inces of New Granada. Improving with the greatest diligence these advantages, by the 20th of September, he had two armies on foot for the liberation of the provinces of the north and south, still in possession of the enemy; and having established a provisional government, he posted with wonderful rapidity to Angostura, where the Venezuelan congress was in session. (December, 1819.)

In an address to that body, after commemorating the achievements of his little army, he announced the desire of New Granada for a political union of the two states, and his own conviction of the necessity of the measure in ensuring the Independence of South America. So great was the weight of his personal influence, and so apparent were the advantages likely to result from the arrangement, that on the 17th of the month a law was passed, providing for the union of the two provinces, under the title of the "Republic of Colombia," consolidating the national debts, ordaining the erection of a capital, to bear the name of their deliverer, and summoning a general congress, to meet in January, 1821, with power to form a constitution for the new commonwealth. This resolution being communicated to the republican authorities of New Granada, the step was unanimously approved, and in the midst of universal exultation, the new commonwealth was solemnly proclaimed at Santa Fe de Bogota. Ten liberated provinces joyfully acceded to the Union. This important measure accomplished, the president, with forces recruited to the number of ten or twelve thousand men, again devoted his energies to the war.

On the coast, considerable disasters had attended the patriot arms. McGregor, in April, 1819, after having captured Porto Bello, and held it for three weeks, was overcome by a royalist force, and lost his entire command of one thousand men, except a few who escaped with him by swimming to their vessels. Another small detachment, which he afterwards left at Rio de la Hacha, being also overpowered, blew up the fort, to their own destruction, rather than fall into the hands of the Spaniards.

Of the British auxiliaries, about five hundred in number, engaged in Bolivar's last campaign, only a quarter had survived; yet fresh reinforcements continued to arrive from the same quarter. General D'Evreux, a native of Ireland, (naturalized a citizen of the United States,) raised a force of one thousand of his countrymen, with whom he arrived at Colombia in season for the campaign of 1820. Bolivar, after repairing to the capital of New Granada, in

March of that year, encouraging the hopes of the republicans, and cementing the union by his eloquence, repaired to his army on the Apure. Rio de la Hacha was presently taken, and the southern army of New Granada, with similar success, assailed the enemy, and expelled them from the province of Popayan.

CHAPTER VII.

REVOLUTION IN SPAIN. OVERTURES OF THE SPANISH LEADERS. -RESOLUTION OF THE PATRIOTS. THE ARMISTICE.—THE WAR RENEWED.-HUMANE POLICY OF BOLIVAR.- -SIGNAL VICTORIES OF THE REPUBLICANS. THE SPANIARDS COMPLETELY EXPELLED FROM COLOMBIA.-INDEPENDENCE OF THAT STATE ACKNOWLEDGED.

MEANWHILE, the revolution in Spain, rëestablishing the Cortes, had taken place, and Morillo, in accordance with instructions from the new government, proposed a suspension of hostilities and the opening of negotiations. The Colombian congress, which convened in May, declared, in reply, that they would with pleasure terminate hostilities, but on no other condition than that of national independence. Bolivar, in answer to the official announcement of Morillo, replied in the same strain. "The republic of Colombia,” he says, "most sincerely congratulates itself on seeing the day in which liberty extends her beneficent influence over unhappy Spain, and to see her ancient metropolis treading in the steps of Colombia, and in the path of reason. The people of Colombia, more than ten years ago, resolved to consecrate the last of its members to the only cause worthy of the sacrifice of peace-that is, the cause of an oppressed country; and confiding in the sacredness of their cause, in the most solemn manner, on the 20th of November, 1818, resolved to combat perpetually against all exterior domination, and not to be reconciled to peace but upon the recognition of absolute independence." He enclosed the law referred to, and avowed his readiness to receive the royalist commissioners.

The arms of the republicans, meanwhile, though no very decisive battle took place, were continually gaining ground, and the hopes of the Spaniards to regain ascendency were proportionably dimin

ishing. Besides these advantages, Guayaquil, with a number of the adjacent provinces, succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke. Maracaibo followed the example; and all the northern part of New Granada, except the city of Carthagena, and the isthmus of Panama, by the beginning of 1821, was in the hands of the patriots. Despite the triumphant success in arms which these events portended, Bolivar, willing to spare the effusion of blood, in November, 1820, had consented to an armistice, while negotiations should be attempted. It was resolved, however, that no terms, save those of absolute independence, should be accepted from Spain, and the congress, with cogent argument, in their manifesto, assign reasons for this determination. "On commencing hostilities," affirms that document, "Colombia neither had great armies nor the materials to form them; to-day she has skillful generals, expert officers, veteran soldiers inured to war, and plenty of arms and ammunition.

"Many citizens were then afraid of being soldiers; now they are all in arms, and delight in being so. Colombians are no longer what they were; and the population of Colombia are a new people, regenerated by a ten years' contest, in which have disappeared those physical and moral disqualifications which rendered her independence doubtful, and are become worthy and fit to govern themselves, instead of obeying another's will, or any sovereignty but their own."

Morillo, after the ratification of the armistice, returned to Spain, where the cruelties which he had exercised toward the patriots were rewarded with the title of Count of Carthagena. Negotiation had proved unsuccessful, and in the month of April, 1821, both parties, the Spanish under Morales and La Torre, prepared for hostilities. The Colombian government had sent commissioners to Spain, where, in May, 1821, a project for bestowing a representative government on the refractory colonies was agitated in the Cortes, but was finally rejected on account of the determined objections of Ferdinand. On the 17th of April, 1821, Bolivar issued a proclamation to the army, affirming that Spain, though herself in possession of a representative government, was still inclined to establish tyranny over the prov. inces. He appointed hostilities to recommence at the end of the month, commanding, however, that the war should be conducted according to the law of nations, on penalty of capital punishment against all transgressors; "if the enemy," he adds, "should disre gard these regulations, we shall not imitate them; the glory of Colombia shall not be stained with blood dishonourably shed."

On the 6th of May, the general congress convened at Rosario de Cucuta, and Bolivar made to them a formal resignation of his office of president, considering it as incompatible with the chief military command; but yielding to the earnest persuasions of that body, consented, for a time, to continue to exercise the chief power of both departments in his single person.

Hostilities resumed, the patriots, under Urdaneta, seized upon Coro. Another division, under Bermudez, gained temporary possession of Caraccas itself, but were compelled to retire by Morales. In the month of June, that general, with La Torre, had concentrated an army of six thousand men on the plains of Carobobo. The army of liberation, nearly the same in number, under Bolivar and the brave Paez, on the 24th of June, passing through a defile in the mountains, engaged them. Such was the impetuosity of their charge, that the royalist forces, with the exception of a few, who took refuge in Porto Cabello, were completely defeated and dispersed. The loss of the patriots, in killed and wounded, was about four hundred. Having ordered Porto Cabello to be besieged, and taken other measures against the discomfited enemy, Bolivar marched toward Caraccas, which city, abandoned by the royalists on the 29th of June, he entered amid the exulting transports of a vast multitude of the people.

On the 23d of September, Carthagena surrendered to the squadron under Brion, Cumana was presently occupied by Bermudez, and nothing remained to the Spaniards but Porto Cabello, Quito and the isthmus of Panama. The latter, in December, declared itself independent of the Spanish government, and signified its desire to be enrolled in the republican confederacy. Bolivar was now at liberty to direct his main strength against the royalists of the south, and, accordingly, in the spring of 1822, with an army of seven thousand men, he gave battle to the enemy, who had concentrated their forces at Pichincha. The result was a complete and overwhelming victory, due, in great measure, to the exertions of the brave young General Sucre; and the liberating army, amid the universal acclama tions of the enfranchised citizens, entered Quito in triumph.

On the coast, the republicans were greatly annoyed for a time by Morales, who, by his vessels, carried on a species of piratical warfare, but whose fleet, commanded by Laborde, on the 23d of July, 1823, was utterly defeated and destroyed by the Colombian squadron, under General Padilla. The Spaniards lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners, nearly two thousand men, and Morales, in consequence, VOL. III.-22

was compelled to surrender at Maracaibo. Despite the atrocities which he had committed, and the forfeiture of his rights as a prisoner of war, he was treated humanely, and, with his men, was permitted to embark for Cuba. Porto Cabello, the Spanish fleet destroyed, was closely invested both by land and sea; and on the 1st of December, 1823, La Torre, who commanded it, was compelled to capitulate.

With this event ended a civil war, lasting for twelve years, contested in a hundred battles, and distinguished for almost innumerable scenes of courage, of cruelty, of indomitable patriotism and obstinate tyranny. Though the arms of the patriots were disgraced by many excesses, it must be remembered that they were the last to adopt and the first to relinquish that savage system of internecine vengeance which converts warfare into murder, and reduces man to the wild elements of his barbarous nature. These excesses on the part of the republicans, may be palliated, in some degree, by the insidious, but not altogether inadmissable plea of necessity, while the wonderful qualities of bravery, endurance, and perseverance displayed in their protracted struggle, must always secure the respect and admiration of the historical reader.

In August of 1821, the congress had adopted a constitution, and Bolivar had been elected president under its provisions. The nation first to recognize the independence of the new republic of Colombia was, of right, that which had first set the example of resistance to foreign domination-the United States of America. The European powers, though in general tacitly admitting the actual existence of the new state, were more tardy in making formal acknowledgment of its independence.

The transactions of Bolivar in Peru, after the liberation of his own people, have already, in the history of that country, been briefly described. Having traced the Colombian revolution from its commencement to its final success, to the expulsion of the Spaniards, and the establishment of a republican government, we leave it-the subsequent domestic troubles of the new republic, and its separation into the independent states of Equador, New Granada, and Venezuela, not coming properly within the limits of our subject. Of late years, indeed, in the South American states, revolutions and pronunciamentos have succeeded each other with such startling rapidity as almost to baffle the compiler of news, and to warrant their pres ent exclusion from the province of history.