352 SPANISH AMERICA. 



to whom it could be so properly confided 

 as Bolivar, the Governor of Caraccas, Don 



C. Hurtado de Mendoza, one of the firmest 

 supporters of the cause of independence, 

 proposed, that the supreme command of 

 Venezuela should be left in the hands of 

 that general, until the Spaniards, who were 

 acting against the province, should be com- 

 pletely subdued. This proposition, which 

 was supported by Don T. A. Rodriguez, the 

 president of the municipality, and by Don 



D. Alzuru, was at once agreed to ; and the 

 Libertador de Venezuela, as Bolivar was then 

 styled, was invested with dictatorial power, 

 till a union should take place between the 

 provinces of Venezuela, and those of New 

 Grenada, under the same representative 

 constitution. 



The Spaniards, disappointed and defeated 

 in their attempts to subjugate Venezuela, 

 after exhausting all the resources of cruelty. 



