Meanwhile the guerilla chiefs farther down the Orinoco made headway against the Spaniards, and the whole plain turned to the patriot side. Hearing of these successes, Bolivar resolved to return to Venezuela. He landed near the mouth of the Orinoco, but was soon driven thence and took ship for Ocumare, near Puerto Cabello. From this point he sent a small expedition inland towards Valencia under the command of MacGregor, who achieved some successes against isolated bodies of loyalists, was joined by many llaneros, and finally made his way to the plains of Barcelona, while Bolivar was compelled to re-embark and flee to Hayti. MacGregor took the city of Barcelona, and then with the assistance of the negro chief, Piar, who had been besieging Cumaná, repulsed Morales himself at the battle of Juncal. By the end of 1816 the patriots had gained so many advantages that Morillo thought himself obliged to return to Venezuela at the head of huge reinforcements. However, the patriot cause needed a head. The chieftains were rude and ignorant men with a talent for fighting and nothing more, while Bolivar was a man of wide and varied accomplishments. In spite of his failures he retained great prestige among the Creole officers. He was agreed upon as general-in-chief, and in December landed at Barcelona. But Piar had led his victorious army over to the Orinoco, and notwithstanding Bolivar's entreaties the llaneros persisted in their refusal to return to a country where cavalry could not manœuvre to advantage. When Bolivar arrived at Piar's headquarters near Angostura he appreciated that the true theatre for a successful war had been found. In those plains the llanero cavalry, which formed the bulk of the patriot force, was invincible. Morillo also realised that the coast would not long remain tenable if the line of the Orinoco were in the hands of the patriots, and he sent a regular force of three thousand men under La Torre down the Apuré and Orinoco to Angostura, while he himself quickly made an end of the few insurrectionists who stubbornly refused to retire from the coast to the llanos. During one of Bolivar's absences, La Torre offered Piar battle, and at San Felix, in April, 1817, the plainsmen annihilated the Spanish infantry.
Bolivar now went vigorously to work to secure complete command of the river and soon had quite a fleet. His ascendancy over his officers increased daily, and when Piar conspired against him he was strong enough to have the negro hero arrested and shot as a traitor. Before the end of 1817 the patriots were in command of the whole line of the rivers except the fortress of San Fernando, near the junction of the Apuré and Orinoco, and Morillo could do nothing against them because the plains were flooded. When the waters fell in early spring the royalists achieved some successes, but Bolivar joined Paez, established a blockade of San Fernando, and surprised Morillo himself near Calabozo. Against Paez's advice he now insisted on making a campaign for the recovery of Caracas, but was badly defeated by the marshal at La Puerta—a spot for the third time the scene of a patriot downfall. Though Paez had captured San Fernando his expedition into the mountain country was no more successful than Bolivar's, and the two retreated to the river to raise fresh troops. Morales followed the patriots to the Apuré, but was in his turn repulsed by Paez, giving Bolivar a breathing spell.
The Liberator's position was desperate; his infantry had been destroyed; his cavalry reduced in numbers; his men were nearly without arms; his ammunition exhausted. Ill-considered movements had turned the brilliant situation in which he had found patriot affairs a year before into the gloomiest sort of an outlook. On the other hand, a defensive campaign in the llanos could be kept up indefinitely, and though Morillo had twelve thousand men in the populous mountain provinces north of the plains, he also was without money, arms, and supplies. As he reported to the Peruvian viceroy: "Twelve pitched battles in which the best officers and troops of the enemy have fallen, have not lowered their pride or lessened the vigour of their attacks." With that indomitable energy which more than compensated for his inferiority as a strategist, Bolivar set to work to create a new army. Cavalry of the most admirable sort could be recruited in sufficient numbers among the llaneros, but bitter experience had convinced him that against Spanish regulars the native infantry stood little chance. The cessation of the Napoleonic wars had left thousands of European veterans without employment, and Bolivar contracted for a few thousand Britishers and Irishmen, paying a bounty of eighty dollars per man on enlistment and promising five hundred dollars at the conclusion of the war. Some of these troops arrived opportunely late in 1818, and, few as their numbers were, no soldiers in South America could stand against them.
In October Bolivar issued a proclamation foreshadowing the union of Venezuela and New Granada. In the midst of defeat, with all of both countries except the thinly populated Orinoco plains in possession of the Spaniards, he was confidently planning the creation of a great empire. Morillo opened the campaign of 1819 by advancing with over six thousand men against Paez on the upper Orinoco. The Creole's four thousand were mostly cavalry, and he had learned better than to risk a pitched battle. The Spanish columns were harassed beyond endurance by his light horsemen, and after weeks of heartbreaking marches Morillo had to retire, having accomplished nothing.
From Bolivar's erratic genius now emanated a great stroke of strategy. West of the plains of the Apuré and Casanare, tributaries of the upper Orinoco, rises the giant range of the Cordillera and on its top lay the fertile plateaux of Socorro, Tunja, and Bogotá, the populous heart of New Granada. For three years the Spaniards had been in secure possession and all except three thousand troops had been drafted for service in Venezuela and Peru. A small Spanish force came down from Tunja to attack the patriot guerillas in Casanare, and was repulsed. Where the enemy could go he could follow, reasoned Bolivar. Paez's cavalry had proved itself amply able to hold the llanos, so no risk to Venezuela would be incurred by temporarily withdrawing part of the infantry. With two thousand natives and five hundred British the Liberator followed up the Orinoco, Meta, and Casanare to the latter's sources at the foot of the Paya pass, which leads directly into the fertile valley of Sagamoso, the heart of Tunja province. This pass is high and very difficult, although the distance to be traversed was only eighty miles. The road was a mere track leading along precipices, crossing and recrossing mountain torrents, and the rain fell incessantly as the patriots struggled up the slippery path. When they reached the higher regions a hundred men perished with the cold, and not a horse survived. The army arrived at Sagamoso in a pitiable condition, but without seeing an enemy except an outpost, which was easily dislodged.
Not knowing Bolivar's numbers, Barreiro, the Spanish commander, dared not attack, and the Liberator thus obtained a much-needed opportunity to rest his men and gather horses for his dismounted cavalry. As soon as he got his army in hand he outmanœuvred Barreiro and by a rapid march captured the city of Tunja, where he found a good store of arms and material. This movement also placed the patriot army between the Spaniards and Bogotá. Barreiro, seeing himself cut off from his base, made a desperate dash for the capital, but Bolivar knew the enemy's route and took up a position directly across his path on the right bank of the small river Boyacá. Though the patriots were only slightly superior in numbers, the Spaniards had to attack at a disadvantage, and fled completely defeated after losing a hundred men. Practically their whole force was dispersed or made prisoners. Small as were the numbers engaged and easily as it was won, Boyacá was the most important battle fought in northern Spanish America. Central New Granada, the wealthiest and most populous part of the country, fell into Bolivar's hands without a further blow. Its revenues relieved his financial difficulties and among its sturdy inhabitants he recruited a new army. Morillo, now isolated in Venezuela, must expect an attack from the llaneros, reinforced by the Granadan mountaineers.
ROAD NEAR MACUTO.
During the Liberator's absence from Venezuela he had been branded as a traitor for abandoning his country without the authorisation of congress, and Mariño made commander-in-chief. But the news of Boyacá fell like a thunderbolt among the disaffected, and his return in December quelled them utterly. No opposition was made when he announced that Venezuela and New Granada were united into a single republic, the United States of Colombia, with himself as president and military dictator. The year 1820 passed without any decisive campaign. Bolivar occupied himself principally in recruiting and refitting his armies. Twelve hundred Irish mercenaries arrived and were incorporated with an army which was sent by sea to threaten the Spaniards in Cartagena, and co-operate with the New Granadans on the lower Magdalena. A strong division of Venezuelans was sent against Quito. Paez with the main army of the Apuré was, however, repulsed in an advance into Barinas. In spite of this success Morillo could only lie inactive south of Caracas. His forces were not numerous enough both to retake New Granada and to hold northern Venezuela. But word came that Ferdinand was preparing an army of twenty thousand men which would shortly sail from Cadiz for America, and with this reinforcement the marshal believed he could destroy all the patriot armies. The revolution which broke out in Spain in 1820 against Ferdinand's absolute government overturned his hopes. The expedition never sailed, and the new liberal government showed itself disposed to make terms with the revolted colonies. In November a six months' armistice was arranged pending the despatch of peace commissioners to the mother-country, and Morillo resigned in favour of La Torre.