Mr. Hart to Mr. Hay.
Bogotá, September 7, 1900.
Sir: According to Government advices the revolution is practically at an end, having been quelled in its stronghold, the department of Santander; so that nothing remains but the guerrilla operations, chiefly confined to the department of the Tolima and to the extreme southern portion of the department of the Cauca. Many Liberals accept this Government statement as substantially correct, but others of the revolutionary party insist that their friends in Santander have not been routed, but for the more effective prosecution of the war have chosen to split up into bands of about 400 men each; that the revolution has great effective strength in the Tolima and in the southern portion of the Cauca; and, in short, that the revolution is certain to triumph.
The Government statement is supported by the fact that on the 4th instant Gen. Prospero Pinzon, commander of the Government forces in the department of Santander, entered this city with the greater part of his army, at the same time publishing a statement that the revolution in Santander was over, and that if it were not so he would have remained there to finish it. At the same time, among the prisoners brought in from Santander was Dr. Focion Soto, a man of very great importance in the revolutionary movement, and whose loss to the revolution must be seriously felt. Before the revolution Soto was living in exile in Maracaibo, Venezuela. In his hands had been accumulating the greater part of the fund destined for revolutionary purposes. * * *
As between the President and Vice-President, every day seems to give strength to the Vice-President’s government. So far as the public knows, and so far as I have been able to learn, the friends of the President have not been able to take any effective steps for his restoration to power, and, perhaps for this reason, many former adherents [Page 410] of the President in Bogotá are outspoken in their support of the Vice-President’s government. The Department will understand that in Bogota we know very little of what is passing in other parts of the country, outside information being received largely through channels controlled by the Vice-President’s government.
I am, etc.,