in two small affairs, and prudently withdrew beyond the Arauco.
Again Morillo advanced. On the 3rd April Paez, with 150 picked horsemen, swam the river and galloped towards the camp. Eight hundred of the Royalist cavalry, with two small guns, sallied out to meet him. He slowly retreated, drawing them on to a place called "Las Queseras del Medio," where a battalion of infantry lay in ambush by the river. Then splitting his men into groups of twenty, he charged the enemy on all sides, forcing them under the fire of the infantry, and recrossed the river with two killed and a few wounded, leaving the plain strewn with the dead of the enemy.[1] Morillo again retreated, and the rains put an end to further operations.
Bolívar, ever impatient of inactivity, heard at this time that Santander had raised 1,200 infantry and 600 horse in Casanare, and had driven back a Royalist army of 2,300 men under Colonel Barreiro, who had marched against him from New Granada. This gave him an idea; he resolved to cross the Cordillera and save Venezuela by reconquering New Granada. He summoned a council of war, and the idea was received with enthusiasm by his officers. It was decided that Paez, with a part of the army, should attract the attention of Morillo and of the Army of New Granada upon the plains of Barinas; that Urdaneta and Montilla should embark the auxiliaries on the vessels of Brion's squadron, and should make a descent on the coasts of Caracas, menacing the rear of the Royalist army; while he with the rest of the Army of the Apure, and with the forces of Santander, should cross the Cordillera, and capture the capital of New Granada.
This was the greatest stroke of strategy that had emanated from the fertile genius of Bolívar. It changed the whole aspect of affairs, and had a similar effect to the passage of the Andes by San Martin.
- ↑ See Appendix VI.
