it ought to have inspired, served but to rouse the apprehensions of the sordid-minded. In vain had the general himself led the way, by enfranchising his negroes, and ranging them as volunteers under the banners of liberty; the principal colonists were more alarmed by the fear of losing their slaves, than anxious to be avenged of the Spaniards, and betrayed their own cause in their eagerness to preserve their rich plantations. The opposition which ensued was productive of the most disastrous consequences. Bolivar, calculating on the co-operation of the inhabitants, had weakened himself, by leaving Mac Gregor in another province; he was consequently incapable of sustaining the assault of the Spaniards under Morales, and after an obstinate resistance, in which he lost his best officers, was forced to retreat in disorder. The two Haytian battalions gallantly covered the retreat of their brethren in arms; whilst those of them who escaped the sword of their adversaries, found a miserable grave where they had expected a generous asylum; being pitilessly butchered by their own countrymen, in whose defence they had ventured their lives. On the other hand, Mac Gregor, unable to contend single-handed against the victorious Spaniards, was compelled to retire to Barcelona; which he succeeded in gaining, though harassed on all sides by light troops.

Arismendi was more fortunate in his operations: as his position was more favourable, he laid hold of Pampatar, left not a Spaniard remaining in Margarita, and embarked with a part of his force for Barcelona, where the Independent troops were to form a junction. At this period, Bolivar, who was anxious to resume the offensive with greater effect, set out from Aux Cayes, where, it is asserted, he escaped assassination in consequence of a mistake made by a Royalist emissary, who stabbed the master of the house in which Bolivar resided, instead of the general himself. On his arrival in Margarita, Bolivar issued a proclamation, convoking the representatives of Venezuela in a General Congress; and thence passed over to Barcelona, where he established a Provisional Government. Morillo now advanced to this place, with four thousand men, supported by his whole naval force, and on the 15th of February, 1817, paid dearly for a temporary success he gained over his antagonist, who rendered it entirely useless by setting fire to his own ships. The 16th, 17th, and 18th, were occupied in a desperate conflict, which terminated in Bolivar's obtaining possession of the enemy's camp; though the struggle so completely crippled him, that he was unable to pursue the Spaniard, before he was reinforced by a considerable detachment. Morillo, who had suffered greatly during his retreat, was met and defeated by General Paez in the plains of Banco-Largo. Other successes attended the Independent forces under Piar, in the district of Corona, as well as in Caycara under Zaraza, who had raised a force much needed by his party, by breaking in the wild horses of America for his cavalry.

Bolivar, having been chosen supreme director of Venezuela, towards the close of this year (1817) fixed his head-quarters at Angostura, where he was enabled to organize the civil and military affairs of his government. On the last day in December, he took his departure, with two thousand horsemen and two thousand five hundred foot; ascended the Orinoco, was joined on his route by Generals Cedeno and Paez; and after a march of two-and-forty days, appeared before the ramparts of Calobozo, three hundred leages from Angostura. After

several engagements, which were fought on the 12th of February, 1818, and the two subsequent days, he forced Morillo to abandon that place; he pursued and attacked him on the 16th and 17th, at Sombrero, whence he compelled him to take refuge in Valencia. The exhaustion and diminution of his own troops, after such a series of hard fighting, as well as the necessity of providing against any operations in his rear, induced him to desist from farther pursuit, and detach Cedeno and Paez to take possession of San Fernando de Apure. His force being thus reduced to one thousand two hundred cavalry and about five hundred foot, Morillo suddenly attacked him on his advance to San Vittoria, near Caracas. A continued conflict was thence kept up from the 13th to the 17th of March, at La Cabrera, Maraçay and La Puerta ; during which the Spanish commander was wounded. Cedeno, as well as Paez, who had received some reinforcements from England, now rejoined Bolivar, who, on the 26th, became the assailant in his turn, attacked the heights of Ortiz, and carried the Spanish position, which was defended by La Torre. The enemy, however, in his retreat, directed his march on Calobozo, and captured it on the 30th of the same month. On the 17th of April, Bolivar narrowly escaped from being delivered up to the Spaniards by one of his own officers; for this villain, a Colonel Lopez, made his way with twelve men to the spot where his general was reposing, and scarcely gave him time to get away in an almost naked state.

No sooner had Bolivar rejoined his corps, than he was vigorously assailed by Antonio Pla, a Spanish officer, who cut off four hundred of his men. Some days afterwards, Morillo, having collected the garrisons of several places, effected a junction with La Torre, and on the 2d of May, attacked Paez, in the plains of Sebanos de Coxedo: the conflict which ensued was equally disastrous to either party, and put an end to the campaign in the interior of the country. Some of Bolivar's officers had, in the mean while, laid hold of several places on the coast : Marino had possessed himself of Cariaco, whilst Admiral Brion, after dispersing the Spanish flotilla, and sending some pieces of artillery, ten thousand musquets, and other warlike stores, up the Orinoco, surprised the post of Guiria, on the 30th of August.

On the 15th of February, 1819, Bolivar presided at the opening of the Congress of Venezuela at Angostura; where he submitted the plan of a Republican Constitution, and solemnly laid down his authority: though a strong representation of the exigencies of the times was again pressed upon him, and became his inducement to resume it. Availing himself of the rainy season to reorganize his forces, he set out on the 26th of February towards New Grenada in search of Morillo, who had selected the Isle of Achagas, which is formed by the Apure, as an impregnable position. The Royalist troops in that province had been routed by General Santander, and Bolivar anticipated that their coalition would decide the fate of the campaign: when, therefore, he had been reinforced by two thousand English troops, and had defeated La Torre, he used every exertion to this end, and succeeded in effecting the junction on the 13th of June. After receiving deputations from several towns of New Grenada, he resolved upon attempting the pas sage of the Cordilleras. Fatigue and privations of every kind were endured with exemplary fortitude in the advance of his forces through this wild, precipitous, and barren region, where they lost their artillery

and most of their equipments, although they succeeded in reaching the neighbourhood of Tangia in the valley of Sagamoso on the 1st of July. They found its heights occupied by three thousand five hundred Spaniards: these were instantly attacked by Bolivar, and completely overthrown; the result placed Tunja in his power. The battle of Boyaca a few days afterwards gave him possession of Santa Fe. These two victories achieved the deliverance of New Grenada, and were accompanied by the surrender of Barreyro, the Spanish commander-in-chief, and the remnant of his army, together with all their arms, ammunition, horses, artillery, &c. "The advantages (observes Bolivar in his official despatch) are incalculable which will result to the cause of the Republic from the glorious victory of yesterday. Our troops never triumphed more decidedly, and have seldom engaged soldiers so well disciplined, and so ably commanded." In Santa Fe, from which Samano, the viceroy, had scarcely time to escape, Bolivar found a million of piastres, and resources of every description; but more than this, he was joined by a host of recruits, and enabled effectually to repair the losses he had sustained both in the battles he had gained, as well as in the hardships he had encountered in crossing the mountains. The province, which he had so signally emancipated, hailed him with enthusiasm as its deliverer; he was nominated President of New Grenada at Santa Fè, and in his proclamation of the 8th of September following he complied with the public voice by reuniting this province with Venezuela. Inaction was ill-suited to his disposition and the auspicious circumstances of the moment; but before he embarked in a new enterprise he nominated General Santander as vice-president, proposed an exchange of prisoners to Samano, regulated every thing that concerned the administration of the government, and made a levy of five thousand men. Having so done, he resumed his route to Angostura.

The fame of his successes had reawakened universal confidence throughout the province of Venezuela; his advance across that country resembled a triumphant progress; and the 17th of September, 1819, crowned the great and dearest wish of his heart,-that the two provinces should form one undivided commonwealth; to which the Congress attached the title of "Republic of Colombia." A new capital was ordered to be constructed, which should be known to after ages by the illustrious name of Bolivar: in the interim, the provisional seat of the General Congress was directed to be fixed at Rosario-Cucuta. Seven days had scarcely elapsed before Bolivar was again in motion at the head of the most formidable army which the Independents had hitherto mustered; and the flames of intestine discord being extinguished, the promise of a happy and unclouded futurity dawned upon the fortunes of Colombia. Such indeed was the general spirit of animosity prevalent at this moment against the Spanish government, which had endeavoured to prop its declining authority by acts of the most atrocious cruelty, that the people eagerly joined his standard from every quarter. The prospect of peace seemed no longer a dream, and the true friends of American liberty lent themselves to it with eager sincerity. On the 5th of January, 1820, Bolivar made himself master of Calobozo, and this was afterwards followed by a series of memorable advantages over his opponents; but no sooner was he informed of the favourable change which had taken place in the mother-country in the commencement of 1820, than he made proposals to Morillo for the

purpose of terminating a contest which had involved both nations in so long a course of bloodshed and calamity. The Spanish general listened joyfully to these overtures; commissioners on both sides were despatched to Truxillo, and speedily agreed to an armistice, by which Spain recognised Bolivar as president, or supreme chief of Colombia. In vain did Morillo's delegates endeavour to secure an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Spain over the two provinces; the Independents would neither listen to their representations, nor subsequently to those of Morillo himself. During the continuance of these negotiations, both commanders appeared to entertain sentiments of reciprocal esteem and admiration; nor could a more signal proof be given of the confidence which each of them placed in the honour and integrity of his late antagonist, than that they twice passed a whole night together within the same chamber at Truxillo.

On the conclusion of the armistice, in November 1820, the two armies retained the respective positions they had occupied previously to it, on the banks of the Unare and Guanare; but Morillo shortly afterwards returned to Spain, leaving La Torre in command of the Spanish forces, and about the same time the Independents despatched M. Zea and two other commissioners to Madrid with a view to bring about a final pacification between the two governments. The constancy with which the Colombians insisted upon an unreserved recognition of their independence, would probably, at all events, have rendered every attempt at such a pacification abortive: in spite, however, of this barrier, the Madrid negotiations lingered on until the intelligence of the rupture of the armistice broke them off. On the 10th of March, 1821, Bolivar announced to La Torre, that he would, in conformity with the terms of the armistice, renew hostilities on the 28th of April ensuing; being forty days after the notification he then made. The privations to which his army was exposed in their cantonments, and the great mischiefs which were accruing to the cause of Independence by the continuance of the armistice, were the principal motives which he assigned for adopting this course. In the beginning of May, therefore, Bolivar took the field with a force of upwards of eight thousand men, which he divided into three corps, respectively commanded by generals Paez, Cedeno, and Anzoategui. These divisions advanced by separate routes to the plains of Tinaquillo, where they formed a junction on the 23d of June, and then advanced towards Calobozo, where the Spanish head-quarters were fixed. In their advance the Independent army had to penetrate through a narrow precipitous defile in the mountains. The leading division was that of general Paez, who was at the head of the battalion of British troops, the battalions called "The Bravos of the Apure," and a corps of thirteen hundred horse. The position occupied by the Spaniards was one of great strength; the heights, commanding the only pass by which it could be approached were crowned with artillery; and the pass itself did not, in many places, admit of more than one person advancing at a time. At eleven in the morning of the 24th, Paez's division defiled in front of the enemy, under a heavy fire from the heights and without waiting the advance of the other divisions, its gallant leader, as if impatient of dividing the victory with his brave colleagues, determined on an immediate assault of the Spanish position. In spite of the superior advantages, which numbers and strength of position afforded, his enemies

were, in the short space of half an hour, driven from their intrenchments with great slaughter by the valour and impetuosity of his troops, whose assault he led in person. Stores and artillery were alike abandoned by the vanquished, and victory smiled on the cause of freedom before the second division could arrive to share in its achievement: a few of its Tirailleurs alone had come up, and at their head Cedeno impatiently placing himself, rushed upon a square of Spanish infantry, in the midst of which he and the greater part of his companions found a glorious death. The British troops distinguished themselves highly on this occasion, and, indeed, were the principal instruments of this brilliant victory: nor was Bolivar slow to recognise their good conduct: he conferred upon the remnant of the battalion of which they consisted, the title of "Battalion of Calobozo," and on the surviving heroes, both officers and privates, the decoration of the order of Liberators. The Spaniards, after losing one half of their force in this decisive conflict, fled with dismay in the direction of Puerto Cabello.

The independence of this portion of the American continent was the happy consequence of the battle of Calobozo, and the first fruit which it yielded was the retaking of Caracas: whence Bermudez, who had already once captured it in the course of the campaign, had been almost immediately afterwards driven out by Colonel Pereyra. Bolivar again retook it on the 30th of June without resistance; and four days afterwards, La Guyra capitulated, the garrison under Pereyra being allowed to proceed by sea to Puerto Cabello. On the 6th of July, Bolivar (now called the President Liberator) declared Caracas the capital of the department of Venezuela, and transferred the Court of Admiralty from the island of Margarita to La Guyra. It has been stated, that not a white person was found in either of these once flourishing towns, when Bolivar took possession of them; the only inhabitants remaining in them being a handful of negroes. He issued a proclamation in consequence, intreating all its former inhabitants to return to the enjoyment of their properties, and solemnly assuring them, whether they were Royalists or Independents, of the future and sacred protection of the new government.

The Independent forces were now intent upon reducing the other towns which remained in the hands of the Spaniards. Carthagena ca pitulated on the 25th of September, and Cumana about a month afterwards. Puerto Cabello has however continued to baffle every effort to reduce it, and the possession of a superior naval force has enabled the Spaniards to do considerable mischief to the commerce and tranquillity of the neighbouring coast.

The General Congress had been summoned to meet at Rosario de Cuenta on the 1st of January, but the delay which occurred in the assembling of the deputies prevented the formal opening of their sittings before the 1st of May. Other objects having called Bolivar away, Antonio Marino, the vice-president of the republic, was deputed by him to preside at its opening; on which occasion he addressed his colleagues in a tone of warm congratulation on the flattering prospects which the achievement of their independence held out. This was considered as the first Colombian Congress, and its first decree confirmed that of the Venezuelian legislature, which, in December 1819, had ordained the perpetual union of Venezuela and New Grenada, under the title of the "Republic of Colombia." An amnesty for all past