1827] [ 305 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN, 



The Present State of Columbia, by an 

 Officer, late in the Columbian Service ; 

 1827. The writer professes, we see, to 

 have been an officer in the Columbian ser- 

 vice ; and be is evidently well acquainted 

 wot only with the military concerns of Co- 

 lumbia, but with its political, and financial, 

 nod statistical condition generally. He with- 

 holds his name, and he may have his rea- 

 sons lor doing so ; but we like names and 

 stations, on all matters of fact. They are 

 something like pledges for integrity. If a 

 man have not the fear of the public censure 

 before his eyes, he must have that of his 

 friends and acquaintance. 



The object of the publication is professedly 

 to sketch the history of the independence 

 of Columbia, and exhibit the existing con- 

 dition of the country. That object is pretty 

 fairly accomplished, though little can be 

 said for the literary execution of the attempt. 

 It is a prosing, though not indistinct kind of 

 statement. The writer has no notion of 

 rejecting superfluities. He begins *ab ovo,' 

 and before, with every thing. He un- 

 dertakes to epitomize the war of indepen- 

 dence, and thinks it necessary first to dis- 

 tinguish all the possible classes of colonies; 

 and how the matter stood with the ancients, 

 and how it has been with the moderns. All 

 nothing to the purpose. As little almost is 

 it to dwell upon the causes which led to the 

 first attempts at independence. The desire 

 of independence is inseparable from colonies, 

 and they wait for nothing to gratify that 

 desire but the growth of their strength. 

 Whether the mother-country oppresses, or 

 not, the filial affection of the colony vanishes 

 at the first fledging of its pinions ; but in 

 all modern cases, and as far as we know, 

 in all ancient cases, the mother was always 

 for controlling the daughter, and exceed- 

 ingly slow in admitting any approaches to 

 equality of privilege, and always resolute in 

 resisting attempts at independence. This 

 was the fact with the Spanish, colonies 

 with those which MOW constitute Columbia 

 particularly. During the revolt of our own 

 colonies, several attempts at little revolu- 

 tionary movements were made at Caraccas ; 

 but it was reserved for Miranda, a native of 

 Carraccas, to rouse up his countrymen to 

 effectual resistance. Very early in life did 

 he-enter, heart and soul, into these views. 

 His plans were approved and occasionally 

 encouraged, but never effectively assisted by 

 our own government, during the war with 

 Spain, in the French Revolution ; but when 

 Buonaparte invaded Spain, and we resolved 

 on repelling him, and defending the Bourbons 

 of .Spain, we ceased to hold communion 

 with the malecontents of her restless colonies. 

 But that same invasion of Bonaparte for a 

 time absorbed the full attention of Spain, 

 and interrupted the usual intercourse with 

 the colonies.. Juntas were in consequence 

 M.M. New Series. VoL.Ul. No. 15. 



. formed to administer the several govern- 

 ments this was in 1808 and of course 

 greatly facilitated the views of the inde- 

 pendents. The Cortes disapproved of these 

 juntas ; and by their haughty and ill-timed 

 disapproval, and worse-timed severity, com- 

 pletely alienated the colonies. 



Miranda skilfully availed himself of the 

 state of exasperation excited by the Cortes, 

 and a plan of defence was quickly organized 

 to resist the aggressions of the Cortes. In 

 1811, a regular government was formed by 

 his partizans on the "federative system;" 

 and on the 5th of July of that year, the con- 

 federate provinces proclaimed their independ- 

 ence at Caraccas. In the following year 

 the hopes of the independents were suddenly 

 damped by the terrible destruction of Ca- 

 raccas an event, which spread ruin and 

 dismay through the country. Twelve thou- 

 sand persons were buried under the ruins of 

 the city, and among them one of Miranda's 

 finest corps, consisting of eight hundred. 

 Disaster after disaster followed ; till Porto 

 Cabello, then under the command of Bolivar, 

 was lost, and Miranda himself was forced to 

 capitulate at Laguira. The terms of this 

 capitulation were violated ; Miranda was 

 arrested, conveyed to Cadiz, and there pe- 

 rished in prison. 



The royalists had now military possession 

 of the whole country ; but not long were 

 they suffered to keep it undisturbed. Marino, 

 Bolivar, Paez, and others were quickly in 

 the field again. An active campaign en- 

 sued, in which the patriot troops were gene- 

 rally, at least in the commencement, victo- 

 rious. Eolivar in triumph re-entered Ca- 

 raccas, and on the 2nd Jan. 1814, the new- 

 government was instituted a military one 

 and Bottvar was placed at the head of it. 

 These advantages, however, the patriots 

 were not long able to maintain ; Bolivar 

 sustained two signal defeats at La Puerta, 

 and Driguita, and eventually was obliged to 

 abandon Caraccas, and embark for Cartha- 

 gena. The patriots were every where dis- 

 persed. 



At this season of depression, in the begin- 

 ning of 181,5, arrived Morillo. Ferdinand 

 hadjust been restored. The resolution was 

 immediately taken in the councils of Spain 

 to reduce the colonies, and Morillo was dis- 

 patched with reinforcements to complete the 

 reduction. Quickly he got possession of 

 Carthagena, and Bolivar then fled to Ja- 

 maica. Nothing now was left but New Gre- 

 nada ; and that country Morillo speedily 

 over- ran. 



Bolivar, however, in the meanwhile, was 

 not idle. Quitting Jamaica, he procured 

 some assistance from Boyer, president of the 

 republic at Port-au-Prince, and made. more 

 than one vigorous, but fruitless attempt to 

 get a footing in the country, and stir up his 

 countrymen to another effort. At lait, in 



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