Santafé de Bogotá
August 10th, 1812 (Monday)

Two things I had to do today: to convince the people of Santafé that I was representing the struggle of the sons of this city that failed in September 1810, and to get the political support for the Colombian pact.

The task should have seemed simple but, as I guessed, very few people remembered me from that time and I was the only people in the liberating army that were here then.  The marquis knew me, after all I had had a little correspondence with him regarding Jorge Tadeo, but most of the people I knew back then were precisely the people that was later on prosecuted by Samano and either escaped or were executed.

Samano... we have not been able to find him.  According to all information we have gotten, he was yesterday morning in the Viceroyalty Palace, but we have not been able to find him, so we presume he managed to escape somehow.  Anyhow we have a few high ranking officers from the royalist army as prisoners.

There was a third task that will take some time: sorting out from the royalist soldiers those who are willing to join the Colombian army and those that are too convinced royalist that must remind prisoners to the end of the war.

Yesterday afternoon my men were recollecting and counting the bodies, attending the injured and controlling the public order, task the continued the whole night.  This morning Santafé was in calm and few reminders from the battle that have just happened could be found.  People in Darien olive green uniforms or in dark blue uniforms with the ensigns of the Colombian Pact army instead of the royal ensigns, were patrolling the streets of a city that pretended to be in just a normal day.  Anyhow barely 300 men where patrolling this 30.000 inhabitants city, while most of my men were still cleaning the mess near the Bogotá River or guarding the prisoners.

I convoked the most important people to a meeting.  Well, for two different meetings just to be sure that I could have a more controlled situation, sorting them out according to which continent they were born in.  The Creoles were convoked to the Viceroyalty Palace while the Peninsula born were appointed to the San Ignacio church.

I went first to the Creoles, talking with few of them to calm them down and suggest them what I thought.  Then, when all of them were in, I spoke:

"We have come here to free you people from the tyranny of Spain and her minion Samano.  It is my which that all the peoples of the Americas, and particularly we, the people of Cundinamarca, the people of the New Granada, can find a way to live together.  Many of the sons and daughters of Santa Fe have died for this dream of not having to depend from the tyranny of a king in Spain and his minions."

I then read a list of the people executed by both Amar and Samano, trying to look at the face of their families.

"For the memory of them, and for the sake of those who managed to escape from the yoke of Spain but are waiting to come back" -- I look to the Marquis and his daughter -- "now is time for Santa Fe to take again the path you took two years ago and to become the head of this new air of liberty in Cundinamarca."

"I came to this city, two years ago, and I happily found that you had already take this first step towards a nation of our own, but unfortunately you were naive then, we were naive then and we were unable to defend this revolution.  I promised myself to come back to a free Santa Fe and now it is upon you to decide if this promise has been accomplished."

"This is what history is leading us to, you are surely aware of the revolutions in Cartagena and Venezuela, and the destiny of Santa Fe should not have been to be the last just because it was the first.  Unfortunately the people that had the dream then is away, executed or hiding in the mountains; or frightened by the repression of Samano.  It is not my role to decide how Santa Fe should be led now; this is for the people of Santa Fe.  My role is just to fight the tyranny of Spain, and a snake must be hit on its head.  I will left this room soon and you will be free to decide how you want your country to be run."

I then step out of the room to go to the other meeting.  Colonel Suarez, the commander of the Sumapaz command, step in with several of the men and read a list, asking this people to leave the room, just a way to avoid the most reactionary of the people to decide.

One of this people approached to me and told me something that makes me worried: if the Viceroy is still missing, he could any time convoke the legitimacy of the crown.

I came into San Ignacio, and I could not help to notice that people was worried.

"People of Santa Fe", I began to speak from the pulpit.  "As you have chosen this city to live and to rise a family this is your city and this is something I have no right to deny to you.  You are facing, however, a situation in which you have to decide which your loyalties are.  Spain is splitting apart, with Ferdinand claiming the crown in the motherland and Carlos trying to rebuild his power in Mexico, with the rebellions of Darien, Cartagena and Venezuela, etc."

"I know that many of you are willing to defend your king, whoever this is or regardless on who this king is.  That you want to remind here aslonger as this country is still Spanish.  I know that some of you would rather go back to the Metropolis than to stay here governed by Creoles; or worse: governed by Pardos like me.  I know that some of you have made roots in this country and won't care to support any new government that arises."

"I can only say something: that I respect any personal position in all this, that neither me nor my men will do you any harm."

"I have asked the people born on this side of the Atlantic to decide how they want their destinies to be.  If any of you believe that you are no less than anybody born in this country, we let you join the meeting in the former Viceroyalty Palace."

"I have chose this sacred place to tell you all this so you know that my words have God as a witness."

"My fight is not against the White people, my fight is not against the Spanish people, and my fight is not against you.  My fight is against the tyranny the Spanish Empire used as a yoke against my people.  If any of you are part of this tyranny, then I am your enemy, otherwise, and God is my witness in this, His house, that I want you to be as free and equal in this city of you as my people will be."

I step down from the pulpit, and came back to my chamber in the former Viceroyalty Palace.  I let Col. Suarez to judge if any of the Spaniards that wanted to come to the Palace was safe.

I took lunch with Matheson and then we went to the place we were keeping the prisoners.  I told the soldiers that if anyone publicly and with his men and God as witness, resigned to keep fighting to Spain and to recognize either Ferdinand or Carlos as his king, they would be released free unarmed.  Those who refused would be kept as prisoners of war.  Spanish born officers would not be given this chance.

By the evening the situation of half of the prisoners had been clarified.  And the people at the former Viceroyalty Palace had came with the sketch of a new government for the Republic of Cundinamarca.  Nothing really serious though.  They seem to have written that sketch so I would allow them out of that room.

1043 bodies were counted from yesterday's battles.  Around 50 royalists are missing, Juan Sámano among them.  There are still a few things to define, like the fate of the prisoners, the political situation of this Republic of Cundinamarca and the Colombian Pact.  News from Venezuela are not quite good and I don't have a clue on what has happened in Antioquia.  During the week I hope that the situation will become clearer.

-- Gen. Tomás Pinzón
   Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of Darien
   Santafé de Bogotá, Republic of Cundinamarca.