Bolivar: American Liberator (84 page)

He offered Bolívar the battleship:
SB to Brion, Kingston, July 16, 1815, SBO, I, 152–53.

Bolívar wrote editorials:
Jocelyn Almeida, “Sullen Fires Across the Atlantic,” Long Island University, Praxis Series,
http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/sullenfires/almeida/almeida_essay.html
.

an astonishingly prescient letter:
“Letter from Jamaica,” SB to “un caballero de esta isla,” Kingston, Sept. 6, 1815, SBO, I, 161. The first known manuscript of this letter, as Pedro Grases explains in his essay on bibliographic conundrums of Bolívarian history, was published in Jamaica in English, translated by Gen. John Robertson. It appeared in 1818 and once more, in 1825, in
The Jamaica Quarterly and Literary Gazette.
The version in Spanish was not published until 1833, three years after SB’s death. Grases y Uslar Pietri, “Temas de Simón Bolívar,” in P. Grases,
Escritos selectos
(Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989), 188–89.

an Englishman in Jamaica:
This was Henry Cullen. Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 92; also Grases, 187.

“wicked stepmother”:
SB, “Letter from Jamaica,” SBO, 161–77.

afforded him two tiny rooms:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 407.

“I am . . . living in uncertainty and misery”:
SB to Brion, Kingston, July 16, 1815, SBO, I, 152–53.

Bolívar was no longer there:
SB to Hyslop, Kingston, Dec. 4, 1815, SBO, I, 188.

attacked the man in the hammock, etc.:
Royal Gazette of Jamaica
, Dec. 16, 1815, and Dec. 23, 1815, quoted in Annette Insanally, “L’enjeu Caraibéen,” in Alain Yacou, ed.,
Bolívar et les peuples de nuestra America
(Paris: Centre d’Études et Recherches Caraibéenes, 1990), 117–18.

“A Negro is killing me!”:
Ibid., 117.

2,000 pesos, etc.:
Ibid. Also, O’L, XV, 28–30; Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 407.

lolled abed with Julia Cobier:
Insanally, 118; also Liévano Aguirre, 143.

dinner at Hyslop’s:
Insanally, 117.

Polish Jew in Kingston:
O’L, XV, 28–30.

sailed with food and supplies, etc.:
O’LN, I, 313.

Hyslop’s wealthy colleague Robert Sutherland:
W. F. Lewis, “Simón Bolívar and Xavier Mina,”
Journal of Inter-American Studies
, 11, no. 3 (July 1969), 459.

Haiti’s de facto minister of trade and finance:
M. E. Rodríguez,
Freedom’s Mercenaries
(Ann Arbor: Hamilton, 2006), 92.

and an active gunrunner:
B. Ardouin,
Études sur L’histoire d’Haïti
, 2nd edition (Port-au-Prince, 1958), VI, 21–69. The Sutherland connection is also noted in Lewis, 458–65.

Sutherland received him, etc.:
SBC, I, 254.

“I was immediately drawn to him”:
Pétion to José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia; quoted in “A Few Great Leaders,”
The Freeman
, Indianapolis, July 5, 1890, 7.

“No, don’t mention my name”:
Azpurúa,
Biografias de hombres notables de Hispano-América
, III 214–17.

one thousand guns, etc.:
Lewis, 458–65. With Pétion’s blessing, Sutherland provided the supplies. Among the ships were the
Bolívar, Mariño, Píar, Brion, Constitución
, and
Consejo.

married one of Bolívar’s cousins:
McGregor’s biographer, David Sinclair, called it “a shotgun wedding” in
The Land That Never Was
(Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003), 151.

challenge Bolívar to a duel:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, I, 430.

Bermúdez continued his insubordination:
Ibid.

affair with the irresistible young Isabel Soublette:
Ducoudray, I, 308; also Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 97.

Epigraph:
“Our people are nothing like Europeans”:
SB, “Discurso al Congreso de Angostura,” Feb. 15, 1819, DOC, VI, 589.

year without a summer, etc.:
Mount Tambora erupted in April of 1815. It took many months for the ash particles to travel around the planet, but by spring of 1816 the volcano’s effects were in full force in the northern hemisphere. A. Gates and D. Ritchie,
Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes
(New York: Facts on File, 2007), 252.

“darkling in the eternal space”:
From “Darkness,” by Lord Byron, 1816. First lines: “I had a dream, which was not all a dream./The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars/Did wander darkling in the eternal space.”

freak imbalance:
M. Z. Jacobson,
Atmospheric Pollution
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 336–37.

causing a crippling famine, etc.:
J. D. Post,
The Last Great Subsistence Crisis in the Western World
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977), 122–25.

Food riots gripped England:
C. Knight,
Popular History of England
, VIII (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1869), 55.

Luddites torched textile factories:
Ibid., 61.

castle in rain-pelted Switzerland:
M. Shelley,
Frankenstein
(London: Penguin, 1992), Introduction.

stunned by the fiery skies:
Jacobson, 336–37.

new age of medical discovery:
Post, 122–25.

arrived a month sooner:
L. Dupigny-Giroux and C. J. Mock,
Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America
(London: Springer, 2009), 116–19.

the revolution’s cruelest year:
S. K. Stoan,
Pablo Morillo and Venezuela
(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1974), 83–84.

installed draconian laws, etc.:
Archer, 35, for all subsequent details.

Committee of Confiscation, etc.:
“
Junta de Secuestros
,” described in Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 92. Also O’LN, I, 297–98; Stoan, 83–84, 163.

largest and most retaliatory confiscation:
Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 92.

“traitors to the king”:
Morillo’s term, quoted in Prago,
Revolutions
, 191.

condemned to heavy labor, etc.:
Ibid.

shot in the back:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 382; also Petre,
Simón Bolívar
, 164.

Morillo had created a strategic problem:
Adelman,
Sovereignty and Revolution in the Iberian Atlantic
, 273–74.

Venezuelan rebels with nothing to lose:
O’L, XXVII, 345.

A ship holding a million pesos, etc.:
Adelman, 273–74, for Morillo’s problems.

Frustrated, ill-humored:
Ducoudray, I, 200.

began to imagine the worst:
L. Ullrick, “Morillo’s Attempt to Pacify Venezuela,”
HAHR
, 3, no. 4 (1920), 535–65; also Stoan, 134–46; R. Earle,
Spain and the Independence of Colombia
(Exeter: University of Exeter, 2000), 70–73.

disputatious officers, querulous wives:
Ducoudray, 142.

a paucity of wind:
Restrepo, II, 337; also Mosquera, 180.

corresponding anxiously for months:
Ducoudray, I, 141.

were probably in danger without him:
Polanco Alcántara, 410–11.

more than two days, etc.:
Ducoudray, I, 143, for subsequent details.

Just as Marc Antony:
Soublette to O’Leary: “Here is where love came in. You know very well that Anthony [
sic
], despite all the perils through which he sailed, lost precious moments with Cleopatra.” Quoted in O’L, XXVII, 351.

cousin Florencio Palacios:
Ducoudray, 142.

the dawn of the third republic:
Blanco Fombona,
Bolívar, pintado por sí mismo
, 72–73.

liberation of Spanish America:
SB,
Escritos
, IX, 132.

end to his war to the death:
Blanco-Fombona,
Bolívar, pintado por sí mismo
, 179–80.

tall, athletic, muscular, etc.:
Recollections of a Service of Three Years
(Anonymous), 32–33.

“exhibits a peculiar ferocity”:
Ibid.

Caribbean pirate Beluche:
Renato Beluche was a pirate-soldier from New Orleans, where his father ran a wig shop as a front for smuggling. Before joining SB, Beluche
had business dealings with the pirate Lafitte and fought in the Battle of New Orleans alongside General Andrew Jackson. A good portrait of Beluche can be found in J. Lucas de Grummond,
Renato Beluche
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983).

“enough arms and munitions,” etc.:
SB to Leandro Palacios, March 21, 1816, SBC, I, 227.

bringing a black revolution:
Madariaga, 536.

as hurricanes blew record winds:
Dupigny-Giroux and Mock, 116–18.

largely made up of officers:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, I, 445.

more than triple that number:
SB was only able to raise 800.
New American Encyclopedia.

“I have come to decree, as law”:
SB,
Escritos
, IX, 185–86.

risked alienating fellow Creoles:
O’L, XXVII, 346.

had written to his superiors in Spain, etc.:
Cevallos to the Secretary of State and the Council of the Indies, Letter no. 42, Caracas, July 22, 1815, Archivo General de las Indias,
HAHR
, 33, no. 4 (November, 1953), 530, for all subsequent quotes. Also in Archer, 180.

Soublette sent his aide-de-camp:
Lecuna claims that Soublette himself may have been the source of the miscommunications. Soublette, he argues, was miffed with SB for dallying with Pepita. She was constantly at SB’s side through this expedition and some claimed she was a distraction. We should remember here, too, that SB had had a dalliance with Soublette’s sister, Isabel. All this can be found in Lecuna,
Crónica
, I, 474–76.

no more than three miles away:
Ibid., 468.

but Villaret stalled, arguing:
Ibid., 467.

Making matters worse, Francisco Bermúdez:
SB to Bermúdez, Ocumare, July 8, 1816, SBC, XI, 71. SB asked him to leave because his presence was causing disorder in his ranks.

“Events were clouded by love”:
O’L, XXVII, 351.

deal with Pepita and her family:
Brion to Arismendi, Bonayre [
sic
], July 1816, DOC, V, 456. Brion says he saw the warship
Indio-Libre
still in harbor when he arrived, and heard the news that SB had escaped three nights before with a few of his officers and the women.

“The gang of criminals”:
Rodríguez Villa,
El teniente general Don Pablo Morillo
, IV, 82–83.

Few events in Bolívar’s life:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 283.

admitting much later:
SB to Madrid, Fucha, March 6, 1830, SBSW, II, 757. Also SBC, IX, 241.

tried to deliver a few arms:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, I, 472.

He sent Admiral Brion:
Brion took three of the warships (
Bolívar, Constitución
, and
Arismendi
). The
Bolívar
, which held officers Brion, Villaret, and Beluche, wrecked at Isla Pino, off Panama, but the men survived. The mission to the U.S. did not. Yanes, I, 311.

deposit Pepita and her family:
They were deposited on the island of Tortola, very close to St. Thomas. SB contracted a ship’s captain to take them the short distance. Lecuna,
Crónica
, I, 480.

He did not reach the eastern port:
Madariaga, 284.

a man with a ready sword, etc.:
Ibid.

“Down with Bolívar!”:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 436.

10,000 pesos for his head:
Sherwell, 97.

drawing his sword into the air:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 437.

“Never,” asserted a witness, had “Bermúdez’s arm moved”:
Ibid.

forbidden from assuming the title:
Mosquera, 186.

“Bolívar’s cowardice has emerged”:
Ducoudray, II, 22.

Bolívar had never been inclined:
Lynch, “Bolívar and the Caudillos,”
HAHR
, 63, no. 1 (Feb. 1983), 9.

Pétion was generous in his praise:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, I, 441.

a letter from a Spanish insurrectionist:
Ibid., 442.

charming his way through Boston:
Ibid., 443.

Mina had actually managed to raise men:
Ibid., 442.

One was from Arismendi, etc.:
Ibid., 444–45.

“and try to forget those lamentable scenes”:
Ibid.