Simon Bolivar was born at Caracas on the 25th of July, 1783. He lost his parents at an early age; and, in his sixteenth year, was sent to Europe to finish his education. He made the tour of France and Italy. Having married at Madrid, he embarked for Venezuela, where his wife died a few months after her arrival. Bolivar went a second time to Europe, and was present at the coronation of Napoleon. He returned to Caracas in company with Emparan, appointed captain-general of Venezuela by the central junta at Seville. Soon after the raising of the standard of independence (19th April, 1810) in that country, he was sent to solicit the protection of Great Britain. He was well received by the Marquess Wellesley, then secretary for Foreign Affairs. The British government offered its mediation between Spain and her colonies, but the offer was rejected by the court of Madrid. Bolivar returned to his own country, accompanied by General Miranda, who was placed in command of the Venezuelan troops. But the revolutionary government was too feebly organized to give efficiency to the military force. Divisions arose, and the cause of independence was on the retrograde, when the dreadful earthquake of 1812, and the subsequent invasion by the Spanish force under General Monteverde, for the time, precluded all possibility of success. Bolivar, alleging that Miranda had betrayed his country by capitulating to Monteverde, arrested him at La Guayra. Bolivar then demanded his passport, and when taken before Monteverde, the Spanish general said that Colonel Bolivar's request should be complied with, as a reward for his having served the king of Spain by delivering up Miranda. Bolivar answered that he arrested him to punish a traitor[2] to his country, and not to serve the king. This answer had nearly included him in the general proscription; but the good offices of Don Francisco Iturbe, secretary to Monteverde, procured the passport, and Bolivar was allowed to sail for Curaçoa. From that island he went to Carthagena, where he obtained the command of a small force, with which he proceeded up the Magdalena, and having beaten parties of the royalist troops at various points on that river, he continued his march from Ocana to Cucutá, and solicited assistance from the government of Cundinamarca. Five hundred men were placed at his disposal, and with these, added to his own small party, Bolivar undertook to effect the liberation of his country. Four thousand Spaniards, under General Correa, were then on that part of the Venezuelan frontier. A division of these was beaten by Bolivar, who pursued his march to Truxillo, defeating on the way several royalist detachments.