The Emancipation of South America/Chapter 38
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE RECONQUEST OF VENEZUELA.
1813.
By the surrender of Miranda Monteverde was left unopposed in Venezuela, and was made Captain-General, with the title of "Pacificator." He commenced his work of pacification by deeds from which the warmest partisans of Spain now turn away their eyes in horror. He violated the capitulation by imprisoning so many citizens that the gaols could not hold them; many died of hunger and suffocation in filthy dungeons. In the provinces his reign of terror assumed forms still more barbarous; the whole country seemed given up to hordes of banditti.
Colonel Cervéris, pro-consul of Cumaná, acted with such inhumanity as even disgusted the hard hearts of his superiors, who replaced him by Antoñanzas, and the Audiencia complained of his misconduct to the Home Government. All this was but the prelude to a war of extermination, which was provoked by the Royalists by murders, by mutilations and by torture.
The people, cowed in spirit by their sufferings, by their political calamities, and by the natural catastrophes which had befallen them, were only too anxious for rest on any terms under the domination of the colonial system. Clemency would have kept them peaceful, but the reign of terror drove superstitious fears from their minds, and changed weakness into strength. They fled from their persecutors into the woods and mountains; the leaders emigrated. Misery and despair created a desire for vengeance in the breasts of the most timid.
A handful of exiles gave the signal from a rock in the Antilles, and the whole of the eastern part of the territory rose in rebellion.
Famous in the history of the New World is the gulf called "Triste," discovered by Columbus on his third voyage, when he, without knowing it, landed for the first time on the Continent of which he was in search. At its mouth, between the eastern extremity of the Peninsula of Paria and the island of Trinidad, there lies a smaller island called Chacachacare; on it the fugitives from Cumaná took refuge. Though only forty-five in number, they resolved to renew the war and to raise the country against the Spaniards. A gallant youth of good family, from the island of Margarita, Santiago Mariño by name, put himself at their head. Manuel Piar, a handsome mulatto, two brothers, José Francisco and Bernardo Bermudez, and the engineer Ascue, formed his staff. With no other arms than six muskets and some pistols, they landed on the coast on the 13th March, 1813, surprised a guard, captured twenty-three muskets, and marched resolutely on the fortified town of Güiria. The garrison, who were all natives, joined them; on the 16th March they had 200 well-armed men.
With seventy-five men Bernardo Bermudez took the town of Maturin, where there was a deposit of military stores; his brother fortified Irapa on the Gulf, and Mariño made this place his head-quarters.
Cervéris had a small flotilla on the Gulf and 400 men, but did not dare to act on the offensive until, being reinforced by a Basque named Zuazola with 300 men, he sent him to retake Maturin. Zuazola easily overcame a small Patriot force which opposed his march, slaughtered them without mercy, and sent boxes full of human ears to Cumaná as trophies of his victory. He then tried to induce those of the country people who had fled to the woods to return to their homes, by giving them assurances of safety, but all who presented themselves were either killed or mutilated, men, women and children. Some were flayed alive, some were tied two and two together by the shoulders and thrown into a lake.
Colonel Fernandez de la Hoz, governor of Barcelona, having joined Zuazola, they attacked Maturin with 1,500 men. In the absence of Bermudez, Piar was in command, and had 500 men with him. By a sudden attack upon them with his cavalry, he threw the Royalists into such disorder that they were forced to retreat. In April they again advanced and were this time completely routed.
Monteverde, who had looked upon the invasion as the escapade of a wild boy, now became alarmed and marched on Maturin with 2,000 men, but his troops were thrown into disorder by the heavy fire of cannon and musketry which was poured upon them from the town, and a charge of cavalry led by Piar completed the rout. Monteverde escaped with difficulty, leaving 400 dead upon the field, and lost all his guns and baggage. Marshal Cajigal, who was now placed in command of the district, remained strictly on the defensive at Barcelona, while the Patriots threatened Cumaná.
The island of Margarita lies in the Carribean Sea, off the mouth of the Gulf of Cariaco, on which the city of Cumaná is situate, and is about thirty-five miles from the mainland. It is divided by a range of mountains which run down the centre from east to west; the north and south coasts are thus completely separate, the only communication between them being by a narrow defile, easy of defence. Asuncion, the capital, lies inland on the south side, and is dominated by the fortress of Santa Rosa, but has a port on the coast, which is defended by the castle of Pampatar. The north side of the island is known as the district of Juan Griego, and has a good port on the Carribean Sea, which is defended by a blockhouse. The possession of Margarita was of great importance to both parties, not only by reason of its situation, but also because the inhabitants, being mostly sailors and fishermen, would be of great assistance in naval operations along the coast.
At that time Colonel Pascual Martinez, a petty tyrant of the Cervéris type, was governor of Margarita. The Audiencia reproved him for his conduct, and ordered certain prisoners on the mainland who had been accused by him, to be set at liberty. Furious at this, he declared that if any one of these men set foot on the island he would shoot him. Among the prisoners so set at liberty was a man of mixed race, who from being a fisherman had risen to be one of the largest proprietors on the island. This man, Juan Bauptista Arismendi by name, was a sort of chieftain among his fellows, a rude hero of the people, a man of vehement passions combined with innate sagacity, and of an adventurous spirit. On the fall of Miranda he was accused of treason and hid himself. Governor Martinez seized his wife and children and threatened to shoot them if they did not disclose his hiding-place. Arismendi gave himself up, his property was confiscated, his family reduced to poverty, and he himself was sent as a prisoner to La Guayra. He swore vengeance.
Being released, he returned to the island and was thrown into a dungeon. The populace rose en masse. Martinez shut himself up with a garrison in the castle of Pampatar, but was forced to surrender; Arismendi was made governor and kept his vow of vengeance. Martinez and twenty-nine Spaniards who were with him were shot.
Arismendi immediately opened communications with Mariño, offering to assist him in any way in his power. Mariño, who was now besieging Cumaná, asked for a flotilla to blockade the place. Arismendi sent him three armed schooners and eleven boats under an Italian named Bianchi, with a supply of arms and ammunition for the Patriot forces. Cumaná was thus speedily invested both by land and sea.
Cumaná was well fortified and was defended by a garrison of 800 men with forty guns, under command of Governor Antoñanzas. The Patriots dared not attempt an assault, but their blockade soon reduced the city to extremities. Antoñanzas, taking advantage of the careless watch kept by the Patriot flotilla, shipped a portion of his force on some small craft, and sailed away, as he said, in search of help, leaving the fortress in charge of a subordinate officer. This officer, seeing his position hopeless, entered into arrangements for a capitulation, but while the negotiation was in progress, spiked his guns, embarked the remainder of the garrison in such boats as they could lay hold of, and followed Antoñanzas, who had not succeeded in escaping from the Gulf. After rejoining him a fresh breeze sprang up, and the fugitives again set sail in eight small vessels, but were attacked by Bianchi as they left the Gulf. Only three vessels escaped, on one of which was Antoñanzas, who soon after died of a wound received in the action.
The city was occupied by the Patriots, and twenty-five prisoners of distinction were shot, at the instigation of José Bermudez.
Mariño then marched against Cervéris, who retreated, after shooting Bernardo Bermudez, who was lying in a hospital dangerously wounded.
Piar, with a strong column, occupied Barcelona, which was evacuated on his approach by Cajigal, who retired to Guayana. When he reached the Orinoco, a man named José Tomas Boves, who had served under Antoñanzas and Zuazola, and a Canarian named Morales, asked to be left behind, in order that they might raise the Llaneros against the Patriots. Cajigal gave them permission to make the attempt, and also left with them one hundred men and some supplies. This small force became the nucleus of a powerful army, which was destined to crush the Republic of Venezuela for the second time.
José Bermudez, with another column, captured several towns on the coast of the Gulf of Paria, and furious at the death of his brother, killed every Royalist who fell into his hands.
In eight months all the eastern part of Venezuela was thus reconquered by the Patriots, who named Mariño Dictator of the Provinces of Cumaná and Barcelona, and of the island of Margarita, with Piar as his second in command, at the same time that Bolívar entered Caracas in triumph and was acclaimed Dictator of the West after one of the most extraordinary campaigns of the epoch, which in some respects resembles the first campaign of Buonaparte in Italy.
While Bolívar, after his victory over Correa, was awaiting due authorization from the Government of New Granada to proceed with his scheme of reconquest, a young lawyer named Briceño, who had been a member of the Congress of Caracas, maddened at the excesses of Monteverde, presented to him a plan he had published in Cartagena, which he with others had sworn to carry out. His design was to make a general massacre of "the cursed race of European Spaniards and of the Canarians."
Bolívar and Castillo Rada, who shared the command with him, assented to it with the proviso "those found with arms in their hands."
Briceño started off on his campaign of murder with one hundred and forty sworn assassins, and a few days after sent back two heads as a trophy, a present which excited the horror of the two commanders. Briceño was soon after defeated and made prisoner by a very superior force, and was shot at Barinas, which execution was afterwards used by Bolívar as a pretext for cruel reprisals.
The Government of New Granada adopted the idea of Bolívar; the Republic of Venezuela should be restored under its auspices, and the federal form of government should be re-established under the previous authorities. The invading army was to be a liberating army only, and should take no part in the internal affairs of the sister republic, which should be called upon to pay the expenses of the expedition. Bolívar accepted these conditions, and swore to carry them out faithfully.
His first step was to detach Castillo Rada with 800 men against Correa. Castillo defeated the Royalist army in a sharply contested action, and drove it back to Trujillo, but then withdrew his forces and resigned his command through jealousy of Bolívar, thinking that his fellow-countrymen would prefer him as a leader to a Venezuelan. But Torres did not hesitate, he chose Bolívar to command the Granadian contingent, conferred the rank of brigadier upon him, and ordered him at once to drive the Royalists out of the Provinces of Merida and Trujillo, after which he was to await instructions, which would be conveyed to him by commissioners from Congress, who would accompany him in all his future operations as those of the Convention accompanied the armies of Revolutionary France.
Bolívar had barely 600 men, while he was opposed by 6,000, who were so posted that wherever he attacked them they were always two to one. The first invasion of Bolívar along the western slopes of the eastern range of the Cordillera which crosses the territory of Venezuela, was a series of flashes of lightning which ended in a thunderbolt. On the 30th May he took Merida unopposed. The city raised a battalion of 500 infantry and a squadron of cavalry to reinforce his army. His vanguard, under Girardot, then occupied Trujillo, and a strong detachment under D'Eluyar forced Correa to take refuge in Maracaibo.
The garrison of Trujillo retreated to Carache, a town devoted to the Royalist cause, but were driven out by Girardot, who shot all the Spaniards who were taken prisoners, and the town was declared "infamous" by Bolívar in a proclamation. In fifty days there was not an enemy left in either province.
From this time Bolívar assumed a new attitude, as the independent representative of the Republic of Venezuela, and became a sort of Dictator. In contravention of the express orders of the Government of New Granada, he on the 15th June fulminated in a proclamation an order for the extermination of all Royalists, which he established by decree on the 6th September as a fundamental law of Venezuela. The atrocities committed by Monteverde and his myrmidons produced their natural effect.
"Every Spaniard who does not conspire against tyranny in favour of the just cause, in the most active and efficacious manner, shall be held to be an enemy, shall be punished as a traitor, and shall be put to death."
A new system of dates was also adopted by him:— "Third year of Independence and first of the War to the Death."
This decree of extermination has found many apologists; with the exception of some Spaniards no one has condemned it as an act of personal atrocity. Only two men have utterly censured it. One of them, an historian of Venezuela named Gonzalez, says:—
"It created thousands of enemies to the Republic in the interior, and alienated exterior sympathy. It was the fury of a storm, a stain upon our history."
The other who condemned it was Bolívar himself, who in his last days spoke of it as a "delirium."
This struggle did not assume a ferocious character until the indigenous races took part in it. The Spanish leaders, Miyares, Ceballos and Cajigal, always acted with humanity and repressed the excesses of their subordinates, as also did Cortabarria, the agent of the Regency. Nothing that the Royalists had yet done could in any way justify this decree as a measure of retaliation.
At Trujillo Bolívar received orders from the Government of New Granada to proceed no further. As his ambition was to encircle his brow with the civic crown as liberator of his native land, to pause was to endanger the advantage he had already gained. From the east came echoes of the success achieved by Mariño and his comrades, but he aspired to be the man who should rescue the ruins of Caracas, the city of his birth, from the enemy. They might forestall him. On his own responsibility he went on.
Tiscar, the Spanish general, who occupied Barinas with 1,300 men, had done nothing to prevent the capture of Merida and Trujillo, but at last determined to cut off the retreat of the invaders, and detached Colonel Marti with 700 men for that purpose. Bolívar at once crossed the mountains in his front with a strong vanguard, after detaching Rivas and Urdaneta with 500 men, by a more southerly route, in the same direction. On the 1st July Rivas found himself confronted by the entire column under Marti in a very strong position, from which he drove the Royalists to another stronger still, where he on the next day completely defeated them after five hours fighting, capturing a gun and 400 prisoners, all the Spaniards among whom were at once shot.
Tiscar retreated on the approach of Bolívar, who occupied Barinas on the 6th July, taking 13 guns and a large quantity of military stores, while Tiscar was so actively pursued by Girardot, that his men dispersed, and he fled to Guayana.
At Barinas, Bolívar raised some new battalions and several squadrons of cavalry, and separated this increased force into three divisions under Urdaneta, Girardot, and Rivas, which he dispersed in such a manner as must have ensured defeat in the face of an active enemy, but his manoeuvres, imprudent as they were, resulted in the most brilliant success. Rivas, with 600 men, totally defeated 1,000 Royalists under Colonel Oberto on the 22nd July, and then recrossing the mountains for the third time in one month, rejoined Bolívar and Girardot.
Bolívar, who had now 1,500 men, marched rapidly against Colonel Izquierdo, who was encamped on the plain of Taguanes. Izquierdo, who had only 1,000 men, retreated in close column on Valencia, hotly pursued by the Patriots. After six hours marching, the Patriot cavalry headed the column, which was at once charged by the infantry and totally destroyed, Izquierdo himself falling mortally wounded.
Monteverde on hearing of the fall of Barinas, had gone to Valencia, but seemed perfectly bewildered by the rapid movements of Bolívar, and did nothing to assist his scattered divisions. Tardily, he left Valencia with some infantry and cavalry to support Izquierdo, but was met by the news of his defeat, and fled to Puerto Cabello, while Bolívar entered Valencia unopposed, capturing thirty heavy guns and large quantities of military stores.
The garrison of Caracas, composed of civic guards and volunteers, for the most part dispersed, and General Fierro, who was in command, made overtures to Bolívar for a capitulation. Bolívar granted honourable terms, guaranteeing the lives and properties of the inhabitants, on condition that all the Province, including the fortress of Puerto Cabello, was given up. Fierro, without waiting to make a formal surrender, fled to La Guayra and escaped, but Monteverde refused to ratify the capitulation.
If Bolívar with his usual activity, had marched on Puerto Cabello, he must have captured it, as the fortifications were dismantled. Instead of this, he vaingloriously marched to receive the ovation which awaited him in Caracas, and gave Monteverde twenty days in which to prepare for defence.
In this campaign, Bolívar showed that though he had had no military education, he possessed the talents of a great revolutionary leader, and the inspiration of genius. At one step he gained a place among the celebrated captains of his time; he drew out his plans quickly and executed them with daring resolution, while he lost no time in securing the fruits of his victories. With 600 men, in ninety days, he had fought six battles, defeated and dispersed 4,500 men, captured fifty guns and three deposits of war material, had re-conquered the whole of western Venezuela from the Cordillera to the sea, and had restored the Republic. Never with such small means was so much accomplished, over so vast an extent of country, in so short a time.
Bolívar entered Caracas in triumph on the 6th August; the bells rang, the cannon roared, and the people shouted in applause of their liberator; his path was strewed with flowers, blessings were showered upon his head. Beautiful girls, belonging to the principal families of the city, dressed in white and wearing the national colours, led his horse by the bridle and crowned him with laurels. The prison doors were opened and the captive Patriots set free, and he did not sully his triumph by one act of vengeance, in spite of his terrible decree of extermination which had been ruthlessly carried out on every field of battle.
Two days later he announced the re-establishment of the Republic, but he did not restore the federal system, to which he was opposed on principle, and which was not consistent with the public safety. He proclaimed himself Dictator with the title of "Liberator," and in this he showed both foresight and patriotism; the restoration of the old system would have certainly entailed anarchy and defeat.
There were thus two Dictators in Venezuela, Mariño in the East, Bolívar in the West. Marino sent commissioners to Bolívar to treat concerning the form of government which should be adopted. Bolívar hesitated, he saw the necessity of establishing a firm central authority, and meanwhile Marino, who had by this time a powerful army, did nothing against the common enemy.
On the 25th August Bolívar laid siege to Puerto Cabello. His Granadian troops stormed the outer defences and drove the garrison into the castle. Then batteries were erected on the coast, which beat off three Spanish brigs of war whose fire had raked the lines of the besiegers. On the night of the 31st an assault was made, but the only result of it was that Zuazola, who commanded an outwork, was made prisoner. Bolívar offered to exchange him for one of his own officers who had been captured. Monteverde refused, whereupon Zuazola was hanged on a gallows in front of the walls.
The Royalists were defeated, but they were not conquered; they soon recovered from their stupor, and reports of reactionary movements came from all sides. Then on the 6th September the Dictator fulminated another decree, his last thunderbolt in this war to the death, which produced one of the most dreadful hecatombs of which history bears record. He declared that all Americans who should even be suspected of being Royalists were traitors to their country. iThis extreme and ill-advised measure greatly contributed to the defeat of Bolívar in the campaign now commencing. Such is the logic of Destiny!
On the 16th September the frigate Venganza arrived at Puerto Cabello from Spain, accompanied by an armed schooner and six transports, with the Granada regiment, 1,200 strong, under command of Colonel Salomón. Bolívar raised the siege and retired to Valencia.
Monteverde, encouraged by the retreat of the Patriots and by the reinforcement he had received, took the field on the 26th September with 1,600 men. But he had no fixed plan and committed the grave mistake of dividing his force. He himself took up a position on the road to Valencia at a place called Las Trincheras, and detached 500 men by another road to the heights of Barbula. Bolívar remained quiet for four days, unable to divine his intentions, and then sent Girardot and D'Eluyar with the Granadian troops against the enemy at Barbula, while a column under Urdaneta went in support. On the 30th September the Royalists were driven from this strong position, but Girardot fell, shot through the head in the moment of victory. His troops, in revenge, asked permission to attack the main body at Las Trincheras by themselves. Bolívar acceded to their request but supported them with 1,000 of his own troops. Monteverde was driven out of the entrenchments he had thrown up, with heavy loss, on the 3rd October. He himself being wounded returned to Puerto Cabello, leaving Salomón in command till he should recover, and the Patriots under D'Eluyar again laid siege to this fortress.
Bolívar, eager for fresh ovations, decreed sumptuous funeral honours to the memory of Girardot, to whose valour both New Granada and Venezuela owed their greatest victories. The citizens wore mourning for a month; his heart was taken out and carried to Caracas to be deposited in the Cathedral, his body was sent to Antioquia, his native province, and his pay was secured to his posterity. Bolívar himself accompanied the funeral procession to Caracas.
On the 14th October, the day of the obsequies, twenty of the civic functionaries of the capital assembled and decreed that Bolívar should be appointed Captain-General of the armies of Venezuela with the title of "Liberator," which he had already bestowed upon himself, and that the inscription "Bolívar, Liberator of Venezuela" should be inscribed over the gateways of all the public offices. Posterity has confirmed this title to him, but its acceptance at that time, when the reaction was gaining ground every day, was a symptom of inordinate personal vanity.
In return for this compliment Bolívar instituted the military order of "The Liberators"; a star with seven rays, symbolical of the seven provinces of the Republic, given as a decoration to those who should merit it by deeds of arms, and which carried with it certain privileges. This order was more democratic than those instituted by O'Higgins and San Martin in Chile and Peru, as it was for lifetime only, and was less aristocratic than the order of Cincinnatus created by Washington.
The time which Bolívar wasted in theatrical displays the Royalists made good use of for their own purposes. Boves was a Spaniard by birth, whose real name was Rodriguez. In his youth he was condemned to eight years penal servitude at Puerto Cabello for piracy, but was released chiefly through the intervention of a man whose name he then adopted in gratitude. He joined the revolution when it first broke out, but being looked upon as disaffected he was thrown into prison at Calabozo till that town was retaken by Antoñanzas, when he joined the Royalists and took part in the butchery at San Juan de los Morros. Morales, his companion and second in command, had served as a volunteer with the Royalists at Barcelona, and was made a sub-lieutenant of artillery by Monteverde. These two men were both endowed with the warlike instinct, were both distinguished by indefatigable activity and by an iron will; they were just the sort of men to act as leaders of semi-barbarous troops. But Boves, with all his ignorance and brutality, had something of moral elevation about him: he fought for a cause, not for rapine. Morales took an actual pleasure in cruel deeds, and was of insatiable rapacity. These two men were the first to discover the latent strength of the people, which the revolution later on assimilated to itself. Up to this time the revolutionary movement had been confined to the cities and towns; Bolívar with all his perspicacity never suspected that the main strength of the country lay on the plains around them.
When these two men were left on the north bank of the Orinoco by Cajigal they adopted Bolívar's plan of rousing the country by proclamations. They called the Llaneros to arms, offering them bloodshed and booty in the cause of the King, with pain of death to all who disregarded the summons. Each man presented himself on horseback with a lance; in each district a squadron was formed which took its name. Boves taught them the secret of victory, which was to have no fear of death, to go straight on and never look behind. In a very short time they had 2,500 men embodied, an army of horsemen such as had never yet been seen in America.
Colonel José Yañez, a Canarian, was a man of the same stamp as Boves and Morales, but of greater military skill. After the dispersion of the column by Tiscar, he had retreated to San Fernando on the Apure River, and with some help from Guayana, had there organized an infantry corps of 500 men, which he named the "Numancia" battalion. He also raised two regiments of Llanero cavalry, each 500 strong. With this force he invaded Barinas in September, before the waters had retired from the plains.
Boves opened his campaign by surprising a column of 1,000 men which had been sent against him, near Calabozo, on the 20th September. The cavalry passed over to him, the infantry he routed. He murdered all his prisoners, and then took and sacked the small town of Cura.
Now there appeared upon the scene another singular character, of the iron temperament of Boves, with all his ferocity and courage, who raised a barrier to his impetuous onslaught. Nothing was known of him except that he was a Spaniard who had come to America very young, and had married an American wife. When Bolívar opened his campaign of emancipation, this man had headed the rising at Mérida; then, leaving wife and children, he raised a battalion and devoted himself body and soul to the cause of independence. Throughout the campaign he distinguished himself by his indomitable valour and by his cruelty to prisoners, to whom he gave no quarter. The cause of his hatred to his fellow countrymen is unknown. He was accustomed to say:—
"When the Spaniards are all killed then I will cut my own throat, so that there shall not be one left."
The name of this man was Vicente Campo Elias. At Las Trincheras he was raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel for conspicuous bravery. This was the man to send against Boves.
He marched from Valencia with 1,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry. Boves with 2,500 horse, and Morales with 500 infantry, waited for him at a place called Mosquitero, at the entrance to the plains. On the 14th October the armies met. Boves charged the left wing of the Patriots with his usual impetuosity, and carried all before him, but Campo Elias, caring nothing for this, rushed upon the main body of the Royalists, and routed them completely in fifteen minutes. Morales escaped badly wounded, but nearly the whole of his infantry were butchered, and the Llanero horse were cut to pieces. Boves and Morales fled with twenty men beyond the Apure, and the state of the plains rendered pursuit impossible.
Campo Elias contented himself by retaking the town of Calabozo, and killing every man in the place for having given assistance to Boves. Unarmed Venezuelans were butchered by Venezuelan troops at Calabozo in the name of Liberty on the same day on which Bolívar was greeted in Caracas as the Liberator. This cruel deed decided the Llaneros. Seeing that there was no mercy for them, they abandoned their homes and looked to Boves for their revenge. The decree of extermination began to bear fruit.
Ceballos, who commanded at Coro, on hearing that reinforcements had reached Puerto Cabello, drew up a plan for the concerted action of the scattered bands of Royalists. With such men as he could collect, he sallied forth, and after routing two detachments of Patriots took Barquisimeto, where he was attacked by Bolívar and Urdaneta. Bolívar captured the town with a handful of horse, but his main body was totally routed by the Spanish infantry led by Ceballos, who, after his victory, crossed the Cordillera, and at Araure, in the valley of Caracas, effected a junction with the column under Yañez. Salomón, instead of joining him, marched with 1,000 men to the heights of Vigirima, to the west of the city of Caracas, and there entrenched himself.
Bolívar was then at Valencia with the Granadian contingent. He collected what other troops he could; Rivas brought up the garrison of Caracas, with a battalion of 500 students from the University. After two days' fighting, Salomon was on the 25th October driven back to Puerto Cabello with the loss of four guns. Bolívar then turned his attention to Ceballos, and by drawing 1,500 men from the force under Campo Elias, he had by the 1st December collected a force of 3,000 men. Ceballos had 3,500 men and ten guns, posted in a strong position on the slopes of the mountains, at the town of Araure. Here Bolívar attacked him on the 4th December. One Patriot battalion advancing incautiously was cut to pieces, but Bolívar, nothing daunted, brought up the rest of his troops, and ordered a charge with the bayonet, which was his favourite manoeuvre. He was no tactician; he hurled his men in masses upon the enemy, and trusted to their valour. Yañez attempted to take the attacking column on the flank with his cavalry, but was himself taken in flank by the Patriot cavalry, and utterly routed. Ceballos r after a stubborn resistance, was completely defeated, losing 500 killed, 400 prisoners, and all his guns. He fled to Guayana, 800 of his infantry escaped in the same direction, and Yañez fled to the Apure with 200 men. This was the first pitched battle won by Bolívar.
After the rout of Barquisimeto, Bolívar had formed the fugitives into a battalion, which, in punishment of their cowardice, he called the "Nameless Battalion," telling them that they should have no flag till they did something to merit one. This corps greatly distinguished itself at the battle of Araure. Bolívar now presented it with the flag of the Numancia battalion, which had been captured in the fight, and renamed it "The Victor of Araure."
Salomón had again taken the field with 1,300 men, but on hearing of the defeat of Araure, he again retired to Coro, harassed on his way by detached parties of the Patriots, and losing two guns and more than half his men.
Bolívar then marched to assist D'Eluyar in the siege of Puerto Cabello. The moment was propitious; the Spanish ships of war had left for the Havana, and Piar, with the flotilla from Cumana, had established a blockade, cutting off the garrison from all supplies. Monteverde had been dismissed in disgrace from his command; Ceballos, who had been appointed to succeed him, was a fugitive in Guayana, where also was Cajigal, who had been appointed by the Home Government Captain-General of Venezuela, and had as yet done nothing. Still the garrison, which was only 600 strong, held out.
Meantime the dual dictatorship brought forth its natural fruit. The victories of the West were sterile without the concurrence of the army of the East. Marino refused to combine operations with Bolívar until he was recognised as the supreme ruler of the territory he possessed. The Liberator modestly entreated him to march upon the plains, where Boves and Yañez were recruiting. Far from doing this, though such action was necessary to his own security, he even recalled his flotilla from Puerto Cabello, but Piar listened to the appeals of Bolívar, and continued the blockade. The result was that Bolívar, being unable to attend to the siege of Puerto Cabello and to the war upon the plains at the same time, Boves and Yañez were speedily in a position to assume the offensive. Boves, more especially, with that wonderful energy which hesitated at no means, however terrible they might be, to the end before him, again took the field, two months after his defeat by Campo Elias.
On the 1st November he summoned all able-bodied men to join him, proclaimed war to the knife against the Patriots, decreed that their goods should be distributed among his troops, and, finally, liberated all slaves who would enlist under the banners of the King. The Llaneros, irritated by the massacre of Calabozo, and eager for plunder, flocked in masses to his standard. From Guayana came 100 infantry and one gun. By the middle of December he had 3,000 cavalry, the blades of whose lances were forged from the spikes torn from the railings of windows.
With this horde he descended to the lower plains. On the 14th December he routed a division of 1,000 men at San Marcos, and occupied Calabozo, slaughtering without mercy, and enriching his troops with booty. He then overran the whole plain lying between the windward coast range and the Gulf of Paria. For further operations he needed infantry, and set to work to make some. At the same time Yañez, with some help from Guayana, organized a force of 2,000 men on the Apure, and captured the city of Barinas, while Cajigal and Ceballos raised another army on the leeward coast.
Bolívar was reduced to Caracas and the neighbouring valleys, with a feeble reserve in Valencia, and was constantly harassed by Royalist guerillas. Urdaneta, who had marched on Coro, was forced to return to his assistance.
Mariño, with 3,500 men distributed along the coasts of Barcelona and Cumaná, and in the adjacent valleys, did nothing. All the rest of Venezuela was occupied by Royalists; the country people were everywhere in favour of the reaction, and the Patriots were forced to seek refuge in the cities. The Patriot armies were entirely without guides, no one would give them any information. Despatches to the various commanders could only be forwarded from head-quarters under strong escort. At times only four men out of an escort reached their destination. Public opinion had returned to the state in which it was left by the earthquake of 1812.
Columbian historians attribute this revulsion of feeling to Bolívar's decree of extermination, and to the excesses authorized by him. Bolívar was to fall as Miranda had fallen before him, but from different causes. Ever the logic of Destiny!