The times., 1898-04-24

bear. Men looked WiStfully across the
sea toward the dark fortress where GAL
| liant Miranda was languishing in chains;
Ribas at Cartagena was filling his cellar
with firearms-like lion whose meat has
been ravished from his lips-Bolivar
paced his balcony in sullen rage
Then followed six years of war and
vicissitude, ending in the consolidation of
New Granada and Venezuela under the
dictatorship of the Liberator. He was
thirty when the six years war began
long-faced, Square-browed man, stern,
tireless. insensible to fear or fatigue.
ready to accept defeat calmly. and not
to eXult TOO loudly over victory. All
forms of fortune and misfortune came
10 him in turn-now practical emperor
with unlimited power; now starving
exile; one day the idol of the rabble
who begged to be allowed to kiss his
feet; the next a prescribed fugitive. a.
TO whose traitorous purposes no sensible
Venezuelan had any doubt. Three times
supreme power was forced on him.
and his countrymen swore to support
the constitution he had drawn; thrics
the constitution was rejected, and the
dark-faced little soldier, with clenched
fist and frowning brow, was compelled
to return to private life. The Venezu-
claus could neither endure nor do with
out him.
His memoirs throw side lights on his
character which are agreeable When he
had been defeated and forced to fly from
his country, he made a bee line for Par
is, and the fair DANES of the FaubOurg
learned of his defeat by his appearance
in their salons In gorgeous uniform,
while in the Quarter Latin some laugh
ing Trilby, with fairy feet, bounded with
joy as she threw her white arms aound
| the neck Of the black-faced king of Ca
racas.
I,
Spaniards to conciliate this whole-souled
hero. But they had not brains enough
for that. From 1913. when the struggle
for independence began, to 1920 when It
ended the Spaniards adhered to the same
policy, which, whether it led TO defeat
or to victory, always had the effect of
exasperating the South Americans and
rendering reconciliation impossible. After
the union of New Granada and Venezue-
Ia in 1919 the Spanish cause was hope
less, but Gen. la Core insisted on fight
ing a battle with Bolivar, in which he
lost everything-honor and reputation
and hope, 5000 men and all his baggage
and artillery. What could be done with
men of such denseness?
They accomplished purpose which
they did not intend. They kept the fire
| of independence alight, and blew the
embers when they cooled. But for their
turbulence the epidemic might have been
| isolated here and there. They made its
spread inevitable While Bolivar was
fusing the northern cosonies into the in
dependent republic of Colombia. Jose de
San Martin, at Buenos Ayres. was mar
turing plans for the enfranchisement of
Chile. He was quite a young man. But
he had been well educated at the College
of Mobiles in Spain, and had fought with
distinction at Baylen. With $50 recruits
whom he picked up in streets of Buenos
L. l. IL
with which he proposed to achieve feat
greater than Napoleons passage of the
Alps He was Joined by Bernardo
O'Higgins, son OF the viceroy of Chile,
and on January It. 1917, he began the
crossing of the Andes.
His force consisted of 260 officers and
$500 men. Each officer had two mules
to carry his baggage and each private
one The staff consisted of seventy-one
officers, for whom III mules were allow
| ed. Five hundred and ten mules carried
| provisions for $500 men for fifteen days.
| Seven hundred and seventy mules car
| ried a field train of artillery with 110
| rounds per gun. one-half million mus
| ket cartridges and $50 loads of spare
arms. The provisions consisted of jerked
| beef seasoned with capsicum, toasted
maize, biscuit and cheese. Both men and
animals suffered from the rarefaction of
| the air caused by the great elevation.
One-haf the mules died on the road.
| The army crossed the Uspallata pass,
which is 1850 feet above the sea. over
1000 feet higher than the pass of the
| great San Barnard. San Martins feat
| thus suspasses the one which contribut-
| ed so much to the glory of Bonaparte.
| His eXultation as he looked down from
| the heights of the Andes upon the rich
country he proposed to liberate can be
| conceived. He was still young man,
| tall, well formed and soldierly of aspect.
His complexion was olive. his hair black
| his eyes large and dark. He wore large
side whiskers, without a~mustache. His
! speech was slow and deliberate his man
ners conciliatory. He was resolved not
| to give the enemy time to concentrate
| his forces. At the foot of the noun
| tains a considerable body of Spaniards
| were assembled. O'Higgins fell upon
them with his cavalry and scattered
them. Pushing on rapidly, on February
| To- 1917, San Martin, with two doubloons
| in his pocket no military chest. no
! stores, no medicine for the wounded, en-
| tered Santiago with his wild gauchos at