agreeable to orders, retired
towards the Orinoco, detaching a few guerillas to harass the Spaniards in
the rear.

General Urdaneta was appointed to command the recently arrived British
legion in Margarita, which was to act on the side of Caracas, in order to
draw off the attention of Morillo from the Llanos.

On the 15th of February, 1819, congress was installed at Angostura. The
supreme chief pronounced an eloquent discourse, and resigned his
authority. Congress immediately, and unanimously, elected him president
of the republic.

Early in March, the president rejoined the army, which was very much
reduced by sickness. On the 27th, he defeated the vanguard of the
Spaniards. Adopting a desultory system of warfare, he obliged them to
recross the Apure, having lost half their original numbers.

While Morillo remained in winter quarters, the president traversed the
vast plains of the Apure and Casanare, which are rendered almost
impassable by inundations from the month of May to the end of August. In
Casanare, the president formed a junction with the division of Santander,
two thousand strong. Santander had, from the commencement of the
revolution, dedicated himself with enthusiastic constancy to the cause of
his country. He now expelled the Spaniards from their formidable position
of Paya, and opened the way for the president to cross the terrific
Andes, in effecting which, nearly a fourth of his army perished from the
effects of cold and excessive fatigue.

On the 11th of July, the president attacked the royal army at Gamarra.
After a long engagement, the Spanish general Barrero retired, and did not
again offer battle, except in positions almost inaccessible. Bonza was
invested by the patriots for some days in sight of both armies. The
president, by a flank movement, brought the Spaniards to action on the
25th of July, at Bargas. The Spaniards, though superior in numbers, and
advantageously posted, gave way, and the president obtained a complete
victory. His inferior forces, however, and the nature of the country, did
not allow him to make the most of this glorious success; but he obtained
a thousand recruits, and marched to interpose between the defeated
Barrero and the viceroy Samano, who, with all the disposable force south
of Bogota, was about to support Barrero. The result of the president's
daring and masterly movement was the battle of Boyaca, fought on the 7th
of August, and which has been called the _birth