It is only necessary here to say, that, after some hard-fought and
honorable fields, Miranda and his fellow-officers were completely
successful. All the principal cities were in the hands of the Patriots
before 1812 began. Monteverde, in January of that year, was cooped up in
the remote province of Guiana, and Coro on the sea-coast was also held
by his troops; but elsewhere the new Republic seemed fully established.
Already the point of Constitution-making--the crystallization-point of
republics--had been reached. The ports of Venezuela were for the first
time opened to foreign trade. Her inhabitants were no longer restricted
from the enjoyment of the fruits of their own industry. A gigantic
system of taxation had been brushed, like a spider's web, away.
Two-thirds of the Captain-Generalcy, in a word, were free.
There was little fear among any of the inhabitants of Caracas, in March,
1812, that they would again fall under the dominion of Spain. The
Carnival had been celebrated with greater joyousness than in any year
before; the proverbial gayety of the town was doubled during the
concluding festival of Shrove Tuesday; and Lent had scarcely thrown as
deep a shade as usual over the devoutest inhabitants of the city. Lent
drew to a close, and there was every prospect that Passion Week would
be succeeded by a season of rejoicing over impending defeats of the
Royalist _Goths_ in Coro and Guiana; and Passion Week came. Holy
Thursday fell on the 26th of March.
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