Símon Bolívar, the Liberator | Page 6

enthusiasm about
the great man of Europe.
In the same year he returned to Madrid and married María Teresa Toro,
deciding to go back at once to Venezuela with his wife, to live
peacefully, attending to his own personal business and property. But
again fate dealt him a hard blow and shattered all the dreams and plans
of the young man. His virtuous wife died in January, 1803, ten months
after their arrival in Caracas. He had not yet reached his twenty-first
year, and had already lost father, mother and wife. His nerves became
steeled and his heart prepared for great works, for works requiring the
concentration of mind which can be given only by men who have no

intimate human connections or obligations. As a South American orator
lately declared:[1] "Neither Washington nor Bolívar was destined to
have children of his own, so that we Americans might call ourselves
their children."
Bolívar decided immediately to leave for Europe. Nothing could keep
him in his own country. He had loved his wife and his wife only could
have led him to accept a life of ease and comfort. He decided never to
marry again and, perhaps to assuage the pain in his heart, he decided to
devote his time to the study of the great problems of his country, and to
bend all his energies and strength to their solution. At the end of 1803,
he was again in Madrid, giving his wife's father the sad news of their
great loss.
[Footnote 1: Atilano Carnevali, on the occasion of placing a wreath
before Washington's statue in Caracas, July 4, 1920.]
From Madrid, Bolívar went to Paris, and was in the city when the
Empire was established. All the admiration the man of the Republic
had won from Bolívar immediately crumbled to dust before the young
American. "Since Napoleon has become a king," said Bolívar, "his
glory to me seems like the brilliancy of hell." He did not attend the
ceremony of Napoleon's coronation, and made him the object of bitter
attacks when among his own friends. He never hesitated to speak of the
liberty of America with all his acquaintances, who enjoyed his
conversation in spite of the ideas that he supported.
In the spring of 1805 he went on a walking tour to Italy, with his
teacher and friend, don Simón Rodríguez. In Milan he saw Napoleon
crowned as King of Italy, and then witnessed a great parade passing
before the French Emperor. All these royal ceremonies increased his
hatred of monarchy.
From Milan he went to Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples, studying
everything, informing himself of all the currents of public opinion, and
dreaming of what he intended to accomplish for his own people. While
in Rome, he and his teacher went to Mount Aventin. There they
denounced in an intimate talk the oppression of peoples and discussed

the liberty of their native Venezuela. When their enthusiasm had
reached its highest pitch, the young dreamer took the hand of his
master, and at that historic spot, he made a solemn vow to free his
country.
From Italy, he came to the United States, where he visited Boston, New
York, Philadelphia and other towns, sailing from Charleston for
Venezuela. He arrived in Caracas at the end of 1806.
Upon his return home, Bolívar devoted himself to the care and
improvement of his estate. Yet his ideas continued to seethe, especially
when the constant spectacle of the state of affairs in Venezuela
stimulated this ferment of his mind.
Among the American colonies, Venezuela was not considered by Spain
as one of the most important. Mexico and Perú, celebrated by their
production of mineral wealth, were those which attracted most of the
attention of the Spaniards. Venezuela was apparently poor, and
certainly did not contribute many remittances of gold and silver to the
mother country. It had been organized as a captaincy general in 1731,
after having been governed in different ways and having had very little
communication with Spain. It is said that from 1706 to 1722, not a
single boat sailed from any Venezuelan port for Spain. Commercial
intercourse between the provinces was forbidden, and local industries
could not prosper because the purchase of the products of Spanish
industries was compulsory for the natives, at prices set after all
transportation expenses and high taxes were taken into account. The
colonists were oppressed by taxes and kept in ignorance.
This state of affairs had produced a latent feeling of irritation and a
desire for a change. The native white population read the books of the
French philosophers, especially those of Rousseau and Montesquieu.
The ideas proclaimed by the United States of America and those
preached by the most radical men of the French Revolution were
smuggled in and known in spite of