MacGregor was chosen as one of the three commanders of this operation. On the night of 5 December 1815, the gunboats sailed out into the bay, blasted their way through the smaller Spanish vessels and, avoiding the frigates, made for Jamaica. All the gunboats escaped.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=158–159}}