The conspicuous part which Bolivar has acted throughout the revolution in
Colombia, and at the close of that in Peru, renders it imperative on us to
give some account of a character, identified with so many great and
extraordinary events.
Simon Bolivar was born at Caracas on the 25th of July, 1783. He lost his
parents at an early age; and, in his sixteenth year, was sent to Europe to
finish his education. He made the tour of France and Italy. Having married
at Madrid, he embarked for Venezuela, where his wife died a few months
after her arrival. Bolivar went a second time to Europe, and was present at
the coronation of Napoleon. He returned to Caracas in company with Emparan,
appointed captain-general of Venezuela by the central junta at Seville.
Soon after the raising of the standard of independence (19th April, 1810)
in that country, he was sent to solicit the protection of Great Britain. He
was well received by the Marquess Wellesley, then secretary for Foreign
Affairs. The British government offered its mediation between Spain and her
colonies, but the offer was rejected by the court of Madrid. Bolivar
returned to his own country, accompanied by General Miranda, who was placed
in command of the Venezuelan troops. But the revolutionary government was
too feebly organized to give efficiency to the military force. Divisions
arose, and the cause of independence was on the retrograde, when the
dreadful earthquake of 1812, and the subsequent invasion by the Spanish
force under General Monteverde, for the time, precluded all possibility of
success.
Bolivar, alleging that Miranda had betrayed his country by capitulating to
Monteverde, arrested him at La Guayra. Bolivar then demanded his passport,
and when taken before Monteverde, the Spanish general said that Colonel
Bolivar's request should be complied with, as a reward for his having
served the king of Spain by delivering up Miranda. Bolivar answered that he
arrested him to punish a traitor[2] to his country, and not to serve the
king. This answer had nearly included him in the general proscription; but
the good offices of Don Francisco Iturbe, secretary to Monteverde, procured
the passport, and Bolivar was allowed to sail for Curaçoa. From that island
he went to Carthagena, where he obtained the command of a small force, with
which he proceeded up the Magdalena, and having beaten parties of the
royalist troops at various points on that river, he continued his march
from Ocana to Cucutá, and solicited assistance from the government of
Cundinamarca. Five hundred men were placed at his disposal, and with these,
added to his own small party, Bolivar undertook to effect the liberation of
his country. Four thousand Spaniards, under General Correa, were then on
that part of the Venezuelan frontier. A division of these was beaten by
Bolivar, who pursued his march to Truxillo, defeating on the way several
royalist detachments.
[2] Bolivar seems to have been hurried into a dreadful error by the
warmth of his feelings. Not only is the _expediency_ of the
capitulation admitted by eye witnesses of the first
respectability, but also that Miranda had no other alternative.
The rich and influential inhabitants withheld their support, not
that their political sentiments had undergone a change but
because they saw the useless of sacrificing property and life in
a wild attempt to stem the stream of public opinion; the bulk of
the people having become decidedly royalist in principle ever
since that earthquake, which had been represented by the
priesthood as a judgement of Heaven upon the insurgent cause.
The Spaniards from the commencement of the war, had put to death all
persons whom they found with arms in their hands. The South Americans, on
the contrary, gave quarter to those royalists who fell into their power.
The natives consequently preferred entering the royalist ranks, feeling
secure that, in case of being made prisoners, their lives would be spared.
Bolivar, perceiving the great disadvantage under which he laboured, and as
a retaliation for the horrid butcheries committed by the Spaniards, issued
a proclamation at Truxillo, declaring, that from that time forward he
should wage a war of extermination. This declaration of _guerra à muerte_
on the part of the independents made the danger, in that respect, equal on
both sides.
Bolivar, having separated his small corps into two divisions, entrusted the
command of the second to the active General Rivas. Bolivar himself
penetrated the Llanos, after having beaten the Spaniards at Niquitao,
Carache, Varinas, Tahuana, and Torcones. He then advanced to Vitoria,
within twenty leagues of Caracas, where he was met by Spanish
commissioners, who sued for, and obtained, a capitulation. The conqueror
entered his native city in triumph. But this did not put an end to the war.
The Spaniards were faithless in the observance of the capitulation, and
Monteverde, from within the walls of Puerto Cabello, fomented the discord
which prevailed in the interior provinces. About this time a strong
reinforcement arrived from Spain. Bolivar was obliged to evacuate Caracas;
but the royalists were beaten at Viguirima, Barbula, and Las Trincheras.
However, the Spanish general Cevallos had time to raise four thousand
recruits in the province of Coro, which had always shown itself inimical to
the cause of independence. Bolivar next gained the important battle of
Araure, and repossessed himself of Caracas. On the 2nd of January, 1814, he
assembled the public authorities of the city, and resigned to them the
supreme authority he had exercised, and with which his triumphs had
invested him. They, however, refused to admit his resignation; conferred
upon him the title of LIBERATOR OF VENEZUELA; and named him dictator.
About this period a Spaniard, Don José Tomas Boves, succeeded in bringing
about a counter-revolution in the Llanos, an immense tract of level
country, which traverses the centre of Venezuela, and extends to the
confines of New Granada. Boves organized a force, which consisted of men
mostly chosen for their desperate character, whom he led on by promises of
indiscriminate plunder, and by lavishing the greatest rewards upon the
perpetrators of the most revolting atrocities. The track of these ruffians,
to Calabozo, was every where marked with the blood of the aged and the
defenceless. Bolivar, who had detached a part of his force in pursuit of
Cevallos, had not above two thousand men left to make head against Boves,
who, with nearly five times that number, had possessed himself of the
fertile valleys of Aragua, and destroyed some patriot divisions sent to
check his progress. Bolivar took up a position at San Mateo, in order to
cover Caracas. A series of attacks, in the space of forty days, reduced the
number of Bolivar's force to four hundred. Cevallos had repaired the
effects of his defeat at Araure, and, reinforced by General Cagigal, had
penetrated to Valencia. The patriot division of the east having defeated
Boves at Bocachica, and compelled him to retire to the Llanos, and having
subsequently united with the remains of Bolivar's force, marched against
Cagigal and Cevallos, whose well-organized troops amounted to six thousand.
These were attacked and defeated by Bolivar, who then detached the greater
part of his force to reduce the province of Coro to submission, and himself
marched against Boves. Bolivar was overwhelmed by numbers at La Puerta. His
division dispersed, and fled to Cundinamarca. He was then obliged to
abandon Caracas. The same day witnessed the affecting spectacle of several
thousand inhabitants leaving their homes and property at the mercy of the
ruthless spoiler, while they themselves set out to face want, disease, and
death, in distant provinces.
On the 17th of August, Bolivar lost the battle of Aragua. The subsequent
affairs of Maturin, Cumaná, Carupano, Guiria, Urica, and El Caris, were
fought, with varying success. All being lost in the east, Bolivar next
proceeded to Carthagena, and offered his services to New Granada, then
agitated by discordant parties of provincialists, centralists,
metropolists, federalists, royalists, and independents. A congress
assembled at Tunja conferred upon Bolivar the command of the forces of New
Granada. Santa Fé de Bogotá submitted, the provinces acknowledged the
congress, and an effort was made to establish a constitutional form of
government.
Bolivar having proposed to take the town of Santa Marta, still held by the
Spaniards, he was authorized by the government of Santa Fé to procure guns,
&c., from the arsenals of Carthagena. The governor of that fortress refused
to furnish the necessary supplies. In order to enforce compliance, Bolivar
invested Carthagena, before which he remained a considerable time, when he
heard of the arrival at Margarita of General Morillo, with ten thousand
Spanish troops. Upon this, Bolivar placed his own investing force at the
disposal of his rival, the governor of Carthagena; and, unwilling that the
cause of his country should continue to suffer from the dissention which
had arisen between himself and the governor, withdrew to Jamaica. Morillo,
soon afterwards, laid siege to Carthagena, which, unfortunately, in
consequence of the long investment it had already sustained, was nearly
destitute of provisions, Bolivar sent from Jamaica some supplies for the
besieged garrison; but before they could arrive, that important fortress
was in possession of the Spaniards. This enabled them to reconquer New
Granada, and the blood of its citizens was made to stream from the
scaffold.
At Kingston, Bolivar narrowly escaped assassination. The casual
circumstance of exchanging apartments with another person, caused the
murderer's dagger to be planted in the heart of a faithful follower,
instead of in that of Bolivar. The author of these memoirs happened to
live, for a few days, in the same boarding-house. Some officers of a
British line-of-battle ship, not speaking Spanish, requested him to invite
Bolivar, in their name, to dine with them. This was only a few weeks
previous to the intended assassination of Bolivar.
From Jamaica, Bolivar went to Hayti, and was received at Port-au-Prince by
Petion with kind hospitality, and was assisted by him as far as his means
would allow.
In April, 1816, he sailed with three hundred men to Margarita, which island
had lately again shaken off the Spanish yoke. He arrived at Juan Griego,
where he was proclaimed supreme chief of the republic. On the 1st of June
he sailed, and on the 3rd landed at Campano, where he beat nine hundred
Spaniards. He then opened a communication with patriot chieftains, who had
maintained themselves in isolated parties dispersed over the _llanos_ of
Cumaná, Barcelona, and the Apure. It is a curious fact, that the isolation
of several of these parties was so complete, that, for many months, they
did not know of any other than themselves being in arms for the delivery of
their country. It was only by their coming into accidental contact that
they discovered that there was more than one patriot guerilla in
existence.[3] Bolivar supplied some of them with arms, and at the same time
augmented his own force to a thousand men. The Spaniards assembled in
superior numbers to destroy them; but Bolivar embarked, and relanded at
Ocumare, with an intention of taking Caracas: great part, however, of the
Spanish army having by this time returned from New Granada to Venezuela,
Bolivar was obliged to re-embark for Margarita.
[3] For the honour of the _llaneros_, this circumstance ought to be
more distinctly detailed.
In 1817, he landed near Barcelona, where he collected seven hundred
recruits, and marched towards Caracas; but, being worsted in an affair at
Clarines, he fell back again upon Barcelona, where he shut himself up with
four hundred men, and made a successful resistance against a superior
force.
Bolivar received some reinforcements from the interior of the province of
Cumaná, upon which he decided upon making the banks of the Orinoco the
theatre of his future efforts. Having further augmented his force, and
taken the necessary steps to keep alive the war in the districts on the
coast, he marched to the interior, beating several small royalist parties
which he encountered on his route.
Of the Spanish army which had returned from New Granada, a division, under
the brave General La Torre, was destined to act against the patriots in
Guayana. A division of the latter, under General Piar, having obtained a
decisive victory, Bolivar was enabled to invest Angostura, and the town of
old Guyana, which were successively taken on the 3rd and 18th of July.
In Angostura, Piar was found guilty, by a court-martial, of an attempt to
excite a war of colour. Piar (a man of colour himself) was the bravest of
the brave, and adored by his followers; but his execution stifled anarchy
in the bud.
The rest of the year 1817 was actively spent in organizing a force to act
against Morillo, who had lately been reinforced by two thousand fresh
troops from the Peninsula, under General Canterac, then on his way from
Spain to Peru. An abundant supply of arms, received from England, was sent
to the patriot corps on the banks of the Apure.
(_To be continued._)
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