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Our troops of the centre, disregarding the fire of some corps of the enemy posted on their left flank, attacked the main body. The enemy gave a dreadful fire, but our troops, with the most daring movements, executed with the strictest discipline, surrounded all the enemy's corps. The squadron of cavalry of the Upperplain charged with its wonted valour, and from that moment all the efforts of the Spanish general were fruitless; he lost his position. The company of horse grenadiers (all Spaniards) was the first that cowardly left the field of battle. The infantry endeavoured to reform on another height, and was instantly destroyed. A corps of cavalry in reserve waited ours with the lances in rest, and was pierced through-and-through by lancers; the whole Spanish army, in complete rout and closed in on all sides, after suffering dreadful carnage, threw down their arms and surrendered.

Our

With an almost simultaneous movement, general Santander, who directed the operations of the left, and who had met with an inconsiderable resistance from the enemy's van, and to which he had only opposed his Cazadores, charged with some companies of the battalion of the line, and the Guides of the rear passed the bridge and completed the victory. All the enemy's army remained in our hands. General Barreyro, commander-in-chief of the army of New Granada, is a prisoner, and was taken in the field of battle by a soldier of the first Rifles, Pedro Martinez: the second in command, colonel Xime

nez, is also a prisoner; almost all the commandants and majors of corps, a multitude of inferior officers, and more than 1,600 men are likewise taken, and moreover all their arms, ammunition, artillery, horses, &c. &c. Hardly 50 men escaped, and amongst them some chiefs and officers of cavalry, who fled before the action was decided.

General Santander with the van, and the Guides of the rear, pursued at the same time the dispersed to this place, and general Anzoategui, with the remainder of the army, remained all night in the field.

The advantages are incalculable which will ensue to the republic from the glorious victory of yesterday.

Our troops never triumphed more decidedly, and have seldom engaged troops so well disciplined, and so well commanded.

Nothing can be compared to the intrepidity with which general Anzoategui at the head of two battalions, and a squadron of cavalry, attacked and overthrew the enemy's main body, and to him the victory is in great measure due.

General Santander made his movements with vigour and firmness. The battalions (Paez's Bravos) and the first of Barcelona, and the squadron of the Upper-plain, fought with astonishing valour. The columns of Tunja and Socorro joined the left on the battle being decided. In short, his excellency is highly satisfied with the behaviour of every chief, officer, and soldier of the liberating army on this memorable day.

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Lieutenant-col. Mugica, with the corps of Guides and Dragoons, continued the pursuit of the enemy on the 8th, at daybreak. At 11, his excellency followed with the squadron of Llanoarriba, and joined him at Choconta. On the 9th, all the infantry set out. On the 10th, on the arrival of his excellency at the bridge of Comun, he received advice from the capital, that the Viceroy, the Audience, with the guard of honour, and the regiment of Cazadores of Aragon, and all the civil and military officers, had abandoned it on the morning of the 9th, leaving it in a state of frightful anarchy. His excellency hastened his march; and on the same day, entered the capital amidst the acclamations of an immense population, which knew not how to express its joy-a population, which, after three years of the most cruel oppression, beheld itself unexpectedly liberated, and could not help doubting its immense good fortune. The streets and the public places were filled with people. All sought to see

his excellency the president, in order to convince themselves of the reality.

The Viceroy Samano has fled in the direction of Honda, and Calzado follows him on the southern side. All the cavalry and the corps of the rear-guard pursue him on all sides, and there is reason to hope that none will escape.

The Liberating Army has attained the object which it purposed on undertaking the campaign. After 75 days' march from Pueblo de Mantecal, in the province of Varinas, his excellency entered the capital of New Granada, having overcome greater labours and difficulties than were foreseen on undertaking this great operation, and having destroyed an army three times stronger than the invading one.

The precipitation with which the Viceroy and his satellites fled, on the first report of the battle of Bojaca, did not permit him to save any of the public property. In the Mint we found more than half a million of dollars in cash; and in all the other magazines and depôts sufficient completely to arm and equip a numerous army. It may be said, that the liberation of New Granada has ensured infallibly that of all South America, and that the year 1819 will be the end of a war, which, with so much horror to humanity, Spain has waged since 1810.

The General in Chief
of the Staff,

CARLOS SOUBLETTE. Head Quarters at Santa Fe, 11th of August.

In an official despatch, dated

at

at Santa Fe, on the 14th of August, and addressed by the president Bolivar to the vice president of the Republic, he says, that "the people of New Granada, regardless of their own defenceless state, by attacking dispersed parties of the enemy, have actively co-operated in his absolute extermination, taking arms, and making a great number of prisoners." He adds, that "notwithstanding the general devastation which this kingdom has suffered, the Republic may reckon on a million dollars in cash, besides the large sum which the property of the fugitive oppressors and discontented will produce."

The rainy season caused a temporary interruption to military operations. Morillo entrenched himself for some time in Tinaquillo, the independents having taken possession of St. Fernandez de Apure and of Calaboza, immediately on his evacuation of those places. Marino with 2,000 men remained posted at Maturia in Cumana, ready to co-operate with 1,500 Irish troops of gen. Devereux's legion which Bermudez was organising in Margaretta. Paez prepared to march with 6,000 men against Morillo. Bolivar continued strengthening himself in New Granada; and such was the general spirit of animosity against the Spanish government, which had endeavoured to support its declining authority by acts of the most atrocious cruelty, that the people every where joined his standard. On the re-opening of the campaign, he is said to have found himself at the head of an army

of 8,000 men raised in New Grenada, and to have sent a detachment against Santa Martha. The Spanish garrisons had been greatly weakened before the invasion of Bolivar by the aids which it had been found necessary to dispatch to Lima, and there is reason to believe that by the end of autumn, the whole of this extensive kingdom, or province, with the exception of Carthagena, was free. Meanwhile, a congress assembled at Angostura was occupied in examining the articles of a constitution, nearly resembling the English, which had been submitted to its scrutiny by Bolivar, and which appeared to meet with general approbation. Such was the prosperous state of the "United Republics of Venezuela and New Grenada," at the latter end of the year 1819.

Buenos Ayres.-The most full and authentic account of the present state of the provinces of the river de la Plata, which has reached Europe, is to be found in the report of the North American commissioner sent purposely to inquire into their situation which was laid before Congress, and afterwards printed; it is here subjoined.

"The country formerly known as the vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres, extending from the northwestern sources of the river La Plata to the southern cape of America, and from the confines of Brazil and the ocean to the ridge of the Andes, may be considered that which is called "the United Provinces of South America.

"Under the royal government,

it was divided into the Intendencies, or provinces of Buenos Ayres, Paraguay, Cordova, Salta, Portos, Plata, Cochabamba, La Paz, and Puno. Subsequently to the revolution, in the year 1814, another division was made, and from the provinces of Cordova, Salta, and Buenos Ayres, were taken those of Cuyo or Mendoza, Tucuman, Corientes, Entre Rios, and the Banda Oriental. The others, it is believed, retained their former boundaries, and, with the exception of Paraguay, are generally called "Upper Peru.'

"This widely-extended country embraces almost every variety of climate and soil, and is capable of almost every variety of production. A large part of it, how ever, particularly on the west side of the river La Plata, and southerly towards Cape Horn, is deficient in wood, even for fuel, and in water; that which is found is generally brackish.

Although three centuries have passed by since the Spaniards made their first settlement in this country, and some considerable towns and cities have grown in it, yet its general improvement and population have by no means kept pace with them; for the lower provinces have been almost entirely abandoned to the immense herds of cattle which graze on their plains, and require only the partial care of a comparatively few herdsmen ; and the inhabitants of Upper Peru have been engaged more generally in the business of mining than was favourable to improvement or population. Certain small districts have peculiar advantages,

are said to be well cultivated, and very productive; but agriculture has, in general, been very much neglected. It is, in a great degree, confined to the vicinity of towns and cities, and may be said to limit its supplies to their demands. This state of things, combined with the regulations of the former government, the influence of climate, and the force of example, has stamped the character of indolence upon that class of society usually considered as the labouring class. The same causes have not operated, at least with the same force, upon the other inhabitants of the country; hence they are more industrious, and more active; their manners are social, friendly, and polite. In native talents they are said to be inferior to no people; and they have given proofs that they are capable of great and persevering efforts; they are ardently attached to their country, and warmly enlisted in the cause of its independence.

"It is not necessary for me to enter into a detail of the causes which led to the revolution in 1810. The most immediate, perhaps, are to be found in the incidents connected with the two invasions of the country by the British, in the years 1805 and 1806, and in the subsequent events in Spain, as they had a direct tendency to show to those people their own strength, and the incapacity of Spain to give them protection or enforce obedience. The groundwork was, however, laid in the jealous and oppressive system adopted at a more early period by the kings of Spain, whose policy it seemed to be to keep

within as narrow limits as circumstances would permit the intelligence, wealth, and population, of that part of America subject to their dominion, as the surest means of preserving an empire which they considered the great source of their wealth and power. "The revolution having been auspiciously commenced in the city of Buenos Ayres, was warmly and zealously supported by the mass of the people descended from the Spaniards; but the native Spaniards, as well those domesticated in the country as those in the service of the king, were almost all opposed to it, particularly at the time, and under the circumstances, it took place. Dissentions were the immediate result, and their long-standing jealousy and distrust of each other have, by subsequent events, been heightened into deadly hostility, which time alone can wear away. These dissentions have been considered as one of the causes that produced those which subsequently took place among the patriots themselves, and which have been most serious obstacles to the progress of the revolution. Other obstacles, however, have been presented by the royal government in Peru, which has hitherto not only been able to sustain itself there, but has found means, by enlisting the native Peruvians in its service, to send at different times considerable armies into the upper provinces on the La Plata, where the war has been carried on from the commencement of the revolution to the present day, with various success; the great extent and peculiar character of the country,

and the want of resources, having prevented either party from making a blow decisive of the contest. the advantage in that quarter was When we came away, on the side of the Spaniards, as they were in possession of the provinces of Upper Peru, which had, to a certain degree at least, joined in the revolution, and some of which are represented in the Congress. Every where else they been obliged to yield up the gotry, or submit to the ruling power. vernment and abandon the counThe peculiar situation of Monte river La Plata, open to the sea, Video, on the east side of the and strongly fortified, enabled the Spanish naval and military forces, at an early period in the revolution, to make a stand there: they were ultimately obliged to surrender it; not, however, until long protracted, and, perhaps, ill-directed efforts on the part of many jarring incidents between the assailants, had giving rise to those that came from the opposite shores of the rivers,-probably the effect, in part at least, of ancient jealousies, kept alive by the individual interest of different leaders; these have been followed by events calculated to produce a still greater alienation; and, although several attempts have been made to bring about a union, they have hitherto been unsuccessful.

The provinces of the "Banda Oriental," and the side of the river, under the di"Entre Rios," on the eastern rection of general Artigas, are western side, under the governnow at war with those on the ment of the Congress of Buenos Ayres.

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