1830.] Republican Perfidy. 515 



well knew the patriot leader to be arrogant in his deportment, ambitious 

 in his disposition, despotic in his principles, and a very tyro in military 

 attainments. Whilst I expose his defects let me not be wilfully blind 

 to his merits. Justice demands the confession that he possesses, in an 

 eminent degree, a knowledge of human nature, and the best means of 

 making it subservient to his purposes, combined with an unwearied 

 perseverance. Neither is he by any means deficient in personal courage ; 

 on the reverse, he has in several instances rendered himself amenable 

 to the accusation of rashness. Enjoying the advantages of a liberal 

 education, he speaks French with the fluency of a native ; in English, 

 he is likewise a tolerable proficient, but whether from diffidence, dislike, 

 or some political motive, after the arrival of the British, who had 

 volunteered to aid the republican cause, he could never be induced to 

 converse in that language, and on some occasions, even pleaded 

 ignorance of it, though 1 have reason to know, that he could both 

 understand and speak it with facility. Simon Bolivar, when it suits his 

 convenience, can evince the urbanity of a gentleman ; so can he, also, the 

 sternness of a despot. The following anecdote which I have heard 

 related, may in some degree serve to illustrate his character. At the 

 time of the terrible earthquake, which laid Caraccas (his native city) in 

 ruins, the patriot troops, under his command, were in possession of that 

 capital and the whole province. The priests in the Spanish interest 

 took advantage of this dreadful calamity, to announce from the pulpit 

 that the Almighty had sent the awful visitation as a mark of his divine 

 wrath, and to punish the inhabitants for having swerved from the 

 allegiance which they owed their legitimate sovereign, thundering their 

 anathemas with true Catholic orthodoxy against the rebel chiefs (as they 

 termed them), and calling upon the people to propitiate the angry deity, 

 by an immediate return to their duty, and by a sacrifice of the leaders 

 who had seduced them. The effect which this exordium had upon the 

 minds of an illiterate and bigoted populace may be easily imagined. A 

 counter revolution was effected, the fortress of La Guayra was yielded to 

 the Spanish party, and Bolivar with his small garrison expelled from the 

 city. The priesthood had accomplished its object, but its triumph was 

 not doomed to be of long duration, and the hydra was strangled ere it 

 had time to concentrate its strength. The republican general, who had 

 collected reinforcements from the other provinces, returned three months 

 afterwards, made a reconquest of the forts, and again took up his resi- 

 dence amid the ruins of the town. The reverendissimo padres who had 

 excited the revolt, were all seized, and with scarcely time to say a 

 Pater-noster, or an Ave Maria, were gibbeted on the heights overlooking 

 La Guayra, which Bolivar facetiously called " cleansing the church from 

 the rubbish which the earthquake had deposited." 



To revive the hopes of the republican army, which had been greatly 

 depressed by the defeat it had sustained at Calaboza, news arrived that 

 the first English expedition (which had been raised under the delusive 

 promises of the Venezuelan agent, Luis Lopez Mendez, at London) was 

 on its way to the Orinoco. Report exaggerated its numbers, which had 

 this advantage, that whilst it elevated the drooping spirits of the patriot 

 troops, it had quite an opposite effect upon those of Spain ; the move- 

 ments of the Spanish commander were paralyzed ; he neglected to pro- 

 fit by the victory he had gained, and thus allowed time to his opponents 



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