780 



VENEZUELA. 



wounded, but at Jajo a force of 1,000 men under 

 Aranjo and Baptista was almost destroyed. After 

 their victory the Congressional ists attempted to 

 join Gen. Monzano on the other side of the 

 mountains, but Gen. Ybarra had provided for the 

 effectual defense of the passes. The Legalists 

 won an important victory at Tichua, and marched 

 upon Barquisimeto with 4,000 men. In Zamora 

 the rebel forces were beaten by the energy and gen- 

 eralship of Eleazar Urdaneta, and a Presidential 

 Commissioner was placed at the head of the 

 State administration in the room of the Governor, 

 who had declared for the revolution. Gen. Co- 

 lina landed on May 15, captured the towns of La 

 Yela and Coro, and advanced into the State of 

 Falcon. Gen. Mora took the seaport of Tucacas 

 and two Government steamboats, after a desper- 

 ate resistance in which 150 men and Gen. Garcia 

 were killed. When Crespo began his advance 

 again toward Caracas the tide had turned in his 

 favor. Many of the underfed and unpaid soldiery 

 of the Government were ready to desert to his 

 standard. Palacio was persuaded by his Cabinet 

 to open negotiations with Crespo for a surrender. 

 He offered to tuni over the Government to the 

 leader of the revolution if the latter would accept 

 the centralized Constitution, call Congress, and 

 vacate the dictatorship as soon as a constitutional 

 President should be elected, and meanwhile make 

 Dr. Casafias his Minister of War and appoint Pa- 

 lacio Minister to a European court. Crespo replied 

 that he would accept nothing short of uncon- 

 ditional surrender. After this divisions broke 

 out in the Government. Palacio's advisers urged 

 him to resign, and several of them were scheming 

 to take the place of the chieftain whose fall was 

 seen to be near. Mattos insisted on resigning 

 the Ministry of Finance, and Casaflas resigned 

 his command. 



On May 23 Gen. Urdaneta landed with a large 

 force at La Vela, in order to re-establish the au- 

 thority of the Government in the States of Falcon 

 and Zulia. With 2,000 well-equipped men he was 

 able to re-occupy the principal places in the Para- 

 guara peninsula. While thus in the west the rebels 

 were held in check, but not defeated, for Gen. 

 Bustillos raised a new congressional army in Los 

 Andes, and new guerrilla forces sprang up in Zulia 

 to aid Colina, some of them led by priests ; in the 

 east and center Palacio's cause was waning. Gen. 

 Gonzalez Gil defeated a Government force at Cai- 

 cara, on the Orinoco, capturing the commander, 

 Gen. Espinosa, with his staff and 200 men. The 

 city of Bolivar, the last place held by Palacio's 

 army on the Orinoco river, at length fell into the 

 hands of the rebels. One of the remarkable fea- 

 tures of the war was the use by the insurgents of 

 dynamite, with which they were supplied by the 

 men working on the railroad, that a German 

 company was building. The pickets of the Cres- 

 pist cavalry were supplied with dynamite petards. 

 Col. Granjo?, who had been an engineer on the 

 railroad, laid a mine in the Andes at a spot 

 which a treacherous guide induced Col. Villafane 

 to make his camping-ground, and the entire 

 force was destroyed by the explosive, and by the 

 machetes of the llaneros who fell upon the sur- 

 vivors. In some of the engagements near Valen- 

 cia, roads and passes were undermined. In the 

 middle of May, with Gen. Diaz Arana and Gen. 

 Matute at Pao, Gen. Manzano intrenched in the 



valley of the Turen, Gen. Julio Montenegro en- 

 camped at Tinaquilla. and Gen. Mora between 

 Nirgua and Barquisimeto, Gen. Colina occupied 

 Salona Alta, and co-operated with Crespo, who 

 was joined by Monzano, and in a series of en- 

 gagements defeated Palanco and Guede on the 

 Chirgua, drove back the army of Rangel and 

 Monagas, who were intrenched at Calabozo, and 

 in an engagement at Cayman, south of Ortiz, 

 defeated them again. Gen. Pacheco commanded 

 the Government forces, which lost nearly 1,000 

 men, killed, wounded, and deserters. Gen. Guerra 

 cut off Rangel's retreat, and compelled him to 

 turn toward Valencia. Between Guigue and Va- 

 lencia, fierce battles were fought on June 1 and 

 2, in which the Congressionalists were victorious, 

 the Government troops retiring into the city, 

 which was closely invested. Gen. Colina, after 

 winning three victories in the Coro district, was 

 advancing on Puerto Cabcllo, and Gen. Ybarra 

 had gone to that place with a majority of his 

 command. In a spirited battle fought at Meron, 

 west of the port, 500 men fell on both sides, and 

 Palacio's generals were compelled to retire to 

 Palite. Before the rapid advance of the Cres- 

 pists a body of 2,000 troops had been sent into 

 the Orinoco'country to recapture Ciudad Bolivar, 

 and this Palacio's troops succeeded in doing, 

 while their brothers were being worsted on the 

 plains, before Valencia and Caracas. The rebels 

 were not able to hold the town because their 

 ammunition had given out. They returned a 

 few weeks later, and defeated the national troops 

 in a stubbornly contested fight at Guacipati, on 

 June 15. On June 13 serious riots occurred in 

 Caracas. The friends of Crespo, who attempted 

 to liberate the political prisoners, were fired upon 

 by the soldiers, and a large number, some of 

 whom were young students, were shot down. 

 Gen. Ybarra, returning from Puerto Cabello to 

 succor Valencia, attempted to make a stand 

 against Crespo, and was beaten, retreating with 

 2,000 men toward Caracas. Gen. Castro, who 

 had marched up from Los Andes to relieve 

 Ybarra, had previously been utterly defeated, 

 and had surrendered with 1,200 men. Gen. 

 Rangel, with the remnant of his army, was in 

 Valencia, but he refused to make any resistance. 

 Gen. Crespo entered Valencia on June 10, and, 

 after dismantling the works, marched upon Ca- 

 racas, by way of Cura and San Sebastian, while 

 Gen. Guerra advanced simultaneously through 

 Aragua. Both commands encamped within 5 

 miles of the city. Crespo intrenched his army of 

 10,000 men at El Valle, and began the siege on 

 June 12. After each defeat of Palacio's generals, 

 prominent men deserted him and went over to 

 the enemy. Town after town roso against the 

 dictator, and the recruits whom he had pressed 

 into the service deserted whenever an opportu- 

 nity occurred. Even those bodies that had fought 

 loyally and bravely refused to strike another blow 

 for him. Crespo had it in his power to capture 

 the city at any moment. He refrained at the 

 request of the merchants of Caracas, and because 

 he could not trust some of the semi-civilized peo- 

 ple who fought under his banner to respect the 

 property of the citizens or the soldiers of the 

 Government to refrain from reprisals, perhaps 

 against his own family, the members of which 

 had been kept in the city by Palacio, virtually as 



