upon the royalists in New Granada, similar to the offensive
campaign which San Martin had conducted in Chile. More than that,
he had conceived the idea, once independence had been attained,
of uniting the western part of the viceroyalty with Venezuela
into a single republic. The latter plan he laid down before a
Congress which assembled at Angostura in February, 1819, and
which promptly chose him President of the republic and vested him
with the powers of dictator. In June, at the head of 2100 men, he
started on his perilous journey over the Andes.

Up through the passes and across bleak plateaus the little army
struggled till it reached the banks of the rivulet of Boyaca, in
the very heart of New Granada. Here, on the 7th of August,
Bolivar inflicted on the royalist forces a tremendous defeat that
gave the deathblow to the domination of Spain in northern South
America. On his triumphal return to Angostura, the Congress
signalized the victory by declaring the whole of the viceroyalty
an independent state under the name of the "Republic of Colombia"
and chose the Liberator as its provisional President. Two years
later, a fundamental law it had adopted was ratified with certain
changes by another Congress assembled at Rosario de Cucuta, and
Bolivar was made permanent President.

Southward of Colombia lay the viceroyalty of Peru, the oldest,
richest, and most conservative of the larger Spanish dominions on
the continent. Intact, except for the loss of Chile, it had found
territorial compensation by stretching its power over the
provinces of Quito and Charcas, the one wrenched off from the
former New Granada, the other torn away from what had been La
Plata. Predominantly royalist in sentiment, it was like a huge