to the bank, thus addressed them:  ’We must have these flecheres or die.  Let those follow Tio who please’ (’Tio,’ or ‘uncle,’ was the popular name by which Paez was known to his men), and at the same time, spurring his horse, pushed into the river and swam towards the flotilla.  The guard followed him with their lances in hand, now encouraging their horses to bear up against the current by swimming by their sides and patting their necks, and then shouting to scare away the alligators, of which there were hundreds in the river, until they reached the boats, when, mounting their horses, they sprang from their backs on board them, headed by their leader, and, to the astonishment of those who beheld them from the shore, captured every one of them.  To English officers it may appear inconceivable that a body of cavalry, with no other arms than their lances, and no other mode of conveyance across a rapid river than their horses, should attack and take a fleet of gunboats amidst shoals of alligators; but, strange as it may seem, it was actually accomplished, and there are many officers now in England who can testify to the truth of it.”

It will be evident from exploits such as these that the Venezuelans were fortunate in their leaders.

After a while Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, began to see that the materialization of his lifelong ideal was now no longer a matter of the dim distant future.  The struggle had been severe, and the fortunes of war had proved fickle at the beginning.  At one period it had seemed that even Nature had fought against the South American cause.  At Barquisimeto an earthquake had shattered the barracks of the soldiers of the Independence, and many hundreds of troops were crushed beneath the ruins.

The moral as well as the material effect of this disaster was serious in the extreme.  Miranda, moreover, although able, had proved himself an unfortunate General.  In the end he was captured by the Spaniards, and died in captivity in Cadiz.  Even when the tide of battle had definitely turned against the Spaniards, their desperate straits induced them to desperate measures, and the fortitude of the patriots continued to be put severely to the test.  One of the most dreaded Spanish moves, for instance, was the freeing of the slaves and the arming of these against their late colonial masters.

So embittered became the struggle that prisoners were put to death on both sides, and many terrible massacres ensued in consequence.  A number of other prominent patriot leaders now came forward to assist Bolivar and his comrades, among these being Narino, who proved himself victorious in many fights against the Royalists.  At length, in 1821, Bolivar and Paez effected a junction of their forces, and marched to meet the Spanish army.  On June 24 the Battle of Carabobo was fought, which resulted in the complete defeat of the Royalist troops.

[Illustration:  SIMON BOLIVAR, “EL LIBERADOR” (AS A YOUNG MAN).