Bolivar: American Liberator (87 page)

“A lightning bolt doesn’t fall”:
Santander, “El General Simón Bolívar en la campaña.”

He rode, ragged and shirtless, etc.:
For details about Bolívar’s ride into Bogotá, see notes for Chapter 1, where the ride is described in full.

“The rebellious Bolívar has occupied”:
Morillo to Ministerio de Guerra, Valencia, Sept. 12, 1819, quoted in Rodríguez Villa, 49–55.

Epigraph:
“A weak man requires a long fight in order to win,” etc.:
Bolívar to the editor of the
Royal Gazette
, Kingston, Sept. 28, 1815, SBO, I, 179.

Bolívar dismounted swiftly, etc.:
J. P. Carrasquilla, quoted in Blanco-Fombona,
Ensayos históricos
, 303 fn.

It was five
P.M.
:
O’LN, 578.

a stifling day in the capital:
Groot, IV, 29.

greeted Granadans as he went:
Carrasquilla, in Blanco-Fombona,
Ensayos históricos
, 303 fn. for subsequent details.

despite the eight-hour ride:
O’LN, 578.

“Absolutely not,” etc.:
Carrasquilla, in Blanco-Fombona,
Esayos históricos
, 303 fn.

“Where Bolívar is”:
O’Leary,
Detached Recollections
, 38.

it was clear that Viceroy Sámano’s:
SB to Zea, Bogotá, Aug. 14, 1819, SBO, I, 394–96.

fled in such a fright:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, II, 350.

left a bag of gold:
O’L, XVI, 431 (
Boletín del Ejército Libertador
, Aug. 11, 1819).

a half million pesos:
O’LB, 164.

dining with his courtiers, etc.:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 596.

“All is lost!”:
Mariano Torrente, quoted ibid., 596–97.

“The bravura of the viceroy”:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 596–97.

he gave a fancy ball:
Hamilton, 232.

“My good and brave colonel”:
Ibid.

lost all his shirts in battle:
Hippisley, 443.

“Well, why don’t you go?”:
Hamilton, 232.

many of his cohort had died:
Manuel B. Alvarez, the uncle of Nariño, and, for a time, his successor in Cundinamarca, was also drawn and quartered on that square.

As one historian put it:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 384.

“A weak man requires a long fight,” etc.:
SB to the editor of
Royal Gazette.

an ebony-haired Venus, etc.:
Charles Stuart Lord Cochrane, quoted in Mario Javier Pacheco García,
El fin del imperio latinoamericano
(Bogotá: Gobernación de Norte de Santander, 2008), 238.

one of the great infatuations:
Bushnell,
Simón Bolívar
, 110.

“No doubt this marriage”:
SB to Santander, Pamplona, Nov. 8, 1819, SBO, I, 401–2.

the source of much gossip:
Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 130.

“I hope you will look after”:
SB to Zea, Bogotá, Aug. 13, 1819, SB,
Escritos
, XVI, 213.

Within the course of a few weeks, etc.:
SB, Oficio, Sept. 14, 1819, ibid., 267; Decreto, Sept. 15, 1819, ibid., 270; Resoluciones, Sept. 15–16, 1819, ibid., 274. Also Lecuna,
Crónica
, II, 352–55.

instituted a fund for war widows:
This was with his own salary, DOC, XIV, 514.

an exchange of prisoners:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, II, 354.

“the Adonis of Bogotá”:
J. M. Henao,
Historia de Colombia
(Bogotá: Bernardus, 1910), 358 fn.

sheer torment for him:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 392.

a man of the law:
SB to Santander, Lima, Feb. 9, 1825, SBO, II, 1044–46.

in love with money:
Santander’s will,
Boletín de la Historia y Antiguedades
, IV, 1907, 161.

always been a mediocre soldier:
Rafael Urdaneta,
Memorias
, 103.

But on October 11, etc.:
O’LB, 166, for all subsequent details of this event.

engaged to be married, etc.:
Slatta and Lucas de Grummond, 196.

Republican authorities tried to dissociate:
O’LB, 166.

“In the end, I had to get rid”:
Santander, in
El reportorio colombiano
, VI (Bogotá: Librería Americana y Española), 229.

“The records have been doctored”:
Ibid.

“I have learned with great regret”:
O’L, XVI, 515.

always carried a printing press, etc.:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 432.

accompanied by a jubilant ball, etc.:
Perú de Lacroix, I, 19.

“There are men”:
Ibid.

Bolívar was devastated:
O’LB, 169; also Lecuna,
Crónica
, II, 360.

sorely missed her affections:
SB to Zea, Bogotá, Aug. 13, 1819.

the intelligence he was receiving:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, II, 366–69.

the political bedlam:
SB to Santander, Soatá, Nov. 14, 1819, SBO, I, 403–5.

Mariño had disregarded orders:
Arismendi to SB, Angostura, Sept. 16, 1819, O’L, XI, 390–91.

Worst of all, Arismendi:
O’LB, 170.

fallen victim to running gossip:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 600.

he was forced to step down:
O’LB, 170.

His first official act:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 602.

Arismendi was gone, on a tour, etc.:
O’LB, 171.

declared the Bolívarian era finished:
A congressman: “Whether or not Bolívar was defeated, as has been reported, we should prepare to move on without him and without his tutelage.” Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 601.

arduous sixty-four-day voyage:
Azpurúa, I, 223–27.

thought the pealing bells, salvos, etc.:
O’LB, 171.

“Long live Bolívar!,” etc.:
Ibid.

congratulated the vice president heartily:
Vowell, 121.

“As soon as those two met,” etc.:
Recollections of a Service
, 4, 38, 41, 43.

a goal, he said, he had set almost a decade before:
SB,
Proclamas y discursos
, 244–45.

elected president and vice president, etc.:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, II, 372–73.

asked King Ferdinand for twenty thousand soldiers, etc.:
Liévano Aguirre, 229.

drive “all his pirates”:
Morillo to the Ministerio de Guerra, Valencia, Sept. 12, 1819, Rodríguez-Villa, III, 50.

“They’ve gone crazy!”:
Morillo to his officers, in Liévano Aguirre, 230.

“have dashed this army’s”:
Morillo to the Ministerio de Guerra, Valencia, April, 29, 1820, Rodríguez Villa, IV, 170.

Morillo was forced to publish:
Constitution of Cádiz, proclaimed in Caracas on June 6 and 7, 1820,
Gaceta de Caracas
, Ediciones 308, 309, JCBL.

not to touch, much less appropriate:
Ibid.

Bolívar despaired at their failure, etc.:
SB to Santander, June 1, 1820, Carrera Damas,
Simón Bolívar Fundamental
, I (Caracas: Monte Avila, 1993), 170.

“The more I think about it”:
Ibid.

made it clear that the black slaves:
SB to Santander, San Cristóbal, April 20, SBO, I, 426.

almost half the white population:
Morillo reported to Spain’s Ministry of War, “The whites have disappeared from Venezuela”: Blanco-Fombona,
Bolívar y la guerra a muerte
, 199. Also J. F. King,
HAHR
, 23 (Nov. 4, 1953), 535. Also “Memorial presentado al rey en Madrid por el Pbro. Doctor don José Ambrosio Llamozas,”
BOLANH
, 18 (1935), 168.

“any free government that commits”:
SB to Santander, San Cristóbal, April 20, SBO, I, 42.

“A leader needs to learn”:
SB to Páez, San Cristóbal, April 19, 1820, SB,
Escritos
, XVII, 223.

From the relative quiet of Cúcuta:
O’LB, 176.

pleading letters, etc.:
Arciniegas,
Las mujeres y las horas
, 87.

To his delight:
SB to Santander, Cúcuta, June 10, 1820, SBO, I, 453.

“Tell her whatever she needs to hear”:
SB to Santander, Cúcuta, Aug. 1, 1820, ibid., 490.

He had heard nothing:
SB to Domingo Ascanio, San Cristóbal, May 25, 1820, ibid., 442.

to write to the king:
Archivo Nacional, Habana,
Asuntos políticos
, nos. 17, 5 and 18, 2, quoted in Madariaga, 400. Also M. Garrito,
Historia Crítica
, no. 31 (Jan.–June 2006), 205–6.

“absolute ruin”:
María Antonia to Ferdinand VII, Habana, Feb. 14, 1819, in Madariaga, 400.

when Juana had sailed:
Ibid.

much loved José Palacios, etc.:
M. L. Scarpetta, “José María Palacios Antunes,” in S. Vergara, ed.,
Diccionario biográfico de los campeones de la libertad
(Bogotá, 1870), 431.

“I have yet to see Bernardina”:
Santander to SB, Bogotá, Aug. 12, 1820, SB,
Cartas: Santander–Bolívar
, II, 322: 271.

a rich man’s illegitimate child:
Bernardina had a daughter by Miguel Saturnino Uribe, an influential millionaire, who, it was said, fathered many. “Las Ibañez somos así,”
Revista semana
, Bogotá, May 22, 1989. Two more sources on the Ibañez sisters: López Michelsen, Alfonso,
Esbozas y Atisbos
(appendix) (Buenos Aires: Avellaneda, 1980), and Jaime Duarte French’s
Las Ibañez
(Bogotá: El Ancora, 1987).

bitter hatred against the Liberator:
Madariaga, 357; also Polanco Alcántara, 982–83, 988–89.

newly arrived British troops:
SB to Santander, Cúcuta, June 22, 1820, SBO, I, 460.

“The Irish are like courtesans”:
SB to Montilla, Cúcuta, July 21, 1820, ibid. 479.

Precious livestock:
SB to Santander, ibid., 461.

“diabolical mix of ineptitude”:
Ibid.

the recruits, guns, bullets, etc.:
SB to Santander, Cúcuta, June 25, 1820, ibid., 462–63.

the slowness of the mails:
SB to Soublette, Cúcuta, June 19, 1820, ibid., 455–57.

putting soldiers closer to Caracas:
SB to Santander, Cúcuta, May 19, 1820, ibid., 437–38.

his talented young officers:
SB to Santander, June 25, 1820, ibid.

Antonio José de Sucre:
O’LB, 188. O’Leary writes: “On seeing him, I, who did not know him, asked the Liberator who the poor horseman approaching us was. ‘He is one of the best officers in the army,’ he replied. ‘I am determined to bring him out of obscurity, for I am convinced that some day he will rival me.’ ”

routine was Spartan, etc.:
O’LB, 176–77, for subsequent details about the order of his days.

30,000 pesos a month:
SB to Santander, San Cristóbal, April 14, 1820, SBO, I, 424.

“squeeze” the provinces:
Ibid.

an excited letter to Soublette:
SB to Soublette, Cúcuta, June 19, 1820, ibid., 455–57.

“Ten thousand enemies”:
SB to W. White, San Cristóbal, May 1, 1820, ibid., 430.

written to him at numerous addresses:
SB to M. de La Torre, San Cristóbal, July 7, 1820, ibid., 468; also SB to Morrillo, Carache, Nov. 3, 1820, ibid., 506.

“If the object of your mission”:
Ibid.

Morillo had married:
Rodríguez Villa, 45.

had never recovered:
A. Révesz,
Milicia de España. Teniente general don Pablo Morillo
(Madrid: Editorial Gran Capitán, 1947).

a remarkably cordial correspondence:
SB to Morillo: Trujillo, Oct. 26; Carache, Nov. 3 (two); Trujillo, Nov. 13; Mocoy, Nov. 16; Trujillo, Nov. 17; Trujillo, Nov. 20, 1820; SBO, I, 503–12.

A conference was arranged:
O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, XVIII, 38–43.

Bolívar rode a strong mule, etc.:
Ibid.

“I thought my escort too small”:
Ibid.

“What? That little man”:
Ibid.

“To the victories of Boyacá!” etc.:
All subsequent toasts can be found ibid.

“Defend the fortress of Puerto Cabello”:
Quoted in Líevano Aguirre, 238.

even Spain had had to censure:
Adelman, 276–77.

“During the entire course”:
Perú de Lacroix, 121–23.