nd his companions accompanied the great San
Martin in his march from Argentina westwards over the Andes to Chile.
From there, having freed the province, the liberating army turned
northwards into Peru, eventually to fuse with the stream of patriot
forces which was flowing down from the north with the same purpose in
view.

Since both Miranda and Bolivar had played such important parts before
the outbreak of the revolution, it will be well to deal first of all
with the progress of the wars in the north. It was in Caracas that the
plans and projects of independence were matured. When the outbreak in
the south took place, Caracas girded up its loins for war, and Bolivar
and Miranda took the field beneath the banner of independence. In no
place were the fortunes of war more varied than in the north, and the
campaign was destined to last fourteen years before the Spanish power in
the old kingdom of New Granada was finally broken.

It is impossible here to go into the full details of the campaigns. In
the first place, the patriots, although they fought desperately,
ill-armed and undisciplined as they were, suffered numerous reverses
from the Spanish veterans who garrisoned the northern districts. More
than once the flames of revolution seemed to all practical purposes
extinguished, and Bolivar and his lieutenants, fugitives from the field
of strife, were obliged to continue their plans in other lands, among
these places of refuge being some of the British West Indian Islands.

Even here the patriots were by no means safe from the vengeance of
Spain. Various attempts were made to assassinate Bolivar. On one
occasion a dastardly endeavour of the kind was within an ace of being
successful. Bolivar had sailed to Jamaica in order to obtain supplies
for the patriot forces. His presence in the island was noted, and some
Spaniards bribed a negro to enter the house where he was staying and to
slay him as he lay asleep at night.

The murderous black succeeded in penetrating to the room where the
General usually slept. A figure lay upon the bed, and this the assassin
stabbed to the heart; but it was not that of the Liberator. It was his
secretary, who had died in his stead.

Bolivar, however, was not a man to be deterred from his plans by
attempts such as these. He was possessed of a high courage, and was by
no means averse to distinguish himself on the battle-field from the rest
in the matter of costume. At Boyaca, for instance, h