Bolivar, having separated his small corps into two divisions, entrusted the
command of the second to the active General Rivas. Bolivar himself
penetrated the Llanos, after having beaten the Spaniards at Niquitao,
Carache, Varinas, Tahuana, and Torcones. He then advanced to Vitoria,
within twenty leagues of Caracas, where he was met by Spanish
commissioners, who sued for, and obtained, a capitulation. The conqueror
entered his native city in triumph. But this did not put an end to the war.
The Spaniards were faithless in the observance of the capitulation, and
Monteverde, from within the walls of Puerto Cabello, fomented the discord
which prevailed in the interior provinces. About this time a strong
reinforcement arrived from Spain. Bolivar was obliged to evacuate Caracas;
but the royalists were beaten at Viguirima, Barbula, and Las Trincheras.
However, the Spanish general Cevallos had time to raise four thousand
recruits in the province of Coro, which had always shown itself inimical to
the cause of independence. Bolivar next gained the important battle of
Araure, and repossessed himself of Caracas. On the 2nd of January, 1814, he
assembled the public authorities of the city, and resigned to them the
supreme authority he had exercised, and with which his triumphs had
invested him.
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