Burr, with his prospects for a political career quashed, left the United States for a self-imposed exile in Europe until 1811. He first travelled to England in 1808 in an attempt to gain support for a revolution in Mexico. He was ordered out of the country, so he travelled to France to ask for the support of Napoleon. He was denied and found himself too poor to pay his way home. Finally, in 1811, he was able to sail back to the United States on a French ship.