reprisals necessary to punish and, if possible, to stop these cruel deeds, but also of the salutary effect of a rigorous attitude on hesitating men, and the necessity that those who had not taken part on one side or another should declare themselves immediately, whether they sympathized with and were ready to help the cause of liberty, or favored a foreign régime. He was still in Mérida when in a proclamation he spoke of avenging the victims, and threatened with war to death. But Bolívar was not only a man of genius but one of equanimity, poise, deep thought and attention. He did not want to carry out his threats immediately, but decided to think at length over the transcendent step he was considering. The night of the 14th of June was a night of torture for the Liberator. On the morning of the 15th he himself wrote the decree of _War to Death_, and then called for an assembly of his officers to hear their opinions of this decree. Not one of them dissented. At the close of the meeting Bolívar signed the proclamation, in which these terrible words appeared: "Spaniards and Natives of the Canary Islands:[1] Be sure of death even if you are indifferent. Americans: Be sure of life even if you are guilty." [Footnote 1: Many of the natives of the Canary Islands had distinguished themselves by their cruelty against the independents in Venezuela.] The law of war is a terrible law, and Bolívar could not but take this step, unless he preferred to wage a losing fight. As a measure of legitimate reprisal and as a measure of wisdom in warfare, the War to Death decree is fully justifiable. Regarding it as a reprisal, let us mention only two or three facts. When Monteverde learned of the asphyxiation of the prisoners in Puerto Cabello, he wrote to the commander of the port: "I strongly recommend that your activity on this point be not slackened (the expulsion of foreigners from Puerto Cabello), nor on that of the safe-keeping of the prisoners in the dungeons. If any one is to die, that is his fate." On the plains some towns were entirely destroyed by bands of assassins. Women and children were the victims of the royalists in a number of cities. There were occasions where men and women of all ages had their ears cut off, were skinned alive, or in other ways cruelly tortured. A Spaniard called Boves distinguished himself among the worst criminals. He systematically organized the work of destroying Americans. His theory was that no American should live, and he simply destroyed them mechanically, for he thought that that was the only thing to do with them. Bolívar, himself, in a letter sent to the governor of Curaçao on October 2, 1813, makes the most eloquent exposition of facts, and shows clearly the reasons he had for the decree of War to Death.