356 SPANISH AMERICA. 



only fifty were Europeans, or Canarians, 

 and a few men of colour ; the rest were 

 all slaves. Boves took possession of La 

 Vittoria, and Rosette of Ocumare ; the first 

 town fourteen leagues, and the second only 

 ten, from Caraccas ; whilst Yanez and Puy, 

 in the beginning of February 1814, advanc- 

 ed from Barinas to join them. At Ocumare 

 many of the inhabitants were massacred, 

 three of whom were even murdered in the 

 church. Bolivar, indignant at these atro- 

 cities, and beset with the most serious diffi- 

 culties, gave orders for putting to death 

 the royalist prisoners at Caraccas and La 

 Guayra, amounting to nearly fourteen hun- 

 dred, of whom eight hundred were actually 

 killed. The consequence of this was a 

 dreadful retaliation on the part of the roy- 

 alists, by whom all the patriot prisoners 

 at Puerto Cabello, amounting to several 

 hundreds, were massacred. 



