It was not until 1819 that Bolivar perceived the true road to success.
This was by leaving Venezuela, from which he had sought in vain to
dislodge the Spaniards, and carrying the war into the more promising field
of New Granada. So confident of victory did he feel in this new plan that
he issued the following proclamation to the people of New Granada: "The
day of America has come; no human power can stay the course of Nature
guided by Providence. Before the sun has again run his annual course
altars to Liberty will arise throughout your land."
Bolivar had recently been strengthened by a British legion, recruited in
London among the disbanded soldiers of the Napoleonic wars. He had also
sent General Santander to the frontier of New Granada, and General
Barreiro, the Spanish general, had been driven back. Encouraged by this
success, he joined Santander at the foot of the Andes in June, 1819,
bringing with him a force of twenty-five hundred men, including his
British auxiliaries.
Bolivar in this expedition had as bitter a foe to conquer in nature as in
the human enemy.
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