Before leaving for the campaign of the South, the Libertador Presidente received the good news of Cartagena's fall into the hands of Montilla after fourteen months of siege, and of the insurrection of Panamá, which became independent and formed the eighth department of Colombia. The importance of the independence of Panamá cannot be exaggerated. Bolívar wisely deemed it of greatest moment, and what has occurred during the twentieth century has proved that Bolívar was absolutely right in his judgment. CHAPTER XV _Bomboná and Pichincha. The Birth of Ecuador. Bolívar and San Martin Face to Face_ (1822) In January, 1822, Bolívar was in Cali, assembling his army to invade Quito by land. This campaign proved to be the most difficult he had undertaken with respect to natural obstacles. Between Quito and his army, the Andes form a nucleus of mountains called the Nudo de Pasto. All the difficulties with which he had had to contend in the campaigns of Venezuela and Nueva Granada,--such as the flooded plains, the deep ravines between Venezuela and the Colombian valleys, the narrow and rugged passages, the wild beasts,--sink into nothingness as compared with the almost unconquerable obstacles which he was to face on his way to the South. In no other part of the continent do the Andes present such an appalling combination of ravines, torrents, precipitous paths and gigantic peaks. Furthermore, nowhere on the continent was the population so hostile to freedom as were the _pastusos_ (inhabitants of the _Pastos_). Men, women and children cordially hated the cause of the Republic, and stopped at no crime to destroy the armies of Bolívar. Despite all this opposition, Bolívar made ready to throw the glories he had earned in Boyaca and Carabobo into the balance, risking everything to obtain the freedom of the peoples of the south, and the union of Quito and Colombia. This campaign presented difficulties greater than Napoleon himself ever found in his path. The Alps do not compare with these American mountains,--which rank with the Himalayas. On the 8th of March, Bolívar began his advance to the South, being forced to leave a thousand men in the hospitals on the way. Scarcely two thousand men formed the army when it approached the formidable Nudo de Pasto. Sucre, who had been stationed in Guayaquil, moved so as to distract the attention of the Spaniards, thus helping Bolívar, and this was the only favorable circumstance. Two thousand men were awaiting Bolívar in the city of Pasto, men who knew the country and who had the support of the inhabitants in their war against the independents. The commander of Pasto was a Spanish colonel named D. Basilio García.