[Illustration: FROUDE CARLYLE RUSKIN GIBBON MACAULAY GREAT ENGLISH HISTORIANS AND PROSE WRITERS] [Illustration: PIUS IX. LEO XIII. FAMOUS POPES OF THE CENTURY] The war for independence in the United States had no apparent influence upon the colonies of Spanish America. They remained loyal to Spain. The French Revolution seemed also without effect. But during the long Napoleonic wars, when Spain remained for years in the grip of the Corsican, and the people of Spanish America were left largely to govern themselves, a thirst for liberty arose, and a spirit of revolt showed itself about 1810 throughout the length and breadth of the colonies. [=Bolivar, the Revolutionary Leader=] Chief among the revolutionists was Simon Bolivar, a native of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. In 1810 we find him in London, seeking the aid of the British government in favor of the rebels against Spain. In 1811 he served as governor of Puerto Cabello, the strongest fortress in Venezuela. He was at that time subordinate to General Miranda, whom he afterwards accused of treason, and who died in a dungeon in Spain. In the year named Venezuela proclaimed its independence, but in 1813, Bolivar, who had been entitled its "Liberator," was a refugee in Jamaica, and his country again a vassal of Spain. [=An Attempt at Assassination=] The leaders of affairs in Spain knew well where to seek the backbone of the insurrection. Bolivar was the one man whom they feared. He removed, there was not a man in sight capable of leading the rebels to victory. To dispose of him, a spy was sent to Jamaica, his purpose being to take the Liberator's life. This man, after gaining a knowledge of Bolivar's habits and movements, bribed a negro to murder him, and in the dead of night the assassin stole up to Bolivar's hammock and plunged his knife into the sleeper's breast. As it proved, it was not Bolivar, but his secretary, who lay there, and the hope of the American insurrectionists escaped. [=Bolivar Returns to Venezuela=]