[18] The Colombian and Venezuela Republics, p. 101, Boston, 1905. [↑]
[19] Compendio de la Historia de Venezuela desde el Descubrimiento de America hasta Nuestros Dias, p. 213, Paris, 1875. [↑]
[20] See especially introduction and Cap. I, Vol. I, Quinta Edicion, New York, 1901. [↑]
[21] A Narrative of the Expedition to the Rivers Orinoco and Apure, pp. 462–464, London, 1819. [↑]
[22] Memoirs of Simon Bolivar, Vol. II, pp. 3, 236, 257 and 258. [↑]
[23] After the battle was over the survivors of this decisive conflict were saluted by Bolivar as Salvatores de mi Patria—Saviors of my country. [↑]
[24] Op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 249, 250. [↑]
[25] “Colombia had been an efficient war machine in the hands of Bolivar by which the independence of South America was secured, but was an anachronism as a nation. The interests of the different sections were antagonistic, and the military organization given to the country only strengthened the germs of disorder. Venezuela and New Granada were geographically marked out as independent nations. Quito, from historical antecedents, aspired to autonomy. Had Bolivar abstained from his dreams of conquest, and devoted his energies to the consolidation of his own country, he might, perhaps, have organized it into one nation under a federal form of government, but that was not suited to his genius. When his own bayonets turned against him, he went so far as to despair of the republican system altogether and sought the protection of a foreign king for the last fragment of his shattered monocracy.”—History of San Martin, p. 467, by General Don Bartolome Mitre, translated by W. Pilling, London, 1893. [↑]
[26] After writing the above paragraphs, I was glad to learn from Mr. W. H. Fox, the American Minister to Ecuador, that General Alfaro, the present chief executive of that republic, is, like many distinguished patriots and statesmen of Colombia and Venezuela, an ardent advocate of the restoration of Bolivar’s great Republic of Colombia. “I would,” said he to Mr. Fox, who has given me permission to publish this statement, “rather be governor of Ecuador, as one of the states of such a great republic, than be its president, as I am now.”
All friends of Greater Colombia, and their number among enlightened and far-seeing statesmen is rapidly increasing, hope the day is not far distant when Bolivar’s plan can once more be put into effect, but this time on so enduring a basis that it cannot again be affected by the machinations of the jealous military rivals and self-seeking politicians, by whom so many hapless countries in Latin America have so long been cursed. [↑]