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.
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