commended him to confide his cases till he could despatch them to
Europe.

Soon after this we were on the march, and were joined by other bodies of
cavalry. I was gratified to see that none surpassed those of General
Bermudez, however, either in their appointments, discipline, or the
appearance of the horses and men.

General Bolivar was at Angostura with most of the infantry regiments of
the Republic, with General Paez and other leaders of distinction; while
the Spaniards held most of the towns on the northern coast. Our object
was to harass the enemy in every possible way: to cut off their supplies
of provisions; to attack their foraging-parties; and prevent them from
communicating with each other. For this work our llaneros were
specially suited.

It was wild work in which we were engaged. Sometimes, in the darkness
of night, we discovered the enemy's position by their camp-fires,--when,
advancing at a slow pace, so that our horses' hoofs might not be heard
till we were close upon them, at a signal from our chief we dashed
forward like a whirlwind, swooping down upon our sleeping foe; and
before a man had time to seize his arms, we were in their midst, cutting
down all we encountered, traversing the camp from end to end, and
carrying off all the horses we could capture,--then galloping off to a
distance, out of the reach of their musketry.

We now heard that the Spanish generals, Morillo and La Torre, had drawn
off their forces from Caracas,--the first to Valencia, and the latter to
Calabozo; leaving but a small garrison in the former city. No sooner
did our active general receive this information, than he resolved to
attempt the capture of the chief city of the province.

Our forces were at once put in motion. Each one carried his own
provisions in his haversack, and forage of some sort was always to be
obtained for our hardy steeds, so that we marched across the country
with incredible rapidity. As the inhabitants of the district through
which we passed were in our favour, no one gave information of our
movements to the enemy; and in a few days we reached the neighbourhood
of the beautiful city--just at nightfall. The greater part of the night
was spent in recruiting our horses and ourselves; and before dawn we
were again in the saddle, pushing on at a rapid rate towards our
destination. We halted but for a few moments, to form our ranks, as the
city appeared in sight. Then the order to advance was g