Yet, while alive, Bolivar was a much hated dictator and - at the
beginning of his career - a military failure.
His aide and friend, Gen. Daniel O'Leary, an Irish soldier described
him so:
"His chest was narrow, his figure slender, his legs particularly thin.
His skin was swarthy and rather coarse. His hands and feet were small
...a woman might have envied them. His expression, when he was in good
humor, was pleasant, but it became terrible when he was aroused. The
change was unbelievable."
Bolivar explained his motives:
"I confess this (the coronation of Napoleon in 1804) made me think of
my unhappy country and the glory which he would win who should
liberate it"
And, later, after a victory against the Spaniards in 1819:
"The triumphal arches, the flowers, the hymns, the acclamations, the
wreaths offered and placed upon my head by the hands of lovely
maidens, the fiestas, the thousand demonstrations of joy are the least
of the gifts that I have received," he wrote. "The greatest and
dearest to my heart are the tears, mingled with the rapture of
happiness, in which I have been bathed and the embraces with which the
multitude have all but crushed me.
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