[Caption title:] El Teniente General D. Pablo Morillo, General en gefe del egército expedicionario de Costa-firme, ha dado cuenta al Rey nuestro Senor del siguiente suceso. ([Strikethrough:] Ministerio de Guerra.)

First edition. Bifolio. (4 [last blank]) p. A contemporary account on the siege of San Fernando de Apure, the "Toma de las Flecheras", a bloody battle of the Venezuelan War of Independence in 1818. After the successful siege of Angostura (today Ciudad Bolivar) in 1817, Simon Bolivar (El Libertador; 1783–1830), marched to the west to link up with his new ally, the llanero jefe José Antonio Páez (1790–1873; later the President of Venezuela), to continue the renewed campaign against the heart of Venezuela. They united their forces at the south bank of the Apure River near to the Spanish garrison, San Fernando de Apure. While Bolivar was preparing the attack on Pablo Morillo’s army at Calabozo (12 February 1818), Páez attempted to take the flecheras (shallow drafted vessels) of the garrison to accelerate the crossing on the river and to take over the entire fort (Toma de las Flecheras on 6 February 1818). The defenders, six hundred and fifty men, captained by José Maria Quero (?–1818), who was shot twice during the first attack, resisted for a month. Despite the threats of cruel punishments, and offers of persuasive prizes, the shortage of ammunition, and the famine (they were eating horses, donkeys, cats, dogs: "manteniéndose con caballos, asnos, gatos") the guards only tried to escape on March 7. Páez chased and attacked them, Quero got a third bullet, two of his officers were killed, many of his men got captured, and two officers who refused to capitulate were killed by mutilation. The present document, besides Pablo Morillo’s (El Pacificador; 1775–1837) account on the bloody attack, includes the declaration of the Ferdinand VII, the Spanish King, regarding the rewards and grants for the surviving heroes or the families of the deceased. Extremely scarce. We could trace only one copy in institutional holding (JCB). . Signed by Joaquín de Ibarra (subinspector of the 2nd Artillery Regiment). Annotations in ink, dated on November 16, 1818. Chipped at folding. Otherwise in fine condition.…