Bolivar: American Liberator (92 page)

a title he found odious:
SB to the Peruvian Congress, in Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 235. “I would have preferred never to have seen Peru again—preferred even our defeat—to the frightening title of Dictator.”

still hallowed by a republican aura:
Wu, 14.

On February 27, he and his top ministers, etc.:
Sáenz to SB, Lima, Feb. 27, 1824, Alvarez Saá, 77. Also O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 289. Joining Torre Tagle were the famous Diego Aliaga (whose ancestor had come to Peru with Pizarro) and Minister of War Berindoaga.

including Manuela Sáenz:
Heres to SB, Chanquillo, Feb. 13, 1824, O’L, V, 67.

He wrote to his generals, etc.:
SB to Gen. Salom, Pativilca, Feb. 10, 1824, SBO, II, 916–18; SB to Santander, Feb. 10, 1824, ibid., 918–21; SB to Sucre, Feb. 13, 1824, ibid., 921–26; SB to Gen. La Mar, Feb. 14, 1824, ibid., 926–27.

stronger ties to Spain:
S. O’Phelan, “Sucre en el Perú,”
La independencia en el Perú: De los Borbones a Bolívar
(Lima: Pont. Univ. Católica del Perú, 2001), 379–406.

mixed-race ruffians:
Ibid.

They had learned to be patriots:
The historian is Morote,
Bolívar: Libertador y enemigo no. 1 del Perú
, 48.

“I’m through making promises”:
SB to Santander, Pativilca, Jan. 23, 1824, SBO, II, 887–89.

“itinerant government”:
SB to Santander, Pativilca, Jan. 25, 1824, SBSW, II, 433–35.

full battle plan for General Sucre:
SB to Sucre, Pativilca, Jan. 26, 1824, SBO, II, 896–901.

“Send troops and we’ll win”:
SB to Santander, Pativilca, Feb. 10, 1824, ibid., and Trujillo, March 16, 1824, ibid.

turned Trujillo into a teeming arsenal, etc.:
O’Leary
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 296.

Silver was seized from church:
SB to Sucre, Trujillo, March 21, 1824, SBO, II, 939–42.

more than 100,000 pesos, etc.:
Morote, 57.

ordered seamstresses, etc.:
O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 296. Also Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 396.

cattle necessary to feed his troops:
SB to La Mar, Huaraz, June 14, 1824, SBO, II, 984–85.

Lambayeque and Piura, etc.:
Ibid., 58.

Panama, greater Guatemala, Mexico:
SB to Sucre, Trujillo, April 9, 1824, SBSW, II, 444–47; also SB to Heres, Huamachuco, April 23, 1824, SBO, II, 958–59.

as if Mars had sprung:
O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 297.

an army of eight thousand:
Lynch,
Simón Bolívar
, 191.

In April, it became evident, etc.:
SB to Heres, Otuzco, April 15, 1824, SBO, II, 953–54.

Bolívar eventually wrote to Olañeta:
SB to Olañeta, Huaraz, May 21, 1824, ibid., 975–77.

“For God’s sake, send me”:
SB to Pérez, Huamachuco, May 6, 1824, ibid., 963–65.

spread out a map of Peru, etc.:
O’Connor, 67.

Valdés and five thousand men:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 402, 404. The royalists had 20,000 troops in Peru. Sixteen thousand were active soldiers; the rest were guarding garrisons around the area.

“As far as I can see”:
O’Connor, 68.

“This youngster has just given us”:
Ibid.

rich fields of sugarcane, etc.:
Paulding, 48.

only a day’s ride away:
Murray,
For Glory and Bolívar
, 38.

“an irresistibly fresh doll,” etc.:
From the great nineteenth-century Peruvian essayist-historian Ricardo Palma,
Mis últimas tradiciones peruanas
(Barcelona: Editorial Maucci, 1908), 146.

“You will note that though I beg”:
SB to Santander, Huamachuco, May 6, 1824, SBO, II, 966–68.

regards to the unattainable Bernardina:
Ibid.

the wittiest, most profoundly human:
Madariaga, 479.

“The general has written me only twice,” etc.:
Sáenz to Santana, Huamachuco, May 28, 1824, Lecuna, “Cartas de mujeres,” 332.

“My sir,” etc.:
Sáenz to SB, Huamachuco, May 26, 1824,
Las más hermosas cartas
(Caracas: Editorial El Perro y La Rana, 2006), 35.

they reunited at the end of June:
Murray,
For Glory and Bolívar
, 38.

seventy-four years later:
Palma,
Tradiciones
, 162 fn.

“So, how is Bolívar’s old lady?”:
Ibid.

the equivalent of $12 billion:
Cerro de Pasco had produced £170 million by 1803. According to
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2002/rp02-044.pdf
the value today would be over $12 billion. Report of the Commissioner of General Land Office, for the year 1867 (Washington: GPO, 1867);
The Colliery Engineer
, 27 (1907), 134; Dan De Quille,
History of the Big Bonanza
(San Francisco: Bancroft, 1876), 463.

But Sucre had prepared the way, etc.:
Miller, II, 122–28; O’Connor, 66–68.

strange concert of anxious calls:
Miller, II, 122–28.

Following behind them, were the Rabonas, etc.:
Flora Tristan wrote about the Rabonas in her
Peregrinations of a Pariah
, 179–81. Also see A. García Camba,
Memorias del General Camba
, Rufino Blanco-Fombona (Bib. Ayacucho, 1916), VII, 205; R. Gil Montero, “Las guerras de independencia en los andes meridionales,”
Memoria Americana
, no. 14 (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, 2006), online version ISSN 1851–3751.

a brilliantly prepared army:
Miller, II, 122–28; O’Connor, 64–67; O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 305.

Bolívar gloried in the sight, etc.:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 530.

nine thousand disciplined soldiers:
Miller, II, 122–28; O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 297.

from as far away as Caracas, etc.:
Miller, II, 122–28. O’Connor, 64–67.

six thousand cattle:
Miller, II, 125.

the finest patriot force, etc.:
Masur,
Simón Bolívar
, 530.

delighted in sitting with his officers:
Paulding, 53–60.

His two thousand men, etc.:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 410.

well regimented, well armed, etc.:
Miller, II, 125.

only six hundred, etc.:
Wu, 14; O’Connor, 85.

assuring him that Bolívar was no threat:
Valdés to Canterac, Cochabamba, May 3–4, 1824,
Documentos para la historia separatista del Perú por el conde de Torata, nieto del General Valdés
, IV (Madrid: Minuesa, 1898), 291–94.

Sucre’s minions swarmed through:
Miller, II, 128.

fallen into a great slumber:
Ibid., 128–29.

Clearly, he was confident:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 405.

On the crisp, clear morning:
Miller, II, 128–29.

reviewed 7,700 troops:
O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 305. General Miller (II, 128) cites 9,000, but he is probably including the 1,500 guerrillas, whom O’Leary mentions, and who may not have arrived until later.

on a towering mesa, etc.:
Miller, II, 128–29.

“Soldiers! You are about to complete”:
O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 306.

The air was filled, etc.:
Miller, II, 129.

a glimpse of one of Canterac’s divisions, etc.:
López, 115; Miller, II, 130.

quivering for a fight:
Miller, II, 130–1.

reconnaissance with thirteen hundred troops, etc.:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 414.

with the chill of surprise:
A. García Camba,
Memorias
, II (Madrid: Hortelano, 1846), 254–55.

Bolívar and nine hundred horsemen:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 415.

looking to provoke the Spanish general to battle:
Ibid., 412.

he decided to circle the lake:
Canterac to Viceroy La Serna, quoted in O’Leary,
Bolívar
y la emancipación
, 312. This was revealed in a letter intercepted by the patriots. There is no reason to doubt Canterac’s word that he was after the patriot rear guard, but O’Leary adds that the Spanish general was rushing south to block SB from marching on Jauja, since they appeared to be going in that direction.

battle at five o’clock:
Santa Cruz, Parte oficial de la batalla de Junín, in O’L, XLIV, 422.

fought entirely with swords and lances, etc.:
O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 308.

directed the veteran general Miller, etc.:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 415–19.

lance was fourteen feet long:
Miller, II, 133.

“made the earth tremble”:
O’Connor, 76.

darken the sky an hour later:
Miller, II, 133. Miller claims the action lasted three quarters of an hour. Larrazábal (
Vida
, III, 253) says it took an hour. Masur (
Simón Bolívar
, 532) cites one and a half hours.

the effects of high-altitude combat:
The plains of Junín are 13,232 feet above sea level.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
, 21 (1911), 267.

could not have gone on much longer, etc.:
O’Connor, 76–77, for subsequent details.

“Victory!”:
Madariaga, 482.

sent squadrons of sharpshooters:
Ibid.

José Palacios, the loyal manservant:
Ibid.

“The brilliant skirmish of Junín”:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 253.

“Our losses may have been few in number,” etc.:
Canterac to Rodil, O’Leary,
Bolívar y la emancipación
, 312–13.

shut himself up in the fortress of Callao, etc.:
Baralt and Díaz, II, 134.

collected all the equipment, etc.:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 254.

had burned whole villages:
Gen. Miller to Sucre, O’L, XXII, 417; Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 409–11.

executed hundreds, etc.:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, 255.

“They were Caligula; we were Caesar”:
Santander, “El General Simón Bolívar en campaña,”
Gazeta de Santa Fé
, Oct. 4, 1819, JCBL.

installed municipal governments, etc.:
Bulnes, 547–48.

he threatened to shoot councilors:
Ibid. Also Madariaga, 484.

Soldiers who looted, etc.:
Madariaga, 484.

“You’re out of your mind if you think”:
Villanueva, 151.

There was no town in the area:
Bulnes, 549.

while his army rested:
Larrazábal,
Vida
, II, also SB to Sucre, Huancarama, Sept. 28, 1824, SBO, II, 993–94.

dozens of villages:
See the list of these in SBO, II, 991–93.

she settled for a while:
Murray,
For Glory and Bolívar
, 39. A number of historians—Rumazo González, Alvarez Saá, Claire Brewster—have claimed that Sáenz marched with SB over Cerro de Pasca and fought in the Battle of Junín. But there appears to be no basis for that claim. Murray and many serious Latin American scholars hold that the legend (and material that supports it) is apocryphal.

The rain came earlier than usual, etc.:
Bulnes, 551.

he had been stripped of all his powers, etc.:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 436–37.

“man of laws”:
SB to Santander, Lima, Feb. 9, 1825, SBO, II, 1044–46. “You are the man of laws and Sucre is the man of war.” Also Monsalve,
El ideal político del Libertador
, 56.

“Without a law expressly passed”:
Santander to SB, Bogotá, Feb. 6, 1824, O’L, III, 137.

Some congressmen had even begun to object, etc.:
This growing resentment was eventually described in the letter from Santander to SB, Bogotá, May 6, 1825, O’L, ibid., 168–76.

news to Sucre in two memoranda:
Heres to Sucre, Oct. 24, 1824 (two letters with this date), O’L, XXII, 525–26. Heres was Bolívar’s secretary general.

to be destroyed:
Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 436–37.

to separate the Liberator from it:
Heres to Sucre, ibid. (the first, personal letter).

submitted a heated protest:
Sucre to Heres, O’L, XXII, 542. Also Lecuna,
Crónica
, III, 437–38.

correspondence was clipped:
See SB to Santander, Chancay, Nov. 13, 1824, SBO, II, 1008–9.