Bolivar: American Liberator (99 page)

the very people for whose liberty he had fought:
After the battle, Sucre had a monument erected on the battlefield. It was engraved as follows: “On February 27, 1829, eight thousand men of the Peruvian army invaded the land of their liberators and were vanquished here by four thousand stouthearted Colombians.” The discrepancy in numbers is due to the fact that Sucre was using the size of total armies, not numbers of troops on the battlefield. Posada Gutiérrez, I, 146.

He told Bolívar that he had assumed command, etc.:
Sucre to SB, ibid.

As Sucre was winding his way home:
SB to Vergara, Hato Viejo, Feb. 28, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 328–29; and SB to Urdaneta, Pasto, March 9, 1829, ibid., 330–31.

Bolívar now offered the rebels complete amnesty, etc.:
SB to Vergara, Popayán, Jan. 28, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 307–10; also Monsalve,
El ideal politico
, 192.

Bolívar promoted Obando to full general:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 150.

Córdova, who had labored mightily, etc.:
Ibid., 136–40.

Manuela Sáenz was never so celebrated, etc.:
O’Leary to Bolívar, Bogotá, May 9, 1829, and Aug. 18, 1829, FJB, Archivo Libertador, Nos. 633, 641.

foreign diplomats clamored to meet her, etc.:
O’Leary to SB, ibid.

a frenzied plan to recruit a foreign monarch, etc.:
O’Leary,
Detached Recollections
, 12–15.

O’Leary had reported much of it:
Ibid.

British chargé d’affaires—in all his calculating enthusiasm:
Campbell to SB, Bogotá, May 31, 1829, in Liévano Aguirre, 491–92.

much of the French navy plying American waters:
A. Sheldon-Duplaix, “France and Its Navy During the Wars of Latin American Independence,” presentation, 2011 McMullen Naval History Symposium, Sept. 16, 2011, Annapolis.

a thousand reasons why it wouldn’t work, etc.:
Bolívar to Vergara, Campo de Buijó, July 13, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 422–27.

Bolívar had adamantly rejected, etc.:
His views on monarchy have been discussed amply elsewhere in this book. He refers to his enemies’ persistent attempts to tar him with a monarchical brush in SB to Urdaneta, Bojacá, Dec. 16, 1828, O’L, XXXI, 268; tells Urdaneta that a monarchy is untenable: SB to Urdaneta, Guayaquil, July 13, 1829,
Documentos para los anales
, 54–56. Also Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 493–517.

Some historians claim he ignored it because, etc.:
Liévano Aguirre, 482–83.

other reasons for Bolívar’s dismissal, etc.:
Ibid.

But his wan response, twisted artfully:
Not only SB’s enemies but some of his biographers have misguidedly claimed he had monarchical aspirations. The Spaniard Salvador Madariaga, whose book on SB is relentlessly negative, claims he wanted to be king, as does a highly tendentious biography by former Argentine president Bartolomé Mitre.

Indeed, those who prayed for Bolívar’s ruin, etc.:
Páez had written to Urdaneta to say that he supported any form of government SB wanted, even a monarchy. Among those who trumpeted the notion that SB wanted a crown (especially in Antioquia, Córdova’s region) were the Montoyas and Arrublas, lawyers who were friends of Santander’s. O’Leary,
Detached Recollections
, 15.

With little more than three hundred followers:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 659.

recruit Mosquera to his way of thinking:
Mosquera’s testimony,
Causa contra el presidente
, I, Anales del Congreso, Imprenta de la Nación, Bogotá, 1867, 589; also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 142–43.

He wrote to Páez:
Córdova to Páez, Medellín, Sept. 18, 1829, in Páez, 544–47.

honored him with one of the jeweled crowns:
Cordovez Moure, 1067.

an army was all he needed to govern a country, etc.:
Mosquera, quoted in
Causa contra el presidente.

he could hardly speak; he cried like a baby:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 474.

He was determined to broker, etc.:
J. M. del Castillo, in “Report of the President of the Council of Ministers,” Bogotá, Jan. 25, 1830 (translation), in British and Foreign State Papers, XVII, 1829–30, 1273–81.

his arrival in Guayaquil at the end of July:
July 21 to be exact. SB to Restrepo, Guayaquil, July 23, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 439–41.

spitting black, etc.:
SB to Restrepo, Guayaquil, Aug. 20, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 482; SB to Briceño Méndez, Guayaquil, Aug. 21, 1829, ibid., 488; SB to Páez, Guayaquil, Sept. 5, 1829, ibid., 513.

all too clearly in his lungs:
“When we arrived with the army at the Mayo River [where
Obando and the rebels were], the Liberator suffered a grave pulmonary attack.” Mosquera, quoted in Posada Gutiérrez, I, 142; also Mosquera’s testimony about his general state,
Causa contra el presidente
, 588–89.

Forced to spend twelve feverish days:
SB to Briceño Méndez, O’L, XXXI, 488; also SB to Restrepo, ibid., 482.

The equatorial heat was relentless, etc.:
SB to Urdaneta, Guayaquil, Aug. 20, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 480; SB to Restrepo, ibid., 483.

La Mar had been deported, etc.:
SB to Col. Wilson, Guayaquil, Aug. 3, 1829, O’L, XXX, 462–66.

The new chief of state, Antonio de La Fuente:
La Mar’s immediate successor was La Fuente, who held the position of supreme chief for three months, before Gamarra took over. Bolívar was well disposed to La Fuente probably because La Fuente had done him the service of removing Riva Agüero. La Fuente immediately wrote a conciliatory letter to the Liberator. SB to Briceño Méndez, Guayaquil, July 22, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 435–36.

The wound this betrayal inflicted on the Liberator, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 143; also SB,
Proclamas y discursos
, 34–35. Masur claims Córdova didn’t worry Bolívar in the least, but it is difficult to find a South American historian who would agree.

although he tried to dismiss it:
SB to Urdaneta, Guayaquil, Aug. 3, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 458–60.

“My strength is almost entirely gone”:
SB to O’Leary, Guayaquil, Sept. 8, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 516–19.

called America the hope of the universe:
SB, Proclama, Aug. 2, 1824, DOC, IX, 343.

little more than a chimera, etc.:
SB to Leandro Palacios, Guayaquil, July 27, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 451–52.

“We have tried everything under the sun”:
SB to Urdaneta, Buíjo, July 5, 1829, ibid., 416–18.

denounced Bolívar as an outright despot:
Constant is referred to in SB’s letters from Guayaquil: Urdaneta, July 22; M. Montilla, July 27; R. Wilson, July 28; and Palacios, July 27, 1829; ibid., 442–50.

“who has murdered thousands,” etc.:
G. D. Flinter, letter to King George IV, Island of Margarita, Jan. 28, 1829 (Gazette, Hollman & Co., 1829), JCBL.

less a lion of liberty than a snake:
“Review: Memoirs of Simón Bolívar,” by Gen. H. S. V. Ducoudray-Holstein,
The Gentlemen’s Magazine
[a compendium of 1829 publications], C-147, I (London: Nichols, 1830), 48–51.

disseminated by the press:
The prevalence of negative press against SB was reported in the American Masonick Record,
Albany Saturday Magazine
, II, no. 52 (Jan. 24, 1829), 415.

In Chile, the outcast Riva Agüero, etc.:
Lecuna,
Catálago
, III, 87ff. and 101; also A. Rey de Castro Arena,
Republicanismo
(Lima: Universidad de San Marcos, 2010), 238.

still called himself president of Peru:
Riva Agüero had been ejected from Peru in 1823 for siding with the Spaniards, along with Torre Tagle. Basadre, I, 32–36, 87.

“I’m being accused of an inferno”:
SB to O’Leary, Guayaquil, Aug. 17, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 478–79.

he wrote to General O’Leary insisting, etc.:
SB to O’Leary, Guayaquil, Aug. 21, 1829, ibid., 483–86.

calculating, as some historians have claimed:
See Madariaga’s last chapters for a thoroughly negative and distorted portrait of SB, in which SB only pretends to reject the crown because he so ravenously hungers for it. Mitre, an Argentine who far preferred his countryman San Martín to SB, portrayed SB as pathologically duplicitous and dangerously authoritarian. Most recently, the Peruvian historian Morote attributes to SB a diabolical plan to crush Peru.

under which—as he himself had said:
SB, Proclama, Aug. 27, 1828, Bogotá, quoted, with special piquancy, in Santander,
Apuntamientos
, 116.

wondered whether he was insisting, etc.:
This is most apparent in the correspondence from James Henderson, the British consul general, to the Foreign Office, accusing SB of the lowest motives. PRO/FO, 18/68, Doc. 24, 25, and Henderson’s letters. The emissary was heavily influenced by Santander and Córdova. Also: Henderson’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Fanny, had been maintaining a romantic correspondence with Córdova, which Henderson had read. Madariaga, 592–612.

drew up a treaty with Peru, etc.:
SB to Vergara, Guayaquil, Sept. 20, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 520.

ingenious plan to finance Colombia’s crippling deficit:
Mijares, 539.

improvements in universities, etc.:
Restrepo, Order 654, Bogotá, in O’L, XXVI, 414–16.

sent military reinforcements to Panama:
SB to Vergara, O’L, XXXI, 520.

He congratulated the army:
SB to Urdaneta, Quito, Oct. 26, 1829,
Documentos para los anales
, 56–57.

“I have no one to write for me”:
SB to Vergara, O’L, XXXI, 520.

published a circular, etc.:
An open referendum. Posada Gutiérrez, I, 171–72. On his genuine disinterest: C. Cantú,
Historia de cien años: 1750–1850
, II (Madrid: Rivera, 1852), 523–24; also Restrepo, IV, 256–59.

“There is no such thing as good faith,” etc.:
SB, “Una mirada hácia la america española,” in Pérez Vila,
Doctrina
, 286–87.

“I hope you haven’t forgotten”:
SB to O’Leary, Babahoyo, Sept. 28, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 526.

He wanted to leave, etc.:
Mosquera testimony,
Causa contra el presidente
, 590.

In July of 1829, etc.:
Restrepo, IV, 186. He was in Puerto Cabello in August; Páez, 548.

But the fundamental distrust between Granadans, etc.:
Santander,
Apuntamientos
, 21–22.

“March at once!,” etc.:
O’L, XXVII, Part I, 123.

a seven-month internment:
Santander,
Apuntamientos
, 55.

Bolívar’s council of ministers had feared:
Restrepo, IV, 185.

she engaged a spy to ferret out:
Montebrune to Sáenz, Guaduas, Nov. 19, 1828, quoted in Cordovez Moure, 748; also in Murray,
Simón Bolívar
, 69.

He swore that he had opposed, etc.:
Santander to SB, Bocachica, Dec. 18, 1828, quoted in
Proceso Seguido al General Santander
(Bogotá: Biblioteca de la Presidencia de la República, 1988), Prólogo.

protection from Andrew Jackson:
Santander to Jackson, Bocachica, May 19, 1829, quoted ibid.

corresponded with him in jail:
Santander,
Apuntamientos
, 55; also Cordovez Moure, 1206.

Even Páez, Santander’s archenemy:
Blanco-Fombona, in O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 683 fn.

The lion of the Apure assured Santander:
Páez to Santander, Puerto Cabello, Aug. 20, 1829, in Páez,
Autobiografía
, I, 550.

they wanted fiefdoms equivalent to their aspirations:
Liévano Aguirre, 501.

“The second man to head the Republic,” etc.:
SB, “A Panoramic View of Spanish America,” DOC, XIII, 493; also in SBSW, II, 741–48.

Páez’s missive was respectful, etc.:
Páez to SB, Caracas, July 22, 1829,
Documentos para los anales
, II, 132–34; also in Páez,
Autobiografía
, I, 509. As for reading the meaning, see Liévano Aguirre, 498–99.

“I give you my word of honor,” etc.:
SB to Páez, Popayán, Dec. 15, 1829,
Documentos para los anales
, 134–37.

“You will now suspend completely,” etc.:
SB to Vergara, Popayán, Nov. 22, 1829, SB,
Obras completas
, III, 365.

“Just leave congress to do its duty”:
SB to Urdaneta, Popayán, Nov. 22, 1829, ibid., 367, 370.

Ministers proffered their resignations, etc.:
Restrepo, IV, 244; also O’Leary’s notes in Sept. 1829,
Detached Recollections
, 16–17.

Both Páez and Santander, though ardent enemies:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 513 fn.

If he had been more decisive on the question, etc.:
Restrepo, SB’s minister of the interior and a loyalist, was critical of SB on this score. Perhaps rightfully, he blames SB for not making a stronger attempt to clarify his position and kill the monarchical campaign from the outset (José Manuel Restrepo, quoted in Guerra,
La convención de Ocaña
, 82; also in Restrepo,
Historia de la revolución
, III, 534; also quoted in Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 511). President Belaunde of Peru, who wrote amply on Bolívar, feels that his last years reflect an essential weakness: He vacillated when he should have been firm. But for Belaunde, SB’s weakness is only human (Belaunde, xiii).