A junction of the forces of the two great leaders was perfectly
feasible, after the last important foothold of the Spaniards on
the coast of Venezuela had been broken by the Battle of Carabobo,
on July 24, 1821. Whether such a union would be made, however,
depended upon two things: the ultimate disposition of the
province of Quito, lying between Colombia and Peru, and the
attitude which Bolivar and San Martin themselves should assume
toward each other. A revolution of the previous year at the
seaport town of Guayaquil in that province had installed an
independent government which besought the Liberator to sustain
its existence. Prompt to avail himself of so auspicious an
opportunity of uniting this former division of the viceroyalty of
New Granada to his republic of Colombia, Bolivar appointed
Antonio Jose de Sucre, his ablest lieutenant and probably the
most efficient of all Spanish American soldiers of the time, to
assume charge of the campaign. On his arrival at Guayaquil, this
officer found the inhabitants at odds among themselves. Some,
hearkening to the pleas of an agent of San Martin, favored union
with Peru; others, yielding to the arguments of a representative
of Bolivar, urged annexation to Colombia; still others regarded
absolute independence as most desirable. Under these
circumstances Sucre for a while made little headway against the
royalists concentrated in the mountainous parts of the country
despite the partial support he received from troops which were
sent by the southern commander. At length, on May 24, 1822,
scaling the flanks of the volcano of Pichincha, near the capital
town of Quito itself, he delivered the blow for freedom. Here
Bolivar, who had fought his way overland amid tremendous
difficulties, joined him and started for Guayaquil, where he and