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He asked the people for subsidies for the war against Bolivar, and at the same time wrote a letter to the Libertador warning him not to oppose the will of the Venezuelans, who were ready, he said, to deliver themselves to the Spaniards rather than to Bolivar.
No longer would speculative Germans, thoughtful Chinese or wakeful Englishmen wonder if the supercyclone fans were indeed an effective barrier; no longer would Cubans, Colombians or Venezuelans look northward apprehensively. Oceanic barriers now confined the peril and though the world was shrunken and hurt it was yet alive.
The Venezuelans insisted that they should have a junta in Caracas, and in order to foster this idea the most prominent leaders of public thought met secretly at the house of Simon Bolivar. Most of the conspirators were young men, united by strong ties of friendship or family. Among them were the Marquis of Toro and don Jose Felix Ribas, a relative of Bolivar, two very distinguished men.
There the Venezuelans honor him as the protecting genius of their country. They have blotted from the memory of man the ingratitude of their forefathers.
Nevertheless, the new authorities persevered in their purpose to show loyalty to Fernando VII, and tried by all means to avoid bloodshed. Even with regard to the governors of Coro and Maracaibo, Caracas tried persuasion rather than force. The uncompromising attitude of the Regency, however, indicated clearly that the Venezuelans could not expect to effect any agreement with Spain.
The former was on his way to Tunja to render an account of his Venezuelan campaign, when he learned that some Venezuelan troops commanded by General Urdaneta, who were in the territory of Nueva Granada, were quarreling with the native soldiers. He went directly to the army to try to prevent anarchy and dissensions between the Venezuelans and the natives of Nueva Granada.
Bolivar had many difficulties to overcome in the work of organizing the elements of the country for the final struggle. Peruvians had not been hardened by constant fighting as had Venezuelans and New Granadians, and although they were patriotic and anxious to obtain their freedom, yet they lacked the ardor that only Bolivar knew how to kindle in men's hearts.
It will be evident from exploits such as these that the Venezuelans were fortunate in their leaders. After a while Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, began to see that the materialization of his lifelong ideal was now no longer a matter of the dim distant future. The struggle had been severe, and the fortunes of war had proved fickle at the beginning.
He then affirmed that he was going to Nueva Granada to render an account of his conduct and to have an impartial judgment, and finished by asserting to the Venezuelans that the people of Nueva Granada would again help them, and that he would always be on the side of liberty.
Stein continues, raised some objections, but was over-persuaded by Prince Hohenlohe and von Bieberstein. As confirming this version, a little note in Lord Goschen's Biography may be recalled, in which Lord Goschen confides to a friend a few weeks before the Raid that the "Germans were taking the Boers under their wing, as the Americans had done with the Venezuelans."
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