They, however, refused to admit his resignation; conferred
upon him the title of LIBERATOR OF VENEZUELA; and named him dictator.
About this period a Spaniard, Don Jose Tomas Boves, succeeded in bringing
about a counter-revolution in the Llanos, an immense tract of level
country, which traverses the centre of Venezuela, and extends to the
confines of New Granada. Boves organized a force, which consisted of men
mostly chosen for their desperate character, whom he led on by promises of
indiscriminate plunder, and by lavishing the greatest rewards upon the
perpetrators of the most revolting atrocities. The track of these ruffians,
to Calabozo, was every where marked with the blood of the aged and the
defenceless. Bolivar, who had detached a part of his force in pursuit of
Cevallos, had not above two thousand men left to make head against Boves,
who, with nearly five times that number, had possessed himself of the
fertile valleys of Aragua, and destroyed some patriot divisions sent to
check his progress. Bolivar took up a position at San Mateo, in order to
cover Caracas. A series of attacks, in the space of forty days, reduced the
number of Bolivar's force to four hundred.
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