the
ignorant peasantry that it was a judgment on the Patriots. The result
was that large bodies deserted, until the whole Patriot army became
disorganised. Miranda was captured and sent to Spain, where he died in
prison in 1816, but Bolivar managed to escape.

New Granada had revolted before Venezuela and was more successful. It
was to this province that Bolivar retired after the downfall of the
Patriot cause in Venezuela. Then the Spanish captain-general,
Monteverde, who was called "the Pacificator," commenced his work by
imprisoning so many Patriots that the gaols were choked, and many died
of hunger and suffocation. In the country districts he let his troops
ravage and plunder like hordes of banditti. Even his superiors were at
length compelled to recall him on account of the numerous complaints and
petitions. At last the people were again fairly roused, until there came
a war of extermination, in which both parties tried to outvie the other
in murder and rapine.

Off the peninsula of Paria lay the small island of Chacachacare, and on
it forty-five fugitives took refuge, where they consulted as to the
renewal of the war. With only six muskets and some pistols, they landed
on the coast on the 13th of March, 1813, surprised the guard of Gueiria,
took their arms and marched into the town, where they were joined by the
garrison, making their number two hundred. Thus began the second war, in
which the Patriots, assisted by the return of Bolivar and a body of
troops from New Granada, again took possession of a large part of the
province. On the 15th of June Bolivar proclaimed extermination to the
Royalists, and named the year, the third of independence and first of
the war to the death. This severity created many enemies in Venezuela,
as well as in other countries, and even Bolivar himself afterwards said
that the proclamation had been issued in a delirium. However, the result
was that both sides became more ferocious than ever, especially when the
Indians were induced to join the Patriots.

On the 6th of August Bolivar entered Caracas in triumph. The bells rang,
cannons roared, and the people cheered him as their liberator. His path
was strewn with flowers, blessings were called down upon his head, and
beautiful girls, dressed in white and the national colours, led his
horse and crowned him with laurel. The prison doors were opened, the
Patriots set free, and, in spite of his proclamation, no act of
retaliation sullie