With insubordination and murmurings among his own generals, decreased troops and depleted treasure, and without the encouragement of decisive victories to make good these deficiencies, the outlook for Bolivar and for the cause in which he was fighting might well have disheartened him at this time. In March, however, Colonel Daniel O’Leary had arrived with the troops raised by Colonel Wilson in London, consisting largely of veterans of the Napoleonic wars. These tried soldiers, afterwards known as the British Legion, were destined to play an all-important part in the liberation of Venezuela, and Bolivar soon recognised their value, spending the time till December in distributing these new forces to the best advantage. Elections were arranged in the autumn, and on February 15, 1819, Congress was installed in Angostura. Bolivar took the British Constitution as his model, with the substitute of an elected president for an hereditary king, and was himself proclaimed provisional holder of the office. The hereditary form of the Senate was, however, soon given up. The early part of the year was spent in local marchings and counter-marchings, but in June Bolivar set out, accompanied by Colonel James Rook and the British Legion, on his famous march to New Granada. Pushing through swamps and forests and marching over interminable plains, they met and defeated the advance guard of the enemy in the defile of Paya. The first week in July found them crossing the Páramo of Pisva on the road to Bogotá, where many men perished from the cold. The rest of the month saw them victorious in many battles, in which the British Legion and the llaneros made themselves conspicuous. With 2,000 patriots Bolivar defeated 3,000 royalists in the battle of Boyacá on August 7th, taking many prisoners. On reaching Bogotá he made Santander vice-president of New Granada and left the prisoners in his charge, a confidence which the latter abused by shooting the most prominent, on pretext of an attempted escape. In the meantime there was the normal disaffection in the east, where Arismendi had been made vice-president, in the place of Zea, in Angostura. On hearing of Bolivar’s successes, he immediately wanted to resign; Bolivar, however, ignored his attempted insubordination, and made him commander-in-chief in the east. On December 17, 1819, Bolivar formally inaugurated the Great Colombian republic, consisting of the three Departments of Venezuela, Cundinamarca, and Quito. A new capital with the name of Bolivar was to be built near the boundary of Cundinamarca and Venezuela, and the first united Congress was to assemble in Rosario de Cúcuta. Although this Declaration was not formally ratified for two years in Quito, 1820 marks the close of the first period of Venezuela’s independence, from the Declaration of July 5, 1811, to its inclusion in the Great Colombia, a part of which it remained till 1830.