Where Bolívar triumphed there could be no lack of honours. Washington and San Martin avoided ostentatious demonstrations of gratitude, but Bolívar delighted in them. The municipality of Bogotá gave him a cross of honour, a triumphal entry, and a crown of laurel. A picture of Liberty supported by Bolívar was set up in the council chamber, and it was decreed that the anniversary of the great battle should be celebrated for ever. The crown of laurel sat well upon his head, upon that of Washington it would have been a caricature.
But, great as was Bolívar’s vanity, there was room also in his head for great ideas. Making use of the ample powers conferred upon him by the Congress of Venezuela he founded the Republic of Columbia, which was the dream of his life, and named Santander Vice-President of New Granada.
During a temporary absence of Bolívar, Santander shot the thirty-eight Royalist officers who were taken prisoners at Boyacá, with Barreiro at their head, and finished off the hecatomb with a countryman who had protested against it on seeing the blood-stained benches. Santander justified his cruelty by saying that it was done in retaliation of similar barbarities committed by Barreiro; but some said it was done in revenge for the death of his mother, occasioned by the privations she had suffered while hiding herself from the persecutions of Sámano.
Bolívar returned to Angostura on the 11th December, and found that affairs had greatly changed there during his absence. Zea had been deposed by a revolution, and Arismendi was now Vice-President. Mariño was General-in-Chief, and he himself was branded as a deserter for having undertaken the reconquest of New Granada without authority from Congress. The news of Boyacá had fallen as a thunderbolt among the disaffected, and his return quelled them utterly. He acted with great magnanimity, pardoned everything, resumed his authority, and announced to Congress the union of Venezuela and New Granada, calling upon it to give legal consistency to an accomplished fact.
Congress, enlarged by the addition of five New Granadian deputies from the Province of Casanare, decreed the establishment of the Republic of Columbia, in three great departments: Venezuela, Quito, and Cundinamarca, each ruled by a Vice-President. A new city, which should be called Bolívar, was to be the capital. The tri-coloured flag raised by Miranda in 1806 was to be the flag of the new nation. A Constituent Congress was convened, to assemble at Cúcuta on the frontier of Venezuela. Bolívar was named provisional President of Columbia, Santander Vice-President of Cundinamarca, and Roscio Vice-President of Venezuela. The day of the installation of the Republic was fixed for the 25th December.
This great political business being settled, war again called for the attention of the Liberator. The Spanish armies in the north and west of Venezuela, and in Quito and Cartagena, amounted altogether to nearly 20,000 men, and reinforcements were expected from Spain. The new Republic was still beset by dangers, while the strength of the country was well-nigh exhausted.
Urdaneta and Montilla had been unfortunate in their expedition. Urdaneta captured Barcelona on the 17th July, but being there attacked by very superior forces was compelled to re-embark his men and retire to Paria, where with some reinforcements he made an attack on Cumaná on the 5th August, but was beaten off and withdrew to Maturín, with a greatly diminished force. MacGregor took Portobello on the 10th April, but was soon after driven out again with heavy loss. On the 5th October he took Rio Hacha, but the conduct of his troops was so bad that the citizens rose in arms against them, and forced him to re-embark. Happily at this time the first division of the Irish Legion, 1,200 strong, reached the island of Margarita. Bolívar placed them under the command of Montilla, with orders to threaten Cartagena and co-operate with the Army of New Granada on the Lower Magdalena, while the Army of the Apure advanced from the plains of Caracas upon the capital.
Paez had invaded Barinas with cavalry, but was soon forced to retire, after which Diaz captured ten armed flecheras on the Apure river, and on the 30th September the Patriots retook San Fernando, which gave them complete command of the Orinoco.
Morillo, thunderstruck by the invasion of New Granada, remained inactive at Calabozo, and simply detached La Torre with 1,000 men to the valley of Cúcuta, whence he was driven back by the division under Soublette, which crossed the hills against him from Pamplona.
Soublette then joined Paez on the plains in his advance upon Caracas. Bolívar reinforced them with two battalions of infantry, one of which was English, and sent a strong column of Venezuelan troops, under Colonel Valdez, to the south of New Granada, in order to act against Quito. Morillo, uncertain what to do, confined his attention to securing his base of operations in the western provinces of Venezuela.