otection of Great Britain. He
was well received by the Marquess Wellesley, then secretary for Foreign
Affairs. The British government offered its mediation between Spain and her
colonies, but the offer was rejected by the court of Madrid. Bolivar
returned to his own country, accompanied by General Miranda, who was placed
in command of the Venezuelan troops. But the revolutionary government was
too feebly organized to give efficiency to the military force. Divisions
arose, and the cause of independence was on the retrograde, when the
dreadful earthquake of 1812, and the subsequent invasion by the Spanish
force under General Monteverde, for the time, precluded all possibility of
success.

Bolivar, alleging that Miranda had betrayed his country by capitulating to
Monteverde, arrested him at La Guayra. Bolivar then demanded his passport,
and when taken before Monteverde, the Spanish general said that Colonel
Bolivar's request should be complied with, as a reward for his having
served the king of Spain by delivering up Miranda. Bolivar answered that he
arrested him to punish a traitor[2] to his country, and not to serve the
king. This answer had nearly included him in the general proscription; but
the good offices of Don Francisco Iturbe, secretary to Monteverde, procured
the passport, and Bolivar was allowed to sail for Curacoa. From that island
he went to Carthagena, where he obtained the command of a small force, with
which he proceeded up the Magdalena, and having beaten parties of the
royalist troops at various points on that river, he continued his march
from Ocana to Cucuta, and solicited assistance from the government of
Cundinamarca. Five hundred men were placed at his disposal, and with these,
added to his own small party, Bolivar undertook to effect the liberation of
his country. Four thousand Spaniards, under General Correa, were then on
that part of the Venezuelan frontier. A division of these was beaten by
Bolivar, who pursued his march to Truxillo, defeating on the way several
royalist detachments.

[2] Bolivar seems to have been hurried into a dreadful error by the
warmth of his feelings. Not only is the _expediency_ of the
capitulation admitted by eye witnesses of the first
respectability, but also that Miranda had no other alternative.
The rich and influential inhabitants withheld their support, not
that their political sentiments had undergone a change but
beca