in kind. Wholesale slaughter of prisoners, indiscriminate
pillage, and wanton destruction of property spread terror and
desolation throughout the country. Acclaimed "Liberator of
Venezuela" and made dictator by the people of Caracas, Bolivar
strove in vain to overcome the half-savage llaneros, or cowboys
of the plains, who despised the innovating aristocrats of the
capital. Though he won a few victories, he did not make the cause
of independence popular, and, realizing his failure, he retired
into New Granada.

In this region an astounding series of revolutions and
counter-revolutions had taken place. Unmindful of pleas for
cooperation, the Creole leaders in town and district, from 1810
onward, seized control of affairs in a fashion that betokened a
speedy disintegration of the country. Though the viceroy was
deposed and a general Congress was summoned to meet at the
capital, Bogota, efforts at centralization encountered opposition
in every quarter. Only the royalists managed to preserve a
semblance of unity. Separate republics sprang into being and in
1813 declared their independence of Spain. Presidents and
congresses were pitted against one another. Towns fought among
themselves. Even parishes demanded local autonomy. For a while
the services of Bolivar were invoked to force rebellious areas
into obedience to the principle of confederation, but with scant
result. Unable to agree with his fellow officers and displaying
traits of moral weakness which at this time as on previous
occasions showed that he had not yet risen to a full sense of
responsibility, the Liberator renounced the task and fled to
Jamaica.