Piar, the conqueror of Guiana, who once before had threatened to try him before a court-martial as a deserter, was not sparing of his sarcasms against the "Napoleon of the retreat", and Bolívar consequently accepted a plan for getting rid of him. On the false accusation of having conspired against the whites, plotted against Bolívar's life, and aspired to the supreme power, Piar was arraigned before a war council under the presidency of Brion, convicted, condemned to death, and shot, October 16, 1817. His death struck Marino with terror. Fully aware of loss when deprived of Piar, he, in an abject letter, publicly calumniated his murdered friend, deprecated his own attempts at rivalry with the liberator, and threw himself upon Bolívar's magnanimity. In 1819 Brión was again at Margarita, where he organized an expedition of 22 ships to attack the coast of New Granada, together with the land forces of colonel Mariano Montilla. They captured ports and the mouths of the Magdalena River, as well as the cities of Barranquilla and Santa Marta. However, differences with Montilla over how to conduct the operation led Brión to withdraw the fleet to Maracaibo in May 1821. Death Brión suffered from tuberculosis, and because of the progression of the disease, he decided to return to his native island. He died there in 1821, the day after his arrival. He was buried in the family estate with honors appropriate to his rank. Later his remains were reinterred in the National Pantheon of Venezuela on April 10, 1882. References This article incorporates text from a publication The New American Cyclopædia, 1859, pp. 443–444, edited by G. Ripley and C.A. Dana, now in the public domain. The original text has been edited. External links Biografía Referencia bibliográfica 1782 births 1821 deaths Curaçao people of Dutch descent People of the Venezuelan War of Independence Dutch military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Venezuelan soldiers Businesspeople in shipping Burials at the National Pantheon of Venezuela 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Venezuelan people of Dutch descent 19th-century Venezuelan businesspeople Tuberculosis deaths in the Netherlands People from Willemstad