Only the lower plains of the Orinoco and the coast provinces of Maracaibo and Coro remained royalist, for while Bolivar had been overrunning the west, another young Creole, Marino, had led a small expedition from the island of Margarita, captured Maturin just east of the mouth of the Orinoco, and with the military stores found there armed the inhabitants of Cumana province, made ripe for revolt by the cruelties of Monteverde. The Spanish attempts to recover Maturin by assault were repulsed with great slaughter, and Marino followed up his success by besieging Cumana. By the time Bolivar reached Caracas the place was in the last extremities of starvation, and Monteverde's flight was a signal for its surrender. There were therefore two dictators in Venezuela, and Marino sent to Bolivar to treat about the form of government, but the latter had determined on a centralised administration with himself supreme. Marino refused to agree, and only the activity of the loyalists prevented a war between him and Bolivar. Monteverde held out in Puerto Cabello, and when reinforcements arrived from Spain resumed the offensive. Though Bolivar won a victory at Las Trincheiras, and was greeted on his return to Caracas with the title of "Liberator," reaction had in fact begun. Reports of loyalist movements came from all sides; Bolivar's power was confined to the towns; the terrible Boves roused the llaneros and gathered the nucleus of a formidable army of horsemen. Ceballos sallied out from Coro and captured Barquisimeto, utterly defeating Bolivar when the latter attacked him. Difficulties, however, only stimulated this remarkable man to fresh exertions. The patriot leader, Campo Elias, overthrew Boves's horsemen near Calabozo on the llanos south of Caracas, killing the prisoners and butchering every man in the town because it had helped the loyalists. This cruel deed decided the llaneros for the Spanish side, and though Bolivar, with the assistance of Campo Elias's troops, won the pitched battle of Araure from Ceballos, Boves had escaped to the plains there to recruit another army of llaneros, which was destined to expel the Liberator.