A successful revolution must have a competent and daring leader. The South American revolt in Venezuela and surrounding countries was led by a romantic figure, a man of such tremendous personality, such high ideals, and such ability to carry them out, that, although he never set foot in Cuba, and never personally figured in her politics, his influence reached out from the other colonies and more than any other at this period swayed the destiny of the "Pearl of the Antilles." His desire for liberty was like a bright light which illumined the whole Latin-American atmosphere. It has been said that "only an aristocrat can be truly democratic," for only an aristocrat has everything to lose and nothing to gain by espousing the cause of democracy and liberty. It is true that, like Washington, Simon Bolivar came of wealthy and aristocratic ancestry. His people were among the foremost of the Creoles. His parents died when he was still a child, and his passionate, wilful nature was allowed to go uncurbed. He developed a violent and hasty temper, but he was also openhearted, generous, and quick to sue for pardon. He had a charming personality, and the ability to make friends and hold them for life. In his later years his followers would have died for him. He was absolutely fearless, and it is said of him that at one time at a banquet, in the presence of the Governor of Venezuela--Bolivar's native country--he arose and proposed a toast to the "Independence of the Americas." [Illustration: SIMON BOLIVAR] At an early age he went abroad. When in Spain he became friendly with Prince Ferdinand, afterwards King Ferdinand VII. of Spain--then a boy. They were both tennis enthusiasts, and it is told that Bolivar constantly beat the young prince on the courts at the royal palace at Madrid, just as later his armies prevailed against those of Ferdinand VII. He travelled in Italy and contrasted the progressive spirit of that country as compared with the turbidity and tendency to disintegration which dominated Spain. A sojourn in France made him an eye witness of some of the most frightful scenes of the French revolution. On his return home, he visited the United States and there beheld the actual, peaceful workings of a republic. All this time there was stirring within him the eager desire for freedom for his own country, which at last impelled him to cast aside the luxury and ease which his position and family gave him, and to accept the danger of exile and death, so that he might free South America.