Bolivar, the Liberator of Spanish America.
In the preceding chapter mention was made of two regions in which the
spirit of revolt triumphed during the period of reaction after the
Napoleonic wars--Greece and Spanish America. The revolt in Greece was
there described; that in Spanish America awaits description. It had
its hero, one of the great soldiers of the Spanish race, perhaps the
greatest and ablest of guerilla leaders; "Bolivar the Liberator," as he
was known on his native soil.
[=How Spain Treated Her Colonies=]
Spain had long treated her colonists in a manner that was difficult
for a high-spirited people to endure. Only two thoughts seemed to
rule in their management, the one being to derive from the colonies
all possible profit for the government at home, the other to make
use of them as a means by which the leaders in Spain could pay their
political debts. The former purpose was sought to be carried out by
severe taxation, commercial restriction, and the other methods in which
a short-sighted country seeks to enrich itself by tying the hands and
checking the industries of its colonists. To achieve the latter purpose
all important official positions in the colonies were held by natives
of Spain. Posts in the government, in the customs, in all salaried
offices were given to strangers, who knew nothing of the work they were
to do or the conditions of the country to which they were sent, and
whose single thought was to fill their purses as speedily as possible
and return to enjoy their wealth in Spain.
[=The Oppression of the People=]
All this was galling to the colonists, who claimed to be loyal
Spaniards; and they rebelled in spirit against this swarm of human
locusts which descended annually upon them, practicing every species
of extortion and fraud in their eagerness to grow rich speedily, and
carrying much of the wealth of the country back to the mother land.
Add to this the severe restrictions on industry and commerce, the
prohibition of trade except with Spain, the exactions of every kind,
legal and illegal, to which the people were forced to submit, and their
deep-seated dissatisfaction is easy to understand.
[Illustration: FROUDE
CARLYLE
RUSKIN
GIBBON
MACAULAY
GREAT ENGLISH HISTORIANS AND PROSE WRITERS]
[Illustration: PIUS IX.
LEO XIII.
FAMOUS POPES OF THE CENTURY]
The war for independence in the United States had no apparent influence
upon the colonies of Spanish America. They remained loyal to Spain.
The French Revolution seemed also without effect. But during the long
Napoleonic wars, when Spain remained for years in the grip of the
Corsican, and the people of Spanish America were left largely to govern
themselves, a thirst for liberty arose, and a spirit of revolt showed
itself about 1810 throughout the length and breadth of the colonies.
[=Bolivar, the Revolutionary Leader=]
Chief among the revolutionists was Simon Bolivar, a native of Caracas,
the capital of Venezuela. In 1810 we find him in London, seeking the
aid of the British government in favor of the rebels against Spain. In
1811 he served as governor of Puerto Cabello, the strongest fortress
in Venezuela. He was at that time subordinate to General Miranda,
whom he afterwards accused of treason, and who died in a dungeon in
Spain. In the year named Venezuela proclaimed its independence, but in
1813, Bolivar, who had been entitled its "Liberator," was a refugee in
Jamaica, and his country again a vassal of Spain.
[=An Attempt at Assassination=]
The leaders of affairs in Spain knew well where to seek the backbone of
the insurrection. Bolivar was the one man whom they feared. He removed,
there was not a man in sight capable of leading the rebels to victory.
To dispose of him, a spy was sent to Jamaica, his purpose being to take
the Liberator's life. This man, after gaining a knowledge of Bolivar's
habits and movements, bribed a negro to murder him, and in the dead of
night the assassin stole up to Bolivar's hammock and plunged his knife
into the sleeper's breast. As it proved, it was not Bolivar, but his
secretary, who lay there, and the hope of the American insurrectionists
escaped.
[=Bolivar Returns to Venezuela=]
Leaving Jamaica, Bolivar proceeded to San Domingo, where he found a
warm supporter in the president, Petion. Here, too, he met Luis Brion,
a Dutch shipbuilder of great wealth. His zeal for the principles of
liberty infused Brion with a like zeal. The result was that Brion
fitted out seven schooners and placed them at Bolivar's disposal,
supplied 3,500 muskets to arm recruits who should join Bolivar's
standard, and devoted his own life and services to the sacred cause.
Thus slenderly equipped, Bolivar commenced operations in 1816 at
the port of Cayos de San Luis, where the leading refugees from
Cartagena, New Granada, and Venezuela had sought sanctuary. By them
he was accepted as leader, and Brion, with the title of "Admiral of
Venezuela," was given command of the squadron he had himself furnished.
The growing expedition now made for the island of Margarita, which
Arismendi had wrested from the Spanish governor; and here, at a
convention of officers, Bolivar was named "Supreme Chief," and the
third Venezuelan war began. It was marked by many a disaster to the
patriot arms, and so numerous vicissitudes that, until the culminating
triumph of Boyaca on August 7th, 1819, it remained doubtful upon which
side victory would ultimately rest.
[=The Savage Cruelty of the Spaniards=]
The war was conducted on the part of the Spaniards with the most
fiendish cruelty, prisoners taken in war and the unarmed people of
the country alike being tortured and murdered under circumstances of
revolting barbarity. "The people of Margarita," writes an English
officer who served in Venezuela, "saw their liberties threatened
and endangered; their wives, children, and kindred daily butchered
and murdered; and the reeking members of beings most dear to them
exposed to their gaze on every tree and crag of their native forests
and mountains; nor was it until hundreds had been thus slaughtered
that they pursued the same course. The result was that the Spaniards
were routed. I myself saw upwards of seven thousand of their skulls,
dried and heaped together in one place, which is not inaptly termed
'Golgotha,' as a trophy of victory."
Another writer tells us: "I saw several women whose ears and noses had
been cut off, their eyes torn from their sockets, their tongues cut
out, and the soles of their feet pared by the orders of Monteverde, a
Spanish brigadier-general." The result of these excesses of cruelty was
an implacable hatred of the Spaniard, and a determination to carry on
the war unto death.
[=The Methods of General Morillo=]
In 1815 Ferdinand of Spain determined to put an end once for all to the
movement for independence that, in varying forms, had, been agitating
for five years the whole of Spanish America. Accordingly, strong
reinforcements to the royalist armies were sent out, under General
Morillo. These arrived at Puerto Cabello, and, besides ships of war,
comprised 12,000 troops--a force in itself many times larger than all
the scattered bands of patriots then under arms put together. Morillo
soon had Venezuela under his thumb, and, planting garrisons throughout
it, proceeded to lay siege to Cartagena. Capturing this city in four
months, he marched unopposed to Santa Fe de Bogota, the capital of New
Granada, ruin and devastation marking his progress. In a despatch to
Ferdinand, which was intercepted, he wrote: "Every person of either
sex who was capable of reading and writing was put to death. By thus
cutting off all who were in any way educated, I hoped to effectually
arrest the spirit of revolution."
An insight into Morillo's methods of coping with the "spirit of
revolution" is furnished by his treatment of those he found in the
opulent city of Maturin on its capture. Dissatisfied with the treasure
he found there, he suspected the people of wealth to have anticipated
his arrival by burying their property. To find out the supposed buried
treasure, he had all those whom he regarded as likely to know where
it was hidden collected together, and, to make them confess, had the
soles of their feet cut off, and then had them driven over hot sand.
Many of the victims of this horrid piece of cruelty survived, and were
subsequently seen by those that have narrated it.
[=Paez the Guerilla and His Exploits=]
At the commencement of the war, with the exception of the little band
on the island of Margarita, the patriotic cause was represented by a
few scattered groups along the banks of the Orinoco, on the plains of
Barcelona and of Casanare. These groups pursued a kind of guerilla
warfare, quite independently of one another, and without any plan to
achieve. They were kept together by the fact that submission meant
death. The leader of one of these groups, Paez by name, presents one of
the most picturesque and striking characters that history has produced.
He was a Llanero, or native of the elevated plains of Barinas, and
quite illiterate. As owner of herds of half-wild cattle, he became
chief of a band of herdsmen, which he organized into an army, known
as the "Guides of the Apure," a tributary of the Orinoco, and whose
banks were the base of Paez's operations. Only one of his many daring
exploits can be here recorded. That occurred on the 3rd of June,
1819, when Paez was opposing the advance of Morillo himself. With
150 picked horsemen, he swam the river Orinoco and galloped towards
the Spanish camp. "Eight hundred of the royalist cavalry," writes W.
Pilling, General Mitre's translator, "with two small guns, sallied out
to meet him. He slowly retreated, drawing them on to a place called
Las Queseras del Medio, where a battalion of infantry lay in ambush by
the river. Then, splitting his men into groups of twenty, he charged
the enemy on all sides, forcing them under the fire of the infantry,
and recrossed the river with two killed and a few wounded, leaving the
plain strewn with the dead of the enemy."
[=British Soldiers Join the Insurgents=]
While Paez's dashing exploits were inspiring the revolutionary leaders
with fresh courage, which enabled them at least to hold their own, a
system of enlisting volunteers was instituted in London by Don Luis
Lopes Mendez, representative of the republic. The Napoleonic wars
being over, the European powers were unable to reduce their swollen
armaments, and English and German officers entered into contracts
with Mendez to take out to Venezuela organized corps of artillery,
lancers, hussars, and rifles. On enlisting, soldiers received a
bounty of £20; their pay was 2s. a day and rations, and at the end
of the war they were promised £125 and an allotment of land. The
first expedition to leave England comprised 120 hussars and lancers,
under Colonel Hippisley; this body became the basis of a corps of
regular cavalry. The nucleus of a battalion of riflemen was taken out
by Colonel Campbell; and a subaltern, named Gilmour, with the title
of colonel, formed with 90 men the basis of a brigade of artillery.
General English, who had served in the Peninsular War under Wellington,
contracted with Mendez to take out a force of 1,200 Englishmen; 500
more went out under Colonel Elsom, who also brought out 300 Germans
under Colonel Uzlar. General MacGregor took 800, and General Devereux
took out the Irish Legion, in which was a son of the Irish tribune,
Daniel O'Connell. Smaller contingents also went to the seat of war;
these mentioned, however, were the chief, and without their aid Bolivar
was wont to confess that he would have failed.
[=Bolivar's Plan to Invade New Granada=]
Now it was that a brilliant idea occurred to Bolivar. He had already
sent 1,200 muskets and a group of officers to General Santander, who
was the leader of the patriots on the plains of Casanare. This enabled
Santander to increase his forces from amongst the scattered patriots
in that neighborhood. He thereupon began to threaten the frontier of
New Granada, with the result that General Barreiro, who had been left
in command of that province by Morillo, deemed it advisable to march
against him and crush his growing power. Santander's forces, however,
though inferior in number, were too full of enthusiasm for Barreiro's
soldiers--reduced to a half-hearted condition from being forced to take
part in cruelties that they gained nothing from, except the odium of
the people they moved amongst. Barreiro, accordingly, was driven back;
and, on receiving the news of Santander's success, Bolivar at once
formed the conception of crossing the Andes and driving the Spaniards
out of New Granada. The event proved that this was the true plan of
campaign for the patriots. Already they had lost three campaigns
through endeavoring to dislodge the Spaniards from their strongest
positions, which were in Venezuela; now, by gaining New Granada, they
would win prestige and consolidate their power there for whatever
further efforts circumstances might demand.
Thus, as it has been described, did the veil drop from Bolivar's eyes;
and so confident was he of ultimate success, that he issued to the
people of New Granada this proclamation: "The day of America has come;
no human power can stay the course of Nature guided by Providence.
Before the sun has again run his annual course, altars to Liberty will
arise throughout your land."
Bolivar immediately prepared to carry out his idea, and on the 11th
of June, 1819, he joined Santander at the foot of the Andes, bringing
with him four battalions of infantry, of which one--the "Albion"--was
composed entirely of English soldiers--two squadrons of lancers, one
of carabineers, and a regiment called the "Guides of the Apure," part
of which were English--in all 2,500 men. To join Santander was no
easy task, for it involved the crossing of an immense plain covered
with water at this season of the year, and the swimming of seven deep
rivers--war materials, of course, having to be taken along as well.
This, however, was only a foretaste of the still greater difficulties
that lay before the venturesome band.
[=The Crossing of the Andes=]
General Santander led the van with his Casanare troops, and entered
the mountain defiles by a road leading to the centre of the province
of Tunja, which was held by Colonel Barreiro with 2,000 infantry
and 400 horse. The royalists had also a reserve of 1,000 troops at
Bogota, the capital of New Granada; at Cartagena, and in the valley of
Cauca were other detachments, and there was another royalist army at
Quito. Bolivar, however, trusted to surprise and to the support of the
inhabitants to overcome the odds that were against him. As the invading
army left the plains for the mountains the scene changed. The snowy
peaks of the eastern range of the Cordillera appeared in the distance,
while, instead of the peaceful lake through which they had waded,
they were met by great masses of water tumbling from the heights. The
roads ran along the edge of precipices and were bordered by gigantic
trees, upon whose tops rested the clouds, which dissolved themselves
in incessant rain. After four days' march the horses were foundered;
an entire squadron of Llaneros deserted on finding themselves on foot.
The torrents were crossed on narrow trembling bridges formed of trunks
of trees, or by means of the aerial "taravitas."[A] Where they were
fordable, the current was so strong that the infantry had to pass two
by two with their arms thrown round each other's shoulders; and woe
to him who lost his footing--he lost his life too. Bolivar frequently
passed and re-passed these torrents on horseback, carrying behind him
the sick and weakly, or the women who accompanied his men.
[A] Bridges made of several thongs of hide twisted into a stout rope,
well greased and secured to trees on opposite banks. On the rope
is suspended a cradle or hammock to hold two, and drawn backwards
and forwards by long lines. Horses and mules were also thus
conveyed, suspended by long girths round their bodies.
The temperature was moist and warm; life was supportable with the aid
of a little firewood; but as they ascended the mountain the scene
changed again. Immense rocks piled one upon another, and hills of
snow, bounded the view on every side; below lay the clouds, veiling
the depths of the abyss; an ice-cold wind cut through the stoutest
clothing. At these heights no other noise is heard save that of the
roaring torrents left behind, and the scream of the condor circling
round the snowy peaks above. Vegetation disappears; only lichens are to
be seen clinging to the rock, and a tall plant, bearing plumes instead
of leaves, and crowned with yellow flowers, resembling a funeral torch.
To make the scene more dreary yet, the path was marked out by crosses
erected in memory of travellers who had perished by the way.
[=The Terror of the Mountains=]
On entering this glacial region the provisions gave out; the cattle
they had brought with them as their chief resource could go no farther.
They reached the summit by the Paya pass, where a battalion could
hold an army in check. It was held by an outpost of 300 men, who were
dislodged by the vanguard under Santander without much difficulty.
Now the men began to murmur, and Bolivar called a council of war, to
which he showed that still greater difficulties lay before them, and
asked if they would persevere or return. All were of opinion that they
should go on, a decision which infused fresh spirit into the weary
troops.
In this passage more than one hundred men died of cold, fifty of whom
were Englishmen; no horse had survived. It was necessary to leave the
spare arms, and even some of those that were carried by the soldiers.
It was a mere skeleton of an army which reached the beautiful valley of
Sagamoso, in the heart of the province of Tunja, on the 6th of July,
1819. From this point Bolivar sent back assistance to the stragglers
left behind, collected horses, and detached parties to scour the
country around and communicate with some few guerillas who still roamed
about.
[=Bolivar's Methods of Fighting=]
Meanwhile, Barreiro was still in ignorance of Bolivar's arrival.
Indeed, he had supposed the passage of the Cordillera at that season
impossible. As soon, however, as he did learn of his enemy's proximity,
he collected his forces and took possession of the heights above the
plains of Vargas, thus interposing between the patriots and the town
of Tunja, which, being attached to the independent cause, Bolivar was
anxious to enter. The opposing armies met on the 25th of July, and
engaged in battle for five hours. The patriots won, chiefly through the
English infantry, led by Colonel James Rooke, who was himself wounded
and had an arm shot off. Still, the action had been indecisive, and
the royalist power remained unbroken. Bolivar now deceived Barreiro by
retreating in the daytime, rapidly counter-marching, and passing the
royalist army in the dark through by-roads. On August 5th he captured
Tunja, where he found an abundance of war material, and by holding
which he cut Barreiro's communication with Bogota, the capital. It
was in rapid movements like these that the strength of Bolivar's
generalship lay. Freed from the shackles of military routine that
enslaved the Spanish officers, he astonished them by forced marches
over roads previously deemed impracticable to a regular army. While
they were manoeuvring, hesitating, calculating, guarding the
customary avenues of approach, he surprised them by concentrating a
superior force upon a point where they least expected an attack, threw
them into confusion, and cut up their troops in detail. Thus it happens
that Bolivar's actions in the field do not lend themselves to the same
impressive exposition as do those of less notable generals.
[=The Victory of Boyaca=]
Barreiro, finding himself shut out from Tunja, fell back upon Venta
Quemada, where a general action took place. The country was mountainous
and woody, and well suited to Bolivar's characteristic tactics. He
placed a large part of his troops in ambush, got his cavalry in
the enemy's rear, and presented only a small front. This the enemy
attacked furiously, and with apparent success. It was only a stratagem,
however, for as they drove back Bolivar's front, the troops in ambush
sallied forth and attacked them in the flanks, while the cavalry
attacked them in the rear. Thus were the Spaniards surrounded. General
Barreiro was taken prisoner on the field of battle. On finding his
capture to be inevitable, he threw away his sword that he might not
have the mortification of surrendering it to Bolivar. His second in
command, Colonel Ximenes, was also taken, as were also almost all the
commandants and majors of the corps, a multitude of inferior officers,
and more than 1,600 men. All their arms, ammunition, artillery, horses,
etc., likewise fell into the patriots' hands. Hardly fifty men escaped,
and among these were some chiefs and officers of cavalry, who fled
before the battle was decided. Those who escaped, however, had only the
surrounding country to escape into, and there they were captured by the
peasantry, who bound them and brought them in as prisoners. The patriot
loss was incredibly small--only 13 killed and 53 wounded.
At Boyaca the English auxiliaries were seen for the first time under
fire, and so gratified was Bolivar with their behavior, that he made
them all members of the Order of the Liberator.
Thus was won Boyaca, which, after Maypu, is the great battle of South
America. It gave the preponderance to the patriot arms in the north of
the continent, as Maypu had done in the south. It gave New Granada to
the patriots, and isolated Morillo in Venezuela.
Nothing now remained for Bolivar to do but to reach Bogota, the
capital, and assume the reins of government, for already the Spanish
officials, much to the relief of the inhabitants, had fled. So, with
a small escort, he rode forward, and entered the city on August 10th,
amid the acclamations of the populace.
[=Bolivar and the Peruvians=]
The final battle in this implacable war took place in 1821 at Carabobo,
where the Spaniards met with a total defeat, losing more than 6,000
men. This closed the struggle, the Spaniards withdrew, and a republic
was organized with Bolivar as president. In 1823 he aided the Peruvians
in gaining their independence, and was declared their liberator and
given supreme authority. For two years he ruled as dictator, and then
resigned, giving the country a republican constitution. The people of
the upper section of Peru organized a commonwealth of their own, which
they named Bolivia, in honor of their liberator, while the congress of
Lima elected him president for life.
[=The Freeing of the Other Colonies=]
Meanwhile Chili had won its liberty in 1817 as a result of the victory
of Maypu, above mentioned, and Buenos Ayres had similarly fought for
and gained independence. In North America a similar struggle for
liberty had gone on, and with like result, Central America and Mexico
winning their freedom after years of struggle and scenes of devastation
and cruelty such as those above mentioned. At the opening of the
nineteenth century Spain held a dominion of continental dimensions
in America. At the close of the first quarter of the century, as a
result of her mediæval methods of administration, she had lost all her
possessions on the western continent except the two islands of Cuba and
Porto Rico. Yet, learning nothing from her losses, she pursued the same
methods in these fragments of her dominions, and before the close of
the century these also were torn from her hands. Cruelty and oppression
had borne their legitimate fruits, and Spain, solely through her own
fault, had lost the final relics of her magnificent colonial empire.
[Illustration: WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE.
JOHN BRIGHT.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI.
WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM.
GREAT ENGLISH STATESMEN]
[Illustration: QUEEN VICTORIA.
ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES.
BRITAIN'S SOVEREIGN AND HEIR APPARENT TO THE THRONE]