La Guayra and Caracas, to be arrested and shot, in February, 1814. This was retaliated by the royalists, who massacred their prisoners in Puerto Cabello. The patriots, however, did not repeat these dreadful reprisals, and Bolivar, in July, 1816, formally proclaimed, "no Spaniards shall be put to death except in battle; the war of death shall cease."

Success continued to fluctuate between the patriots and royalists. On the 14th of June, 1814, a battle was fought at La Puerta, in which Bolivar was defeated, with the loss of fifteen hundred men. Another action occurred on the 17th of August, at San Marco, the estate of Bolivar. Here the Liberator's army was surprised by the "infernal division" of Boves, a legion of negro cavalry, with black crape on their lances, who rushed with hideous shouts from an ambush, and scattered Bolivar's whole force by the suddenness and impetuosity of their assault; the general escaped only by the fleetness of his horse. Bolivar's family mansion was burnt to the ground, and he was ultimately compelled, in September, to leave the royalists in possession of all Venezuela, when thousands of the patriots deserted to their ranks. He repaired to New Grenada, where the government employed him in their army to subjugate the revolted province of Cundinamarca. Bolivar captured the city of Bogota, which afterwards became the capital of Colombia. He returned to Venezuela in 1816, but was again defeated. Notwithstanding, he persevered in his exertions, and in December of the same year, he convened a general congress. In March, 1817, he was enabled to give the royalists a severe check.

Numerous transactions took place between the patriot and royalist forces during this and the following year, but our limits will not admit of a detailed account of them; victory remained nearly balanced between the two parties, but the cause of independence was gaining strength. In 1819, the congress of Venezuela assembled at Angostura, and Bolivar surrendered all his authority into their hands. The congress required him to resume the supreme power, and exercise it until the independence of the country should be fully established. Bolivar re-organized his forces, and set out on his march across the Cordilleras, to effect a junction with General Santander, who commanded the republican army in New Grenada, that their united arms might act with greater efficiency. In July, 1819, he reached Tunja, where he defeated the royalist troops and captured the city. On the 7th of August, the Spanish army, under the viceroy, Samano, advanced to meet him at Bojaca, where a severe battle was fought, which resulted in the complete triumph of the patriots. The viceroy

BATTLE OF CAROBOBO.

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fled from the field of battle, and the whole province of New Grenada was conquered by this victory. Bolivar entered the capital in triumph, and was appointed president and captaingeneral of the republic.

Having amply recruited his army, he returned to Venezuela, where, on the 17th of December, 1819, a union between the two republics was decreed by the congress through his influence. He then took the field, at the head of the strongest army that had yet been collected by the patriots. The Spaniards, after many defeats, agreed to an armistice of six months, in November, 1820. Morillo, their general, returned to Spain, leaving his army under the command of La Torre. At the termination of the armistice the two armies resumed active operations; and, on the 23d of June, was fought the decisive battle of Carobobo; the Spaniards, under La Torre, were entirely defeated, and their broken and scattered forces saved themselves by fleeing to Puerto Cabello. This victory was the finishing stroke to the war in Venezuela; by the end of the year, the Spaniards were driven from every part of Venezuela and New Granada, except Puerto Cabello and Quito.

The two provinces were now united into one state, called the Republic of Colombia. The installation of the first general congress took place on the 6th of May, 1821, at Rosario de Cucută. A constitution was adopted on the 30th of August. Bolivar was appointed president, and Santander vice-president. Puerto Cabello surrendered in December, 1823, and all the Spanish forces had been expelled from the southern part of the republic before this period; so that, at the beginning of 1824, the republic of Colombia was totally freed from foreign enemies.

But at the moment when affairs seemed most prosperous, the republic began to be disturbed with civil discords. General Paez a mulatto, and one of the most distinguished officers of the revolution, had received the command of the department of Venezuela. In the execution of a law for enrolling the militia of Caracas, he gave so much offence to the inhabitants by his arbitrary conduct, that they obtained an impeachment against him before the senate. Being notified of this in April, 1826, and summoned to appear and take his trial, he refused to obey, but placed himself at the head of his troops, and called around him all the disaffected persons in Venezuela, who formed a very strong party. These persons objected to the central government; some of them wishing for a federal system like that of the United States, and others desiring a total separation from New Granada. Various disorders broke out in other parts of the republic, and a great portion of the

country refused obedience to the Colombian constitution. An attempt was made to accommodate matters by a convention at Ocana, for amending the constitution, in March, 1828, but the violence of parties and the disturbed state of the country prevented the convention from doing anything, and they soon separated.

Affairs now came to a crisis; the country was threatened with anarchy, and Bolivar took a bold and decisive step, by dissolving the Colombian congress, on the 27th of August, 1828, and assuming absolute authority. This act was preceded by addresses from various municipal bodies, calling upon Bolivar to put an end to the public disorders, by assuming the supreme command. Whether these addresses were procured by his intrigues, in order to give a plausible color to his usurpation, we have no means of knowing. He organized a new government to suit his own views, and soon began to feel the consequences of the bold step he had taken, in the conspiracies that were plotted against him. On the 15th of September, 1828, an attempt was made to assassinate him. His aid-de-camp was killed, but Bolivar's life was saved by the courage of his officers. Generals Padilla and Santander were charged with this plot, and condemned to death by a special tribunal. Padilla was executed, but the punishment of Santander was commuted for banishment. Various others suffered death. The country was more and more agitated by violent factions; many military leaders aspired to the supreme command, and the efforts of Bolivar to prevent dissension excited insurrections. Bolivar was denounced as a usurper and a tyrant. Venezuela claimed her independence; and Bolivar, finding it impossible to unite the factions and create a spirit of harmony under his rule, resigned all his authority to the congress at Bogota, in 1830. He retired to Carthagena, dispirited and broken down by the calamities of his country. Bolivar's retirement from public life removed every obstacle to the division of the republic of Colombia. In 1831, it was formed into three independent states, VENEZUELA, NEW GRENADA and ECUADOR, which have continued to the present day.

On the 17th of December, 1831, Bolivar died at San Pedro, near Carthagena, at the age of forty-eight. He was by far the most celebrated of all the South American revolutionary leaders; and during many years was considered the "Washington of the south." Yet, notwithstanding his brilliant successes, he outlived both his power and his reputation. At the period of his death he had lost all influence over his countrymen, and he died tainted with the suspicion of having engaged in an intrigue for introducing foreign aid to restore monarchy in Colombia. As a warrior,

he deserved all his fame; but as a legislator, he has been, perhaps, over-rated. Few of his political institutions were permanent; though this was partly owing to the semi-barbarous and intractable temper of the people with whom he had to deal. His merits as a military leader are much enhanced by the character of the troops whom he led to victory. His armies often consisted chiefly of destitute adventurers, eager only for pay and plunder; ragged Creoles, Indians, naked negroes, and cavalry of half savage Llaneros and mountaineers riding wild horses. The desertion of whole regiments, first to one side and then to the other, according to the momentary chance of success, sufficiently shows their degraded moral condition. The generals with whom his command was divided, were principally of the most uncivilized description. Arismendi could neither write nor read; Paez was a brutal mulatto bull-hunter, just out of the deserts; and General Bermudez always took the field in a dirty blanket, with a hole in the middle for his head; yet envy, jealousy, and fierce, reckless ambition were common to them all. The character and habits of such a people greatly increase our opinion of the talents of the individual who conducts them from an abject state of oppression to independence and social improvement. The republic of Colombia is no more, yet as long as it continues to be remembered, it will owe that circumstance to the name of Bolivar.

The republic of BOLIVIA was formed out of the provinces of Upper Peru, which under the Spanish dominion were governed as a dependency of Buenos Ayres. These provinces were wrested from the Spaniards by the victory of Ayacucho, in December, 1828. General Sucre, who, at the head of the Colombian forces, gained this victory, soon cleared the country of the royalist forces, and no obstacle existed to the formation of an independent government. A congress assembled at Chuquisaca, in August, 1825, and lodged the supreme authority provisionally in the hands of Sucre, while, as a testimonial of their gratitude to Bolivar, they requested him to frame a constitution for them. Bolivar accordingly drew up a plan of government, founded on a representative basis, but of a very complicated and inconvenient character. The chief magistrate is a president who appoints his own successor, nominates to all offices, exercises the whole patronage of the government, and is irresponsible for his actions. This constitution was adopted by the congress, and went into operation in December, 1826.

CHAPTER XXVI.

REPUBLIC OF MEXICO.-Origin of the revolution.-Deposition of the viceroy.— Insurrection of Hulalgo.—Capture of Guanaxuato and Valladolid.—Hidalgo proclaimed generalissimo.—He advances to Mexico.-His unaccountable retreat.— He is attacked by the royalists and defeated.—Capture and death of Hidalgo.— Progress of the revolution.-Proceedings of Morelos and Calleja.-The national assembly.-Declaration of Mexican independence.-Disasters of the revolutionists. — Capture and execution of Morelos.-Discords among the revolutionary leaders. -Arrival of General Mina.—His march into the country.—His capture and execution.-Successes of the Spaniards.-The revolution suppressed.—Affairs of Spain.-Revival of troubles in Mexico.— The viceroy Apodaca.—State of parties. -Renewal of the insurrection.—Rise of Iturbide.—He marches against the independents. His dissimulation and intrigues.-Plan of Iguala.-Embarrassment of the viceroy.-He is deposed.—Iturbide establishes his authority.—Arrival of O'Donoju in Mexico.-Treaty of Cordova.—Iturbide in supreme power.-He summons a cortes.-State of parties.—Intrigues of Iturbide.—He is proclaimed emperor. He dissolves the cortes.-His embarrassments.—Insurrection against him.-Defection of Santa Ana and Guadalupe Victoria.—Abdication of Iturbide. -He is banished to Italy.-His return to Mexico and death.-Distracted state of the country.-Santa Ana becomes the head of the government. REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.-Dissatisfaction of the Texans with the Mexican government.— State convention.-Commencement of hostilities.-Capture of Goliad and San Antonio de Bexar.-The Mexicans expelled from Texas.-Invasion of Texas by Santa Ana.-Attack of San Antonio.-Obstinate defence of the garrison.— Declaration of Independence.-Capture of Goliad by the Mexicans.-Massacre of Colonel Fanning's company.-Alarm of the inhabitants.—Battle of San Jacinto and defeat of the Mexicans.-Capture of Santa Ana.—Establishment of the independence of Texas. REPUBLIC OF CENTRAL AMERICA.-Connexions of Guatimala with Mexico.-Civil war.-Constitution established.—Anarchy and wretched condition of the country.-Government of Carrera.

THE movements toward a revolution in Mexico began with the French invasion of Spain in 1808. The Mexicans were unanimous in their dislike of the French; and the viceroy, whatever his private inclinations might have been, received such contradictory orders from the king of Spain, from Murat, who then commanded at Madrid, and from the council of the Indies, that he proposed calling a junta, composed of representatives from each province, as the only means of preserving the country from the horrors of anarchy. The European Spaniards in the capital viewed this scheme with jealousy, as calculated to place the creoles on an equal footing with themselves. They entered into a conspiracy against the viceroy, took him prisoner in his palace,