something of the previous position of affairs. You
see we had all been a good deal dissatisfied with
Bolivar, who, on the 25th of November, 1820
—the year before the battle—had concluded a
truce for six months with the Spanish Captain-General
Morillo. This took place at Santa
Anna, a village in the province of Trujillo, to
the west of Carabobo. It is true we got rid of
Morillo by the armistice, for he went off to
Spain as soon as it was signed; but he left
La Torre, as good a general as himself, at the
head of affairs, to say nothing of the famous
Morales, who commanded the plundering hordes
first raised by Yañez and Bores. And if
Morales had not been a traitor, and La Torre had
kept his forces together and prevented Bolivar
from joining Paez, who was posted with three
thousand men at Achaguas, in Apure, to the
south of this, the issue of the struggle might
have been different. But Bolivar was right.
He no doubt knew that Morales was disaffected
because he had not been appointed to succeed
Morillo; and the armistice gave the patriots
time to mature their plans and to seize some
important places, such as Maracaibo, under
cover of the truce."

"All which," I observed, "redounds, of
course, very much to the honour of the said
patriots, and is a proof of their love of truth
and respect for treaties."

"I cannot but think," continued the general,
disregarding my interruption, "that, with
eleven thousand choice troops such as the
Spanish general had—veterans trained in combats
with the French, and in many a stubborn
fight in this country—the victory might have
been wrested from Bolivar, in spite of the
thousand British bayonets that supported him.
But La Torre, who lay at San Carlos, about
one hundred miles to the south of this, was
induced by Morales to send some of his best
regiments to defend Carácas against Bermudez,
one of our ablest officers, who marched on the
capital from the east. Bermudez, after many
successes, was utterly routed at last under the
very walls of Carácas. But, in the mean time,
Bolivar had joined Paez, and was advancing
against La Torre with equal, if not superior,
forces. His army, when united, was formed in
three divisions. The first, commanded by
General Paez, was composed of the Cazadores
Britanicos, or 'British light infantry,' which was
the remnant of the British Legion, or Elsam's
Brigade, and now numbered not more than
eight hundred men; one hundred of the Irish
Legion attached to the English corps; the
native regiment called the Bravos of Apure,
eight hundred strong; and one thousand four
hundred native cavalry; in all, three thousand
one hundred men.

"The second division, commanded by General
Cedeño, consisted of the regiments called
Tiradores, Boyacá, and Vargas, and of the squadron
Sagrado, commanded by Arismendi, in all about
one thousand eight hundred men.

"The third division was commanded by Colonel
Ambrosio Plaza, and consisted of the Rifles, a
regiment officered by Englishmen, with Colonel
Sandes at their head, and the three regiments
Granaderos, Vencedor, and Anzuátegui, with
one regiment of cavalry, under Colonel Rondon.
The numerical strength of this division was,
in round numbers, two thousand five hundred
men.

"The soldiers of this force were the best in
the country. As for our battalion, a great
general, it is said, pronounced that Englishmen
fight best when well fed, but Carabobo proved
that British courage does not depend on food
alone. In fact, we English were desperate men,
and much in the same mind as that of our
forefathers at Agincourt. We were without pay,
wretchedly clothed, and with no rations but
half-starved bull-beef, which we ate without
salt, that being a luxury unknown in Apure.
Life itself had become hateful to us, and the
men had been driven by distress, not long
before, into open mutiny. The zeal of the
officers alone extinguished the revolt, but many
of us were wounded in quelling it. Order was
at last re-established, but after scenes which I
do not care to recall. Add to this, our
commanding officer, Brigadier Blosset, was killed
in a duel with Power of the Irish Legion, and
this latter corps, all but the hundred men who
were attached to us, had mutinied, and, after
sacking Rio-Hacha, had been shipped off to
Jamaica.

"Well, to go back a little before coming to
the battle. I must tell you that it was the 10th
of May when our brigade, under Paez, removed
from Achaguas, a strong position on the frontier,
between the provinces of Apure and Carabobo.
We had been stationed there to watch Morales,
who lay at Calabozo, about a hundred miles to
the north of us. As soon as he retreated on
San Carlos we advanced, and passed through
the city of Guanares to San Carlos, from which
the enemy retired. There we were joined by
Bolivar, with Cedeño's division, and halted four
days to prepare for the battle which was now
imminent. At this time an order was issued
that we English should act independently of the
regiment Apure with which we had hitherto
been brigaded. This turned out to be a most
fortunate occurrence.

"We had now been marching for more than
a month, and had suffered terrible privations.
We had had to cross the river Apurito, and
numerous streams swarming with alligators and
with that still more dangerous pest the Caribe
fish, which, though no bigger than a perch, has
teeth which will penetrate a coat of steel, and
which, at the scent of blood, comes in such
myriads, that the largest animals, and even the
alligator itself, are eaten up by them in a
moment. Some of our men had thus perished
in the water, and others had died on the road
from the bites of snakes and venomous reptiles.
A far greater number fell victims to want,
fatigue, and disease. In short, our sufferings
had been such, that there was not a man of us
that was not resolved to die, fighting, rather
than retrace his steps.