Tenjo, Santa Fe
August 7th, 1812 (Friday)

I knew that at some time I had to stop avoiding the war, and I knew that
at the end of the Bogota campaign I would have become completely
involved in it...  I just was hoping it would have come later.

When we took Darien from the Spanish, I stayed with the reserve troops
during the assault to Quibdo, which was far from a battle: the real
battle came when taking a few Spanish fortifications like those in
Portobelo.  Then in Santa Marta I was in the mountain talking with the
Indians while my people was supporting Labatout and Matheson in taking
the city.  In Antioquia, the towns turned quickly anti-colonialist when
we approached, and in Mariquita and Honda resistance was nil.

So actually my first real battle situation came when we faced the
resistance at Guaduas.  That resistance was not fierce and strong and
would barely become a taste of what would then come, but then I was
quite scared.  This was the first time I was involved in a shooting
exchange.  I've never been in a shooting uptime; despite I probably
lived in one of the most dangerous countries then.  Well, there was in
incident here downtime, when we sunk a royalist patrol boat, but I
didn't thought I was in any danger.

But now things are different.  After Guaduas we have been involved in
two more battles and we surely will be fighting at least one more in
Bogota.

After the resistance at Guaduas, the 28th July, I knew that my plan for
a surprise attack to Santafé was undoable, which pleased Matheson who
always said it would not work.  So we had to come with another plan.
Santafé lies in the southeastern end of a high plain.  This plain, that
once was a lake, is surrounded by mountains, which are higher in the
east, while in the west the surrounding mountains are barely a slight
elevation that avoided the former lake to fall from some almost vertical
rocky walls.  This high plain, called the Bogota Savannah, is quite
swampy downtime, and is crossed by a few rivers and creeks; the most
important of them is the Bogota River.  There are a few places on the
east where a less slanted terrain allows some passages from the
Magdalena valley, through mountain ranges in the west to the savannah.
There are two of such passages from Guaduas, both of them are followed
by well signaled paved roads uptime, but only one of them is normally
used downtime.  Using the second passage would have been our best chance
if anybody in our army knew about it... well, someone in our army who
would have known the terrain when there is no green sign with white
letters pointing gray paved roads.  So I had to relay on the locals,
risking mentioning a few towns that had not been founded yet.

Anyhow this proved to have been little help.  While it was a wise
decision not using the main road where we could have been more easily
ambushed, the royalists founded out our path and tried to intercept us.
Fortunately Matheson was wise enough to mount a way to climb the
mountains while being prepared to any kind of combat.  They fist tried
to intercept us in the Tobia River.  Around one thousand royalist
soldiers confronted our first column of 1200 men.  And this time I was
quite in the middle of the combat area.

That Saturday afternoon we had lost many people.  43 of our men were
death, one hundred injured and more than one hundred missing, many of
them presumptively taken prisoners.  It seemed that the royalists did
worse, as we managed to count 66 bodies, and at the end we hold the
position.  That night we took La Vega with ease.

I first thought that the royalists had scouts that led them to discover
our way up, but interrogating the prisoners, we found out that we have
some infiltrates that uncovered our plan to the royalists, and worse of
all, that some of those infiltrates were soldiers from Darien that I
trusted.  (If any I would have hoped that any traitor would have been
from the Cartagena or Venezuelan troops.)

We spent the whole Sunday in La Vega, where many locals volunteered to
fight with us.  After the incident with the traitors I was not
completely confident in letting this untrained people to fight with us,
but they insisted.  Matheson had reached Sasaima, with little
resistance, leading some 800 men.

The 3rd August, Monday, we started again, and one more time, the
royalist army was waiting for us.  This time we had a better advantage,
as our scouts had done a better job and we could reach better positions
before the battle.  Seven of our men died against over 60 royalists and
at the end, the royalist army surrendered.  Many of the royalists
escaped, mainly because we were more interested in secure the place than
in persecuting the enemy.

>From that point, the way out was easier, a few skirmishes that my scouts
had no problem sorting out, until we reached the top of the mountains
and begun our way down to the Savannah.  I expect that most of the
royalist forces that escaped had moved back to Santafé where they will
reinforce the defense of the city.

Most of my men and all my heavy artillery went to Facatativa, where they
would combine with Matheson column.  I just kept 200 of my most trusted
men with me.  I took a little time here at Tenjo, 25 km North from
Santafé.  In one or two days I expect to be writing from Santafé
herself.

-- Gen. Tomás Pinzón
   Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of Darien
   Tenjo, Santa Fe