Bolivar: American Liberator (100 page)

had exacted a punishing price:
SB, “A Panoramic View,” DOC, XIII, 493.

An uprising had come and gone, etc.:
Before O’Leary’s campaign to quell the rebellion, SB had tried a number of strategies to pacify Córdova. He had offered to promote him to minister of the navy, but the general had only scoffed, as there was no navy to speak of in Colombia. SB had then offered him a diplomatic post in Holland. Córdova ignored that, too.

gave Páez the most felicitous opportunity, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 226–30; also Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 525.

He sent his agents out into the provinces:
DOC, XIII, 706.

“and down with Don Simón”:
Ibid.

O’Leary and a thousand seasoned veterans, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 208.

O’Leary was quick to act, etc.:
Ibid., 208–9.

a notorious drunk named Rupert Hand:
Ibid.

two thrusts of the sword:
FJB,
Archivo O’Leary
, Marinilla, Oct. 17, 1829, quoted in Polanco Alcántara, 1014; also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 209.

just as Saturn had swallowed his children:
I owe this image to Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 659.

In the end he would be blamed for all of it:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 209–10.

The torment of that reality, etc.:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 521–24.

Bolívar wrote to his minister of interior:
Restrepo, IV, 260; also
Documentos para los anales
, I, 481.

Graffiti filled the walls, etc.:
DOC, XIII, 714 ff.

Páez declared that he would go to war, etc.:
Páez to SB, Caracas, Dec. 1, 1829, Páez,
Autobiografía
, 557–59.

When the Liberator entered the capital, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 230.

four thousand soldiers lined the way, etc.:
Ibid., 230–31.

a wasted specter with lackluster eyes, etc.:
Ibid.; also Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 669–70.

It was apparent to everyone, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 231.

Epigraph:
“If my death can heal and fortify the union”:
SB’s last words, Restrepo, IV, 412.

“the admirable congress”:
Ibid., 319; also Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 519.

a twenty-one-gun salute, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233.

Fray Domingo de Las Casas:
Cousin of the great humanist Bartolomé de Las Casas. Groot, I, 48.

an air of anticipation hung over the crowd, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233; also Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 521.

“I am seeking”:
SB to Castillo Rada, Jan. 4, 1830, SBC, IX, 227, quoted in Mijares, 553.

After receiving Communion, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233.

gallery of mediocrities:
I owe this image to Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 271.

the foresight to convoke this gathering, etc.:
SB, “Manifesto Justifying the Dictatorship,” Bogotá, Aug. 27, 1928, SB,
El Libertador: Writings
, 141–42.

Congress welcomed him, lauded him:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 233–4.

“I withdraw in utmost confidence”:
Ibid.

was visibly wounded:
W. Turner, report to the British Foreign Minister, PRO/FO 18/68, no. 75, quoted in Madariaga, 617.

he clutched his head in dismay:
Ibid.

“I, too, had my desperate hour,” etc.:
Flores to Urdaneta, Quito, March 27, 1830, O’L, IV, 288–89.

“Spare me, I beg you, the disgrace”:
SB, “Mensaje del Libertador,” Bogotá, Jan. 20, 1830, SBO, III,
Discursos
, 145–53.

Now, more than ever, he warned:
Ibid.

“Today, I cease to rule”:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 521.

“Colombians! I have been the victim”:
Ibid., 521–22

He met with foreign diplomats:
Ibid., 529; also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 231.

wrote to his ambassador in London, etc.:
SB to J. Fernández Madrid, Bogotá, Feb. 13, March 6, 1830, SB,
Fundamental
, I, 609–13.

retired to his house at La Quinta:
Liévano Aquirre, 502.

She received him with customary cheer:
Ibid.

Congress rejected his resignation, etc.:
DOC, XIV, 123–24.

recalling his earlier blunders with Páez:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 671.

“I’ve asked Colombia to speak up”:
SB to Alamo, quoted in Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 512.

attack of what he called black bile:
Ibid., 532; Posada Gutiérrez, I, 250; Madariaga, 621.

a country retreat a few miles southwest:
This was the Villa Fucha, mentioned in Posada Gutiérrez, I, 251; Madariaga, 621; Mitre,
Emancipation of South America
, 468.

It was clear to all except perhaps Bolívar:
Mijares, 555.

Ever since he had confided, etc.:
SB to O’Leary, Guayaquil, Aug. 21, 1829, O’L, XXXI, 483–86.

By the end of March, he realized, etc.:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 541.

fetched little more than $2,000:
Larrazábal reports that when SB sold his personal silverware to the government mint, it produced $2,535, which represented all the money SB had. Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 541.

Europe or a stopover in Curaçao or Jamaica:
SB to Gabriel Camacho, Guaduas, May 11, 1830, quoted ibid., 542–43.

lay in his copper mines in Aroa, etc.:
SB refers in many letters to his attempts to sell these. See especially SB to Alamo, Soatá, March 26, 1828, O’L, XXXI, 54–55; SB to Ibarra, Bogotá, Aug. 28, 1828, ibid., 192–93; SB to Briceño Méndez, Popayán, Feb. 5, 1829, ibid., 316–17. SB aspired to private life as early as 1825, even as he was making a victory tour of Upper Peru, and counted on the sale of Aroa to support him: SB to Peñalver, Potosí, Oct. 17, 1825, and Magdalena, March 4, 1826, O’L, XXX, 182.

the equivalent of $10 million:
SB had asked Lord Cochrane to go and see the mines himself, in order to confirm their estimated worth of $500,000 (SB to Cochrane, Oct. 18, 1825,
Escritos
, 188). The dollar in 1830 would be worth $20 today (“Comparative Value of the U.S. Dollar,”
http://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/Documents/dollar/
). The mines represented an annual income of the equivalent of $250,000. “Bolívar Empresario,” a monograph by the Venezuelan historian Antonio Herrera-Vaillant,
www.hacer.org/pdf/Bolívar.pdf
, 17, 21.

owned outright by the Bolívars since 1773:
This was when Juan Vicente Bolívar, SB’s father, confirmed ownership. The mines were inherited by SB’s grandmother, Josefa Marín de Narváez, whose family had owned them since the 1600s. P. Verna,
Las minas del Libertador
(Caracas: Ed. de la Presidencia de la República, Imprenta Nacional, 1976).

He had claimed he didn’t care about money:
There is much on the record to support this, e.g., SB to Santander, Lima, Oct. 30, 1823, SBO II, 829: “I have always thought that he who labors for liberty and glory should have no other compensation than liberty and glory.” For an interesting analysis of SB’s disposition to money, see Herrera-Vaillant, 8–12.

when Venezuela outlawed the sale:
Ibid., 47–49.

“a despot with criminal designs”:
Bermúdez, Proclama, Feb. 16, 1830, in Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 540.

a tyrant with an evil brain:
Arismendi, Bando, Feb. 25, 1830, in Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 540.

“Give up trying to defend me,” etc.:
SB to Alamo, Popayán, Dec. 6, 1829, DOC, XIV, 26–27.

unable to eat or sleep:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 250.

“María Antonia, don’t be a fool,”
etc.:
Liévano Aguirre, 503.

Even his old mistress in Paris:
Fanny du Villars to SB, Paris, April 6, May 14, 1826, O’L, XII, 293–300.

But Bolívar had always been profligate, etc.:
Mijares, 556–57; Ducoudray Holstein, 94; Petre, 428.

Páez announced that Venezuela’s sovereignty, etc.:
Restrepo, IV, 267–71.

He worked himself into a temper, etc.:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 672–73.

came to tell him that this was madness:
Restrepo, IV, 309.

What was he now then?, etc.:
Ibid.

“Come live in our hearts,” etc.:
Flores (and forty-two other signatories) to SB, Quito, March 27, 1830, in Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 537.

Having returned to Bogotá in March, etc.:
Restrepo, IV, 299.

Not one vote had been cast:
Ibid., 312; also Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 538.

a Bolívarian went on to win, etc.:
This was Eusebio Canabal. Restrepo, IV, 299; also Posada Gutiérrez, I, 307.

the announcer was shouted down, etc.:
Restrepo, IV, 299.

had tampered with the election:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 307–8.

On May 7, three days after congress unveiled, etc.:
Ibid., 317–18.

move into the house of one of his generals, etc.:
General Herran’s house. Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 539.

milling about the streets, shouting taunts:
Restrepo, IV, 312–33.

Caicedo, insisted on spending the night:
Ibid., 317.

hurried goodbyes in a dim corridor, etc.:
Rumazo González, 263.

Their parting was sad and sweet, etc.:
Murray,
Simón Bolívar
, 74; Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 274.

striding into the chill of morning:
Rumazo González, 263.

His hands trembled, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 322.

He rode off, escorted by a phalanx, etc.:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 540.

“Hey, Sausage!”:
Groot, III, 460.

the fog-hung morning, etc.:
Rumazo González, 263.

“He is gone, the gentleman of Colombia”:
Col. Campbell, quoted in Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 540.

enemies had circulated a rumor, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 321; also Restrepo, IV, 318–19.

Vice President Caicedo had been powerless:
Caicedo was in charge in the absence of Mosquera, the president-elect, who was still making his way to the capital from Popayán.

Protesters yelled anti-Bolívarian slogans, etc.:
Slatta and Lucas de Grummond, 291.

“When I came to your house,” etc.:
Sucre to SB, Bogotá, May 8, 1830, O’L, I, 571.

Bolívar was in the northern town of Turbaco, etc.:
SB to Sucre, Turbaco, May 26, 1830, in
Itinerario documental
, Homenaje al Dr. Vicente Lecuna, Caracas, 1970, 349.

he had had to wait for a craft, etc.:
Ibid.

“My love, I am glad to report”:
SB to Sáenz, Guaduas, May 11, 1830, SBC, IX, 265.

at the peak of the rainy season, etc.:
H. Chisholm, “Colombia: Fauna and Flora,” in
Encyclopedia Britannica
, VI, 704.

the relentless, fetid heat of the coast, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 392, 397.

an annual pension equivalent to $15,000, etc.:
According to Restrepo, $30,000; Restrepo, IV, 317–18. Peso to dollar value:
Consular Reports
, vol. LX, GPO, Washington, DC, 1899, 663.

The scant money he had raised:
Posada Gutiérrez, 393.

his passport was slow in coming:
SB to Caicedo, Turbaco, June 1, 1830, SBC, IX, 272.

a British packet boat was on its way, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 397.

learned that it would be full of women:
SB to Mosquera, Cartagena, June 24, 1830, SBC, IX, 275.

Bolívar wouldn’t hear of it, etc.:
Posada Gutiérrez, I, 397, and for all subsequent details about this incident. Also see SB to “mi General,” Cartagena, June 29, 1830, SBC, IX, 277.

took advantage of the ship’s route to Caracas:
SB to Leandro Palacios, Cartagena, Aug. 14, 1830, SBC, IX, 285.

a slew of letters and a bit of remarkable news:
Rivolba, 64.

the tragic news he received on the morning of July 1:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 547.

he had been ambushed, etc.:
“Sucre,” República del Ecuador, Diario Oficial, Quito, May 24, 1889, no. 61, 1–3, and for all subsequent details in this paragraph.

Days later, a band of suspects, etc.:
L. Villanueva,
Vida del gran mariscal de Ayacucho
(Caracas: Tip Moderna, 1895), 567–72.