The Emancipation of South America

by Bartolomé Mitre

The first success and the first disaster of the expedition came together. The ship-of-the-line San Pedro, the most powerful vessel of the squadron, caught fire and was a total loss, the military chest and a great quantity of warlike stores being burned with her.

The generous behaviour of Morillo at Margarita procured him a favourable reception at Caracas, where he arrived on the 11th May, but his first act was to levy a forced loan to replace the treasure lost on the San Pedro. He then proceeded to confiscate the properties of all who had taken part in the Revolution, and of those who were absent or who were suspected, the amount so taken being estimated at fifteen millions of dollars. General Moxó, a man of cruel and rapacious character, was made Governor of Venezuela; the Audiencia and all the civil tribunals were suppressed, and were replaced by councils of war. A military despotism was established.

Morillo had now 16,000 men under his command, including the native troops. He sent a battalion of light infantry to Puerto Rico, a division of 1,700 men to Peru, 3,000 men were told off as the garrison of Venezuela, and Calzada’s division, in Barinas, was reinforced by European troops. Then with 5,000 Europeans and 3,500 native troops under Morales, embarked in fifty-six ships, he sailed on the 12th July for the leeward coast to commence operations against New Granada.

The employment of native troops was in accordance with his instructions, but the measure produced discontent in his ranks. These troops were despised by the Spaniards, and had no wish to leave their native country. More than a thousand of the Llaneros deserted rather than embark. The way in which they were treated aroused in them the native instinct for independence, of which they soon became the most doughty champions.

Morillo landed at Santa Marta, intent upon the capture of Cartagena. The garrison was weak, was short of arms and of provisions, and was cut off from help either by sea or by land, but was nevertheless resolute to resist to the last extremity. The ground was cleared for three leagues round, outlying posts were called in, a flotilla was armed for the defence of the bay, sixty guns were added to the eighty-four already mounted on the batteries, martial law was proclaimed, and all men capable of bearing arms were compelled to serve. The garrison was thus increased to 3,600 men, of whom 1,300 were regular troops. The command was at first given to Castillo, but he was soon after replaced by Bermudez, and Montilla was named Major-General.

Cartagena was then the strongest fortress in America. It was captured by the French in 1697, but when the English, under Admiral Vernon, attacked it in the year 1741 they were beaten off, although they had 9,000 soldiers in addition to a powerful fleet. It was built upon a promontory running into the sea, and is so separated from the mainland by marshes that it may be considered an island—a sort of military Venice. The city proper is situate to the north-west of this promontory, and to the west of it lies a suburb called Getzemani, which communicates with the city by a fortified bridge thrown across a deep canal, and is closed at each end by a stockade. Getzemani is also joined to the mainland by another bridge of similar construction. The fortress, the city, and the suburb, were all enclosed on the land side by high walls and bastions. To the east, beyond the swamps, and about half a mile from the walls, stood a castle on a hill, called San Lázaro, whose fire swept all the city, but was itself under the fire of a fortified hill, called La Popa, which commanded all the approaches. The most accessible part of the city was the bay, which runs from north to south, and is nearly a mile in length. This bay is shut in from the Gulf of Mexico by two islands, which leave only two practicable entrances—the Boca Grande, by which Admiral Vernon penetrated, and which was afterwards closed by orders from Spain, and the Boca Chica, which was defended by two castles on the island and by batteries on the coast. The flotilla consisted of a corvette, seven schooners, and some gunboats, aided in shallow water by a sort of armed rafts called “bongos.”

Morillo detached Morales, with his division, across the Magdalena, to blockade the city by land while he blockaded it by sea, his idea being to starve out the garrison.

The heavy rains of the season and frequent tempests made the work of the siege very arduous to the Royalists, filling their hospitals with sick. On the 25th October the city was bombarded, with no other effect than to kill a few women and children. Several assaults were made upon various outworks, which were repulsed, but in November the larger island was captured by Morales. Two batteries were placed upon it and upon the adjacent shore, the fire from which swept the bay and prevented fishing, thus destroying one great resource of the city, where hunger soon proved more formidable than shot and shell. Fevers broke out, rats and hides were eaten by the starving garrison, sentinels were found dead at their posts when parties were sent to relieve them, but no one talked of surrender. At last it was determined to drive from the city two thousand useless mouths, old men, women, and children. It was a procession of spectres; only one-third of them reached the advanced posts of the besiegers, the rest sank down and perished on the way. The survivors were kindly received by the Spaniards, but Morillo wrote to the Patriot leaders that if they did not surrender in three days he would drive the fugitives back into the city. On that day, the 4th December, three hundred persons died of hunger in the streets; it was impossible to hold out longer, but still they would not surrender.

On the night of the 5th the guns on the hill of La Popa, and on the castle of San Lazaro, were spiked. At dawn on the day following, a remnant of two thousand men embarked on the flotilla, crossed the bay under the fire of the Royalist batteries, took on board the garrisons of the batteries at the Boca Chica, and on the 7th put to sea in a storm which dispersed the blockading squadron.

Morillo entered the city on the 6th December, and found it a hospital of dying men, and a cemetery of dead bodies, which lay all about the streets; the very air was poison. The siege had lasted one hundred and eight days. It was calculated that six thousand had died in the city of hunger and disease, besides those who were killed in the various attacks. The loss of the besiegers was nearly three thousand five hundred men.