e
pitched battles in somewhat less than eleven weeks, he finally liberated New
Granada, and secured a vast amount of Spanish treasure and munitions of
war. During his absence, Paez was left to keep Morillo in check on the
east of the Cordillera. His plan of operations was, to be everywhere,
and to do everything with his lancers. Venezuela clung with terrible
tenacity to the idea of freedom; and the Republic was converted into two
great camps, perpetually shifting their boundaries, yet ever presenting
the same features. Trade and commerce were at an end; the only business
thought of was that of war unto death. Death, everywhere; death, at all
times; death, in every shape. By the sword and the lance, by famine,
by drowning, by fire, decimated by fever, worn out by fatigue, the
Spaniards perished. When their convoys failed or were intercepted, it
was impossible to obtain food; no foraging-party dared venture forth
from the fortified encampment; it was necessary that an entire division
should march out into the Llanos, and seek for the nearest herd of
cattle. It not unfrequently happened, in these expeditions, that
the very cattle were enlisted on the Patriot side. Herds of several
thousands of the savage beasts were sometimes driven headlong upon the
Spanish lines, throwing them into confusion, and trampling or goring
great numbers to death. Close in the rear of the resistless herd then
charged the lancers of Paez, with the terrible black bannerol fluttering
in the van. Before the scattered Royalists have time to rally, they are
attacked in every direction by their merciless foes,--and in another
minute the battle is over, and the men of the Plains are out of sight!
Sometimes, too, a detachment traversing the savanna would notice with
affright a column of thin smoke stealing up into the sky a mile to
windward; and almost before the bugle or the drum could summon them
to arms, the flames would be seething and crackling around them, and
roaring away, in an ocean of fire, across the savanna beyond. And then,
in the rear of the flames, dashed the bloodthirsty lancers, and the
blackened embers of the grass turned red with the richness of Spanish
veins! No venture was too arduous for the Llanero chieftain. He
accomplished at one time an exploit in which only the multiplicity of
witnesses who have testified to the achievement permits us to believe.
San Fernando, an important town on the Apure, was strongly fortified,
and was held