"Both contracting parties guarantee to each other the integrity of their respective territories, as constituted before the present war, keeping the boundaries possessed at that time by each captaincy general or viceroyalty of those who now have resumed the exercise of their sovereignty, unless in a legal way two or more of them have agreed to form a single body or nation, as has happened with the old captaincy general of Venezuela and the kingdom of Nueva Granada, which now form the Republic of Colombia."
Similar instructions were given to the representative sent to Mexico.
The treaty arranged with Perú was similar to another entered into afterwards with Chile. In both documents it was stipulated: that an assembly should be organized with representatives of the different countries; that all the governments of America, or of that part of America which had belonged to Spain, should be invited to enter into that union, league, or perpetual confederation; that the assembly of plenipotentiaries should be entrusted with the work of laying the foundation for, and of establishing, the closer relations which should exist among all of those states; and that this assembly should "serve them as a council in great conflicts, as a point of contact in the common dangers, as faithful interpreter of their public treaties when difficulties occur, and as an arbitral judge and conciliator in their disputes and differences." In this way, two great principles were sanctioned by Bolívar: the principle of uti-possidetis and the principle of arbitration, which was proclaimed in America, for the first time, by Bolívar as president of Colombia.
Before leaving for the campaign of the South, the Libertador Presidente received the good news of Cartagena's fall into the hands of Montilla after fourteen months of siege, and of the insurrection of Panamá, which became independent and formed the eighth department of Colombia.
The importance of the independence of Panamá cannot be exaggerated. Bolívar wisely deemed it of greatest moment, and what has occurred during the twentieth century has proved that Bolívar was absolutely right in his judgment.
CHAPTER XV
Bomboná and Pichincha. The Birth of Ecuador. Bolívar and San Martin Face to Face
(1822)
In January, 1822, Bolívar was in Cali, assembling his army to invade Quito by land.
This campaign proved to be the most difficult he had undertaken with respect to natural obstacles. Between Quito and his army, the Andes form a nucleus of mountains called the Nudo de Pasto. All the difficulties with which he had had to contend in the campaigns of Venezuela and Nueva Granada,—such as the flooded plains, the deep ravines between Venezuela and the Colombian valleys, the narrow and rugged passages, the wild beasts,—sink into nothingness as compared with the almost unconquerable obstacles which he was to face on his way to the South. In no other part of the continent do the Andes present such an appalling combination of ravines, torrents, precipitous paths and gigantic peaks. Furthermore, nowhere on the continent was the population so hostile to freedom as were the pastusos (inhabitants of the Pastos). Men, women and children cordially hated the cause of the Republic, and stopped at no crime to destroy the armies of Bolívar. Despite all this opposition, Bolívar made ready to throw the glories he had earned in Boyaca and Carabobo into the balance, risking everything to obtain the freedom of the peoples of the south, and the union of Quito and Colombia. This campaign presented difficulties greater than Napoleon himself ever found in his path. The Alps do not compare with these American mountains,—which rank with the Himalayas.