Bolivar y Ponte, Simon, the “liberator” of Colombia, born at 
Caracas, July 24, 1783, died at San Pedro, near Santa Martha, 
Dec. 17, 1830. He was the son of one of the familias Mantuanas, 
which, at the time of the Spanish supremacy, constituted the 
creole nobility in Venezuela. In compliance with the custom of 
wealthy Americans of those times, at the early age of 14 he was 
sent to Europe. From Spain he passed to France, and resided for 
some years in Paris. In 1802 he married in Madrid, and returned 
to Venezuela, where his wife died suddenly of yellow fever. After 
this he visited Europe a second time, and was present at 
Napoleon’s coronation as emperor, in 1804, and at his assumption 
of the iron crown of Lombardy, in 1805.7"! In 1809 he returned 
home, and despite the importunities of Joseph Felix Ribas, his 
cousin, he declined to join in the revolution which broke out at 
Caracas, April 19, 18107": but, after the event, he accepted a 
mission to London to purchase arms and solicit the protection of 
the British government. Apparently well received by the marquis 
of Wellesley, then secretary for foreign affairs, he obtained 
nothing beyond the liberty to export arms for ready cash with the 
payment of heavy duties upon them. On his return from London, 
he again withdrew to private life, until, Sept. 1811, he was 
prevailed upon by Gen. Miranda, then commander-in-chief of the 
insurgent land and sea forces, to accept the rank of lieutenant- 
colonel in the staff, and the command of Puerto Cabello, the 
strongest fortress of Venezuela. 

The Spanish prisoners of war, whom Miranda used regularly to 
send to Puerto Cabello, to be confined in the citadel, having 
succeeded in overcoming their guards by surprise, and in seizing 

the citadel, Bolivar, although they were unarmed, while he had a 
numerous garrison and large magazines, embarked precipitately in 
the night, with 8 of his officers, without giving notice to his own 
troops, arrived at daybreak at La Guayra, and retired to his estate 
at San Mateo. On becoming aware of their commander’s flight, the 
garrison retired in good order from the place, which was 
immediately occupied by the Spaniards under Monteverde. This 
event turned the scale in favor of Spain, and obliged Miranda, on 
the authority of the congress, to sign the treaty of Vittoria, July 
26, 1812, which restored Venezuela to the Spanish rule. On July 
30 Miranda arrived at La Guayra, where he intended to embark 
on board an English vessel. On his visit to the commander of the 
place, Col. Manuel Maria Casas, he met with a numerous 
company, among whom were Don Miguel Pena and Simon 
Bolivar, who persuaded him to stay, for one night at least, in 
Casas’s house. At 2 o’clock in the morning, when Miranda was 
soundly sleeping, Casas, Pena, and Bolivar entered his room, with 
4 armed soldiers, cautiously seized his sword and pistol, then 
awakened him, abruptly told him to rise and dress himself, put 
him into irons, and had him finally surrendered to Monteverde, 
who dispatched him to Cadiz, where, after some years’ captivity, 
he died in irons. This act, committed on the pretext that Miranda 
had betrayed his country by the capitulation of Vittoria, procured 
for Bolivar Monteverde’s peculiar favor, so that when he 
demanded his passport, Monteverde declared, 

“Col. Bolivar’s request should be complied with, as a reward for his having 
served the king of Spain by delivering up Miranda.” * 

He was thus allowed to sail for Curacgoa, where he spent 6 
weeks, and proceeded, in company with his cousin Ribas, to the 
little republic of Carthagena. Previous to their arrival, a great 
number of soldiers, who had served under Gen. Miranda, had fled 
to Carthagena. Ribas proposed to them to undertake an expedi- 
tion against the Spaniards in Venezuela, and to accept Bolivar as 
their commander-in-chief. The former proposition they embraced 
eagerly; to the latter they demurred, but at last yielded, on the 
condition of Ribas being the second in command. Manuel 
Rodriguez Torrices, the president of the republic of Carthagena, 
added to the 800 soldiers thus enlisted under Bolivar, 500 men 
under the command of his cousin, Manuel Castillo. The expedi- 
tion started in the beginning of Jan. 1813. Dissensions as to the 

supreme command breaking out between Bolivar and Castillo, the 
latter suddenly decamped with his grenadians. Bolivar, on his. 
part, proposed to follow Castillo’s example, and return to 
Carthagena, but Ribas persuaded him at length to pursue his 
course at least as far as Bogota, at that time the seat of the 
congress of New Granada. They were well received, supported in 
every way, and were both made generals by the congress, and, 
after having divided their little army into 2 columns, they marched 
by different routes upon Caracas. The further they advanced, the 
stronger grew their resources; the cruel excesses of the Spaniards 
acting everywhere as the recruiting sergeants for the army of the 
independents. The power of resistance on the part of the 
Spaniards was broken, partly by the circumstance of */, of their 
army being composed of natives, who bolted on every encounter 
to the opposite ranks, partly by the cowardice of such generals as 
Tiscar, Cajigal, and Fierro, who, on every occasion, deserted their 
own troops. Thus it happened that San Iago Marino, an ignorant 
youth, had contrived to dislodge the Spaniards from the provinces 
of Cumana and Barcelona, at the very time that Bolivar was 
advancing through the western provinces. The only serious 
resistance, on the part of the Spaniards, was directed against the 
column of Ribas, who, however, routed Gen. Monteverde at 
Lostaguanes, and forced him to shut himself up in Puerto Cabello 
with the remainder of his troops. 

On hearing of Bolivar’s approach, Gen. Fierro, the governor of 
Caracas, sent deputies to propose a capitulation, which was 
concluded at Vittoria; but Fierro, struck by a sudden panic, and 
not expecting the return of his own emissaries, secretly decamped 
in the night, leaving more than 1,500 Spaniards at the discretion 
of the enemy. Bolivar was now honored with a public triumph. 
Standing in a triumphal car, drawn by 12 young ladies, dressed in 
white, adorned with the national colors, and all selected from the 
first families of Caracas, Bolivar, bareheaded, in full uniform, and 
wielding a small baton in his hand, was, in about half an hour, 
dragged from the entrance of the city to his residence. Having 
proclaimed himself “dictator and liberator of the western prov- 
inces of Venezuela” —Marino had assumed the title of “dictator 
of the eastern provinces’—he created “the order of the 
liberator,” established a choice corps of troops under the name of 
his body-guard, and surrounded himself with the show of a court. 
But, like most of his countrymen, he was averse to any prolonged 
exertion, and his dictatorship soon proved a military anarchy, 
Jeaving the most important affairs in the hands of favorites, who 

squandered the finances of the country, and then resorted to 
odious means in order to restore them. The new enthusiasm of 
the people was thus turned to dissatisfaction, and the scattered 
forces of the enemy were allowed to recover. While, in the 
beginning of Aug. 1813, Monteverde was shut up in the fortress 
of Puerto Cabello, and the Spanish army reduced to the possession 
of a small strip of land in the north-western part of Venezuela, 4 
months later, in December, the liberator’s prestige was gone, and 
Caracas itself threatened, by the sudden appearance in_ its 
neighborhood of the victorious Spaniards under Boves. To 
strengthen his tottering power, Bolivar assembled, Jan. 1, 1814, a 
junta of the most influential inhabitants of Caracas, declaring 
himself to be unwilling any longer to bear the burden of 
dictatorship. Hurtado Mendoza, on the other hand, argued, in a 
long oration, 

“the necessity of leaving the supreme power in the hands of Gen. Bolivar, until 

the congress of New Granada could meet, and Venezuela be united under one 
government.” * 

This proposal was accepted, and the dictatorship was thus 
invested with some sort of legal sanction. 

The war with the Spaniards was, for some time, carried on in a 
series of small actions, with no decisive advantage to either of the 
contending parties. In June, 1814, Boves marched with his united 
forces from Calabozo on La Puerta, where the two dictators, 
Bolivar and Marino, had formed a junction, met them, and 
ordered an immediate attack. After some resistance, Bolivar fled 
toward Caracas, while Marino disappeared in the direction of 
Cumana. Puerto Cabello and Valencia fell into the hands of Boves, 
who then detached 2 columns (1 of them under the command of 
Col. Gonzales), by different roads, upon Caracas. Ribas tried in 
vain to oppose the advance of Gonzales. On the surrender of 
Caracas to Gonzales, July 17, 1814, Bolivar evacuated La Guayra, 
ordered the vessels lying in the harbor of that town to sail for 
Cumana, and retreated with the remainder of his troops upon 
Barcelona. After a defeat inflicted on the insurgents by Boves, 
Aug. 8, 1814, at Arguita, Bolivar left his troops the same night 
secretly to hasten, through by-roads, to Cumana, where, despite 
the angry protests of Ribas, he at once embarked on board the 
Bianchi, together with Marino and some other officers. If Ribas, 
Paez, and other generals had followed the dictators in their flight, 

every thing would have been lost. Treated by Gen. Arismendi, on 
their arrival at Juan Griego, in the island of Margarita, as 
deserters, and ordered to depart, they sailed for Carupano, 
whence, meeting with a similar reception on the part of Col. 
Bermtidez, they steered toward Carthagena. There, to palliate 
their flight, they published a justificatory memoir,” in_ high- 
sounding phraseology. 

Having joined a plot for the overthrow of the government of 
Carthagena, Bolivar had to leave that little republic, and pro- 
ceeded to Tunja, where the congress of the federalist republic of 
New Granada was sitting.’ At that time the province of 
Cundinamarca stood at the head of the independent provinces 
which refused to adopt the Granadian federal compact, while 
Quito, Pasto, Santa Martha, and other provinces, still remained in 
the power of the Spaniards. Bolivar, who arrived at Tunja Nov. 
22, 1814, was created by the congress commander-in-chief of the 
federalist forces, and received the double mission of forcing the 
president of the province of Cundinamarca to acknowledge the 
authority of the congress, and of then marching against Santa 
Martha, the only fortified seaport the Spaniards still retained in 
New Granada. The first point was easily carried, Bogota, the 
capital of the disaffected province, being a defenceless town. In 
spite of its capitulation, Bolivar allowed it to be sacked during 48 
hours by his troops. At Santa Martha, the Spanish general 
Montalvo, having a feeble garrison of less than 200 men, and a 
fortress in a miserable state of defence, had already bespoken a 
French vessel, in order to secure his own flight, while the 
inhabitants of the town sent word to Bolivar that on_ his 
appearance they would open the gates and drive out the garrison. 
But instead of marching, as he was ordered by the congress, 
against the Spaniards at Santa Martha, he indulged his rancor 
against Castillo, the commander of Carthagena, took upon himself 
to lead his troops against the latter town, which constituted an 
integral part of the federal republic. Beaten back, he encamped 
upon La Papa, a large hill, about gun-shot distance from 
Carthagena, and established a single small cannon as a battery 
against a place provided with about 80 guns. He afterward 
converted the siege into a blockade, which lasted till the beginning 
of May without any other result than that of reducing his army, by 
desertion and malady, from 2,400 men to about 700. Meanwhile a 
great Spanish expedition from Cadiz had arrived, March 25, 1815, 

a On September 30, 1814.— Ed 

under Gen. Morillo, at the island of Margarita, and had been able 
to throw powerful reenforcements into Santa Martha, and soon 
after to take Carthagena itself. Previously, however, Bolivar had 
embarked for Jamaica, May 10, 1815, with about a dozen of his 
officers, on an armed English brig. Having arrived at the place of 
refuge, he again published a proclamation,” representing himself 
as the victim of some secret enemy or faction, and defending his 
flight before the approaching Spaniards as a resignation of 
command out of deference for the public peace. 

During his 8 months’ stay at Kingston, the generals he had left 
in Venezuela, and Gen. Arismendi in the island of Margarita, 
stanchly held their ground against the Spanish arms. But Ribas. 
from whom Bolivar had derived his reputation, having been shot 
by the Spaniards after the capture of Maturin, there appeared in 
his stead another man on the stage, of still greater abilities, who, 
being as a foreigner unable to play an independent part in the 
South American revolution, finally resolved to act under Bolivar. 
This was Louis Brion. To bring aid to the revolutionists, he had 
sailed from London for Carthagena with a corvette of 24 guns, 
equipped in great part at his own expense, with 14,000 stand of 
arms and a great quantity of military stores. Arriving too late to be 
useful in that quarter, he reembarked for Cayes, in Hayti,”™ 
whither many emigrant patriots had repaired after the surrender 
of Carthagena. Bolivar, meanwhile, had also departed from 
Kingston to Porte au Prince, where, on his promise of emancipat- 
ing the slaves, Pétion, the president of Hayti, offered him large 
supplies for a new expedition against the Spaniards in Venezuela. 
At Cayes he met Brion and the other emigrants, and in a general 
meeting proposed himself as the chief of the new expedition, on 
the condition of uniting the civil and military power in his person 
until the assembling of a general congress. The majority accepting 
his terms, the expedition’ sailed April 16, 1816, with him as its 
commander and Brion as its admiral. At Margarita the former 
succeeded in winning over Arismendi, the commander of the 
island, in which he had reduced the Spaniards to the single spot of 
Pampatar. On Bolivar’s formal promise to convoke a national 
congress at Venezuela, as soon as he should be master of the 
country, Arismendi summoned a junta in the cathedral of La Villa 
del Norte, and publicly proclaimed him the commander-in-chief of 
the republics of Venezuela and New Granada. On May 31, 1816, 
Bolivar landed at Carupano, but did not dare prevent Marino and 

a On May 9, 1815.— Ed. 

Piar from separating from him, and carrying on a war against 
Cumana under their own auspices. Weakened by this separation, 
he set sail, on Brion’s advice, for Ocumare, where he arrived July 
3, 1816, with 13 vessels, of which 7 only were armed. His army 
mustered but 650 men, swelled, by the enrolment of negroes 
whose emancipation he had proclaimed, to about 800. At 
Ocumare he again issued a proclamation, promising 

“to exterminate the tyrants” and to “convoke the people to name their deputies 
to congress.” * 

On his advance in the direction of Valencia he met, not far 
from Ocumare, the Spanish general Morales at the head of about 
200 soldiers and 100 militia men. The skirmishers of Morales 
having dispersed his advanced guard, he lost, as an eye-witness 
records, 

“all presence of mind, spoke not a word, turned his horse quickly round, and 
fled in full speed toward Ocumare, passed the village at full gallop, arrived at the 
neighboring bay, jumped from his horse, got into a boat, and embarked on the 
Diana, ordering the whole squadron to follow him to the little island of Buen Ayre, 
and leaving all his companions without any means of assistance.” 

On Brion’s rebukes and admonitions, he again joined the other 
commanders on the coast of Cumana, but being harshly received, 
and threatened by Piar with trial before a court-martial as a 
deserter and a coward, he quickly retraced his steps to Cayes. 
After months of exertion, Brion at length succeeded in persuading 
a majority of the Venezuelan military chiefs, who felt the want of 
at least a nominal centre, to recall Bolivar as their general-in-chief, 
upon the express condition that he should assemble a congress, 
and not meddle with the civil administration. Dec. 31, 1816, he 
arrived at Barcelona with the arms, munitions of war, and 
provisions supplied by Pétion. Joined, Jan. 2, 1817, by Arismendi, 
he proclaimed on the 4th martial law and the union of all powers 
in his single person; but 5 days later, when Arismendi had fallen 
into an ambush laid by the Spaniards, the dictator fled to 
Barcelona. The troops rallied at the latter place, whither Brion 
sent him also guns and reenforcements, so that he soon mustered 
a new corps of 1,100 men. April 5, the Spaniards took possession 
of the town of Barcelona, and the patriot troops retreated toward 
the charity-house, a building isolated from Barcelona, and 

a This quotation from Bolivar’s proclamation of July 6, 1816, “To the 

intrenched on Bolivar’s order, but unfit to shelter a garrison of 
1,000 men from a serious attack. He left the post in the night of 
April 5, informing Col. Freites, to whom he transferred his 
command, that he was going in search of more troops, and would 
soon return. Trusting this promise, Freites declined the offer of a 
capitulation, and, after the assault, was slaughtered with the whole 
garrison by the Spaniards. 

Piar, a man of color and native of Curacao, conceived and 
executed the conquest of the provinces of Guiana; Admiral Brion 
supporting that enterprise with his gun-boats. July 20, the whole 
of the provinces being evacuated by the Spaniards, Piar, Brion, 
Zea, Marino, Arismendi, and others, assembled a_ provincial 
congress at Angostura, and put at the head of the executive a 
triumvirate, of which Brion, hating Piar and deeply interested in 
Bolivar, in whose success he had embarked his large private 
fortune, contrived that the latter should be appointed a member, 
notwithstanding his absence. On these tidings Bolivar left his 
retreat for Angostura, where, emboldened by Brion, he dissolved 
the congress and the triumvirate, to replace them by a “supreme 
council of the nation,” with himself as the chief, Brion and 
Antonio Francisco Zea as the directors, the former of the military, 
the latter of the political section. However, Piar, the conqueror of 
Guiana, who once before had threatened to try him before a 
court-martial as a deserter, was not sparing of his sarcasms against 
the “Napoleon of the retreat,” and Bolivar consequently accepted 
a plan for getting rid of him. On the false accusation of having 
conspired against the whites, plotted against Bolivar’s life, and 
aspired to the supreme power, Piar was arraigned before a war 
council under the presidency of Brion, convicted, condemned to 
death, and shot, Oct. 16, 1817. His death struck Marino with 
terror. Fully aware of his own nothingness when deprived of Piar, 
he, in a most abject letter, publicly calumniated his murdered 
friend, deprecated his own attempts at rivalry with the liberator, 
and threw himself upon Bolivar’s inexhaustible fund of mag- 
nanimity. 

The conquest by Piar of Guiana had completely changed the 
situation in favor of the patriots; that single province affording 
them more resources than all the other 7 provinces of Venezuela 
together. A new campaign, announced by Bolivar through a new 
proclamation,* was, therefore, generally expected to result in the 

final expulsion of the Spaniards. This first bulletin, which 
described some small Spanish foraging parties withdrawing from 
Calabozo as “armies flying before our victorious troops,” was not 
calculated to damp these hopes. Against about 4,000 Spaniards, 
whose junction had not yet been effected by Morillo, he mustered 
more than 9,000 men, well armed, equipped, and amply furnished 
with all the necessaries of war. Nevertheless, toward the end of 
May, 1818, he had lost about a dozen battles and all the provinces 
lying on the northern side of the Orinoco. Scattering as he did his 
superior forces, they were always beaten in detail. Leaving the 
conduct of the war to Paez and his other subordinates, he retired 
to Angostura. Defection followed upon defection, and every thing 
seemed to be drifting to utter ruin. At this most critical moment, a 
new combination of fortunate accidents again changed the face of 
affairs. At Angostura he met with Santander, a native of New 
Granada, who begged for the means of invading that territory, 
where the population were prepared for a general rise against the 
Spaniards. This request, to some extent, he complied with, while 
powerful succors in men, vessels, and munitions of war, poured in 
from England, and English, French, German, and Polish officers, 
flocked to Angostura. Lastly, Dr. German Roscio, dismayed at the 
declining fortune of the South American revolution, stepped 
forward, laid hold of Bolivar’s mind, and induced him to convene, 
Feb. 15, 1819, a national congress, the mere name of which 
proved powerful enough to create a new army of about 14,000 
men, so that Bolivar found himself enabled to resume the 
offensive. 

The foreign officers suggested to him the plan of making a 
display of an intention to attack Caracas, and free Venezuela from 
the Spanish yoke, and thus inducing Morillo to weaken New 
Granada and concentrate his forces upon Venezuela, while he 
(Bolivar) should suddenly turn to the west, unite with Santander’s 
guerillas, and march upon Bogota. To execute this plan, he left 
Angostura Feb. 24, 1819, after having nominated Zea president of 
the congress and vice-president of the republic during his absence. 
By the manoeuvres of Paez, Morillo and La Torre were routed at 
Achaguas, and would have been destroyed if Bolivar had effected 
a junction between his own troops and those of Paez and Marino. 
At all events, the victories of Paez led to the occupation of the 
province of Barima, which opened to Bolivar the way into New 
Granada. Every thing being here prepared by Santander, the 
foreign troops, consisting mainly of Englishmen, decided the fate 
of New Granada by the successive victories won July 1 and 23, and 

Aug. 7, in the province of Tunja.”° Aug. 12, Bolivar made a 
triumphal entry into. Bogota, while the Spaniards, all the 
Granadian provinces having risen against them, shut themselves 
up in the fortified town of Mompox. . 

Having regulated the Granadian congress at Bogota, and 
installed Gen. Santander as commander-in-chief, Bolivar marched 
toward Pamplona, where he spent about 2 months in festivals and 
balls. Nov. 3, he arrived at. Montecal, in Venezuela, whither he 
had directed the patriotic chieftains of that territory to assemble 
with their troops. With a treasury of about $2,000,000, raised 
from the inhabitants of New Granada by forced contributions, and 
with a disposable force of about 9,000 men, the 3d part of whom 
consisted of well disciplined English, Irish, Hanoverians, and other 
foreigners, he had now to encounter an enemy stripped of all 
resources and reduced to a nominal force of about 4,500 men, 2/5 
of whom were natives, and, therefore, not to be relied upon by the 
Spaniards. Morillo withdrawing from San Fernando de Apure to 
San Carlos, Bolivar followed him up to Calabozo, so that the 
hostile head-quarters were only 2 days’ march from each other. If 
Bolivar had boldly advanced, the Spaniards would have been 
crushed by his European troops alone, but he preferred protract- 
ing the war for 5 years longer. 

In October, 1819, the congress of Angostura had forced Zea, his 
nominee, to resign his office, and chosen Arismendi in his place. 
On receiving this news, Bolivar suddenly marched his foreign 
legion toward Angostura, surprised Arismendi, who had 600 
natives only, exiled him to the island of Margarita, and restored 
Zea to his dignities. Dr. Roscio, fascinating him with the prospects 
of centralized power, led him to proclaim the “republic of 
Colombia,” comprising New Granada and Venezuela, to publish a 
fundamental law for the new state, drawn up by Roscio, and to 
consent to the establishment of a common congress for both 
provinces. On Jan. 20, 1820, he had again returned to San 
Fernando de Apure. His sudden withdrawal of the foreign legion, 
which was more dreaded by the Spaniards than 10 times the 
number of Colombians, had given Morillo a new opportunity to 
collect reenforcements, while the tidings of a formidable expedi- 
tion to start from Spain under O’Donnell raised the sinking spirits 
of the Spanish party. Notwithstanding his vastly superior forces, 
Bolivar contrived to accomplish nothing during the campaign of 
1820. Meanwhile the news arrived from Europe that the 
revolution in the Isla de Leon” had put a forcible end to 
O’Donnell’s intended expedition. In New Granada 15 provinces 

out of 22 had joined the government of Colombia, and the 
Spaniards now held there only the fortresses of Carthagena and 
the isthmus of Panama. In Venezuela 6 provinces out of 8 obeyed 
the laws of Colombia. Such was the state of things when Bolivar 
allowed himself to be inveigled by Morillo into negotiations 
resulting, Nov. 25, 1820, in the conclusion at Truxillo of a truce 
for 6 months. In the truce no mention was made of the republic 
of Colombia, although the congress had expressly forbidden any 
treaty to be concluded with the Spanish commander before the 
acknowledgment on his part of the independence of the republic. 

Dec. 17, Morillo, anxious to play his part in Spain, embarked at 
Puerto Cabello, leaving the command-in-chief to Miguel de la 
Torre, and on March 10, 1821, Bolivar notified La Torre, by 
letter, that hostilities should recommence at the expiration of 30 
days. The Spaniards had taken a strong position at Carabobo, a 
village situated about half-way betwen San Carlos and Valencia; 
but La Torre, instead of uniting there all his forces, had 
concentrated only his Ist division, 2,500 infantry and about 1,500 
cavalry, while Bolivar had about 6,000 infantry, among them the 
British legion, mustering 1,100 men, and 3,000 llaneros 7°’ on 
horseback, under Paez. The enemy’s position seemed so formida- 
ble to Bolivar, that he proposed to his council of war to make a 
new armistice, which, however, was rejected by his subalterns. At 
the head of a column mainly consisting of the British legion, Paez 
turned through a footpath the right wing of the enemy, after the 
successful execution of which manoeuvre, La Torre was the first 
of the Spaniards to run away, taking no rest till he reached Puerto 
Cabello, where he shut himself up with the remainder of his 
troops. Puerto Cabello itself must have surrendered on a quick 
advance of the victorious army, but Bolivar lost his time in 
exhibiting himself at Valencia and Caracas. Sept. 21, 1821, the 
strong fortress of Carthagena capitulated to Santander. The last 
feats of arms in Venezuela, the naval action at Maracaibo, in Aug. 
1823, and the forced surrender of Puerto Cabello, July, 1824, 
were both the work of Padilla. The revolution of the Isla de Leon, 
which prevented O’Donnell’s expedition from starting, and the 
assistance of the British legion, had evidently turned the scale in 
favor of the Colombians. , 

The Colombian congress opened its sittings in Jan. 1821, at 
Cucuta, published, Aug. 30, a new constitution, and after Bolivar 
had again pretended to resign, renewed his powers. Having signed 
the new constitution, he obtained leave to undertake the campaign 
of Quito (1822), to which province the Spaniards had retired after 

their ejection by a general rising of the people from the isthmus 
of Panama.** This campaign, ending in the incorporation of 
Quito, Pasto, and Guayaquil into Colombia, was nominally led by 
Bolivar and Gen. Sucre, but the few successes of the corps were 
entirely owed to British officers, such as Col. Sands. During the 
campaigns of 1823-24, against the Spaniards in upper and lower 
Peru,” he no longer thought it necessary to keep up the 
appearance of generalship, but leaving the whole military task to 
Gen. Sucre, limited himself to triumphal entries, manifestos, and 
the proclamation of constitutions. Through his Colombian body- 
guard, he swayed the votes of the congress of Lima, which, Feb. 
10, 1823, transferred to him the dictatorship, while he secured his 
reelection as president of Colombia by a new tender of resigna- 
tion. His position had meanwhile become strengthened, what with 
the formal recognition of the new state on the part of England, 
what with Sucre’s conquest of the provinces of upper Peru, which 
the latter united into an independent republic, under the name of 
Bolivia. Here, where Sucre’s bayonets were supreme, Bolivar gave 
full scope to his propensities for arbitrary power, by introducing 
the “Bolivian Code,” an imitation of the Code Napoléon? It was 
his plan to transplant that code from Bolivia.to Peru, and from 
Peru to Colombia—to keep the former states in check by 
Colombian troops, and the latter by the foreign legion and 
Peruvian soldiers. By force, mingled with intrigue, he succeeded 
indeed, for some weeks at least, in fastening his code upon Peru. 
The president and liberator of Colombia, the protector and 
dictator of Peru, and the godfather of Bolivia, he had now 
reached the climax of his renown. But a serious antagonism had 
broken out in Colombia, between the centralists or Bolivarists and 
the federalists, under which latter name the enemies of military 
anarchy had coalesced with his military rivals. The Colombian 
congress having, at his instigation, proposed an act of accusation 
against Paez, the vice-president of Venezuela, the latter broke out 
into open revolt, secretly sustained and pushed on by Bolivar 
himself, who wanted insurrections, to furnish him a pretext for 
overthrowing the constitution and reassuming the dictatorship. 
Beside his body-guard, he led, on his return from Peru, 1,800 
Peruvians, ostensibly against the federalist rebels. At Puerto 
Cabello, however, where he met Paez, he not only confirmed him 
in his command of Venezuela, and issued a proclamation of 
amnesty to all the rebels, but openly took their part and rebuked 

the friends of the constitution; and by decree at Bogota, Nov. 23, 
1826, he assumed dictatorial powers. 

In the year 1826, from which the decline of his power dates, he 
contrived to assemble a congress at Panama, with the ostensible 
object of establishing a new democratic international code.” 
Plenipotentiaries came from Colombia, Brazil, La Plata, Bolivia, 
Mexico, Guatemala, &c. What he really aimed at was the erection 
of the whole of South America into one federative republic, with 
himself as its dictator. While thus giving full scope to his dreams 
of attaching half a world to his name, his real power was rapidly 
slipping from his grasp. The Colombian troops in Peru, informed 
of his making arrangements for the introduction of the Bolivian 
code, promoted a violent insurrection. The Peruvians elected Gen. 
Lamar as the president of their republic, assisted the Bolivians in 
driving out the Colombian troops, and even waged a victorious 
war against Colombia, which ended in a treaty reducing the latter 
to its primitive limits, stipulating the equality of the 2 countries, 
and separating their debts.”’! The congress of Ocafia, convoked by 
Bolivar, with a view to modify the constitution in favor of his 
arbitrary power, was opened March 2, 1828, by an elaborate 
address, insisting on the necessity of new privileges for the 
executive. When, however, it became evident that the amended 
project of the constitution would come out of the convention quite 
different from its original form, his friends vacated their seats, by 
which proceeding the body was left without a quorum, and thus 
became extinct. From a country-seat, some miles distant from 
Ocana, to which he had retreated, he published another manifes- 
to,” pretending to be incensed at the step taken by his own friends, 
but at the same time attacking the convention, calling on the 
provinces to recur to extraordinary measures, and declaring that 
he was ready to submit to any load of power which might be 
heaped upon him. Under the pressure of his bayonets, popular 
assemblies at Caracas, Carthagena, and Bogota, to which latter 
place he had repaired, anew invested him with dictatorial power. 
An attempt to assassinate him in ‘his sleeping room at Bogota, 
which he escaped only by leaping in the dark from the balcony of 
the window, and lying concealed under a bridge, allowed him for 
some time to introduce a ‘sort of military terrorism. He did not, 
however, lay hands on Santander, although he had participated in 
the conspiracy, while he put to death Gen. Padilla, whose guilt was 
not proved at all, but who, as a man of color, was not able to 
resist. 
~ a On June 12, 1828.— Ed. 

Violent factions disturbing the republic in 1829, in a new appeal 
to the citizens,* Bolivar invited them to frankly express their 
wishes as to the modifications to be introduced into the 
constitution. An assembly of notables at Caracas answered by 
denouncing his ambition, laying bare the weakness of his 
administration, declaring the separation of Venezuela from 
Colombia, and placing Paez at the head of that republic. The 
senate of Colombia stood by Bolivar, but other insurrections broke 
out at different points. Having resigned for the 5th time, in Jan. 
1830, he again accepted the presidency, and left Bogota to wage 
war on Paez in the name of the Colombian congress. Toward the 
end of March, 1830, he advanced at the head of 8,000 men, took 
Caracuta, which had revolted, and then turned upon the province 
of Maracaibo, where Paez awaited him with 12,000 men, in a 
strong position. As soon as he became aware that Paez meant 
serious fighting, his courage collapsed. For a moment he even 
thought to subject himself to Paez, and declare against the 
congress; but the influence of his partisans at the congress 
vanished, and he was forced to tender his resignation, notice being 
given to him that he must now stand by it, and that an annual 
pension would be granted to him on the condition of his 
departure for foreign countries. He accordingly sent his resigna- 
tion to the congress, April 27, 1830. But hoping to regain power 
by the influence of his partisans, and a reaction setting in against 
Joachim Mosquera, the new president of Colombia, he effected his 
retreat from Bogota in a very slow manner, and contrived, under 
a variety of pretexts, to prolong his sojourn at San Pedro, until the 
end of 1830, when he suddenly died. 

The following is the portrait given of him by Ducoudray 
Holstein: 

“Simon Bolivar is 5 feet 4 inches in height, his visage is long, his cheeks hollow, 
his complexion livid brown; his eyes are of a middle size, and sunk deep in his 
head, which is covered thinly with hair. His mustaches give him a dark and wild 
aspect, particularly when he is in a passion. His whole body is thin and meagre. He 
has the appearance of a man 65 years old. In walking, his arms are in continual 
motion. He cannot walk long, but becomes soon fatigued. He likes his hammock, 
where he sits or lolls. He gives way to sudden gusts of resentment, and becomes in 
a moment a madman, throws himself into his hammock, and utters curses and 
imprecations upon all around him. He likes to indulge in sarcasms upon absent 
persons, reads only light French literature, 1s a bold rider, and passionately fond of 
waltzing. He is fond of hearing himself talk and giving toasts. In adversity, and 
destitute of aid from without, he is perfectly free from passion and violence of 
temper. He then becomes mild, patient, docile, and even submissive. In a great 

a Of January 20, 1830.— Ed. 

measure he conceals his faults under the politeness of a man educated in the 
so-called beau monde, possesses an almost Asiatic talent for dissimulation, and 
understands mankind better than the mass of his countrymen.” * 

By decree of the congress of New Granada, his remains were 
removed in 1842 to Caracas, and a monument erected there in his 
honor. 

See Histoire de Bolivar, par le Gén. Ducoudray Holstein; continuée 
jusqu’'a sa mort par Alphonse Viollet (Paris, 1831), Memoirs of Gen. 
John Miller (in the service of the Republic of Peru)?*?; Col. Hippisley’s 
“Account of his Journey to the Orinoco” (Lond. 1819). 

January 8, 1858 can Cyclopaedia