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Bolivar started his campaign from San Cristobal on the 15th of May, 1813,
with 800 men. The royalists had 15,000 and sufficient resources to equip
6,000 additional men. The work of the young warrior seemed a dream; perhaps
no wise general would have undertaken that campaign, but Bolivar was above
common wisdom; he had the power of making the most beautiful dreams come
true. Among the men who accompanied him were many who have received the
greatest honors history can confer. Two of them may be noted here, for we
shall have occasion to mention them again very soon; they are Atanasio
Girardot and Antonio Ricaurte.
Upon his approach to Merida, the royalists, numbering 1,000, left the city,
and Bolivar took it on the 30th of May without any opposition. He was
received with enthusiasm as the liberator of Venezuela. The general began
at once to attend to the organization of the emancipated territory, and
to increase the strength of his army. He sent some men to attack the
retreating Spaniards, and Girardot to occupy the province of Trujillo. The
royalists escaped to Maracaibo and, on the 14th of June, Bolivar was in
Trujillo, reorganizing the province. From there he sent Girardot to pursue
the royalists.
On the next day Bolivar took an action which has been the subject of many
debates, and which some writers consider is the one stain in the career of
the great man of the South. We must devote a few lines to frank discussion
of this subject, not neglecting to declare immediately that in our minds
there has never been the slightest doubt that Bolivar was right in his
conduct, and that a different action would have been the height of folly.
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