Bolivar perhaps recalled
his promise made to Nueva Granada before leaving Angostura, or perhaps he
obeyed a long prepared plan. The fact is that he decided to do nothing less
than cross the flooded plains, go to the viceroyalty, free that country
from the Spanish domination and return to emancipate Venezuela. The man who
could not consider himself even the equal of Morillo again dreamed of the
impossible, and decided to convert it into fact.
He convoked his officers, communicated to them his plan of leaving some men
to distract Morillo's attention while he, himself, should go quickly to
Nueva Granada and give it freedom, and on May 25, 1819, he started to carry
out his project, one perhaps more difficult than those of Hannibal and
Napoleon.
He left Paez to hold the attention of the royalists, and, besides that
depletion, had to suffer the loss of many of his plainsmen who refused to
accompany him across the Andes. But Colonel Rook, the head of the British
Legion, assured Bolivar that he would follow him "beyond Cape Horn, if
necessary." After spending a month painfully wading through the flooded
plains, he ascended the Andes and crossed them, in spite of inexpressible
suffering. The men had lost most of their clothing in the marshes below;
very few soldiers had even a pair of trousers in good condition. Leaving
the torrid climate of the plains, these men had to climb up the Andes
almost naked, on foot,--because they could not use their horses,--and
to suffer the freezing cold of the summits.
Pages:
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122