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Boves, wounded also, withdrew and waited for reinforcements, which arrived in great numbers from the plains; while Bolivar had to reduce the defenders of San Mateo in order to send some men to protect Caracas, which was being threatened on the southeast by Rosete. Boves attacked again on the 20th of March and was once more repulsed.
The largest troops of royalists were generally commanded by men distinguished for their ferocity. To the names appearing elsewhere we must add those of Calzada, Yanez' successor, and of Rosete, who competed with each other for the distinction of shedding the most blood.
Bolivar, who in spite of the frequent atrocities of the enemy, had had his decree carried out very seldom and very reluctantly, now, with the royalists in command of Boves, Rosete and Morales, found it necessary to begin severe reprisals in earnest. The prisoners taken by the independents were constantly plotting.
Boves, in command of the horsemen of the plains, won a great victory in a place called La Puerta, over Campo-Elias, and as a result he reached the valley of Valencia and approached the city of Caracas. The city of Ocumare was taken by Rosete, who proceeded to kill even the persons who were in church praying to God.
Being informed that Rosete had been defeated at Ocumare by the independents and that Marino was approaching to the relief of Bolivar, he decided to make a desperate effort to take San Mateo. On the 25th of March he made a third attempt, and that day marks the occurrence of one of the heroic deeds of the ages.
Among other things Ribas found a branding iron in the shape of a P, with which Rosete had intended to mark the foreheads of the patriots and those of their children.
After this victory at La Victoria, Ribas went to Ocumare, where he saw the work of Rosete, who had left the streets strewn with dying men, women and children, and with the corpses of many victims of his insatiable ferocity. More than 300 had fallen at the hands of the monsters. Bodies and mutilated members appeared everywhere, the best proof of how just had been Bolivar's decree of War to Death.
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