BOLIVAR. 501 



and captured some vessels laden with ten 

 thousand musquets, artillery, and stores, took 

 Guiria by surprise on the 24th of July. 



A division of Paez's army, under the com- 

 mand of Colonel Pena, having defeated a 

 body of royalists near Coro, Morillo found 

 it necessary to remove his head-quarters 

 from Valencia to San Carlos. Paez obtain- 

 ed possession of the whole province of Va- 

 rinas, and all the lower plains of Caraccas ; 

 Calzada, the royalist general, retiring to 

 Guanare with one thousand three hundred 

 men. 



Bolivar, who had returned to Angostura, 

 set out again in October to join the army, 

 having appointed a council of government 

 to act during his absence, and issued writs 

 for assembling a Congress. Narino, how- 

 ever, having been defeated at Cumana, Bo- 

 livar again returned to Angostura on the 

 20th of November, having been obliged by 

 that event to change his plans. He again 



