José de la Mar (1776-1830)
Series of 8 letters signed (‘Jose de la Mar’) to Andrés de Santa Cruz, Guayaquil, [Ecuador], 14 January - 15 June 1822
In Spanish. 8 pages in total, chiefly 303 x 212mm, all but one on bifolia and with the printed header of the Comandancia General of the Provincia de Guayaquil, the letters numbered 1 to 8 in pencil and pen. Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 22 May 1985, lot 328.

Letters from the Ecuadorian War of Independence, written immediately before and after the Battle of Pichincha. In January 1822 José de la Mar was placed in command of the Peruvian forces dispatched to Guayaquil to aid in the liberation of Ecuador, his forces joining those of Colombia against the Spanish. Andrés de Santa Cruz had deserted the royalist forces for the patriot army the year before and by 1822 had been appointed colonel, commanding a division of Peruvian troops. In the first of these letters, which are written either side of the victorious Battle of Pichincha on 22 May, La Mar informs Santa Cruz of his appointment, placing himself at his disposal in the furtherance of their shared cause. Across the rest of the correspondence he continues to emphasise the importance of their cooperation for the liberation of Quito; praises Santa Cruz’s conduct on one occasion as worthy of the ‘gran Familia Americana’ to which they both belong; mentions his Peruvian-Argentinian division joining the ‘valiant’ Colombians; imparts information on the movement of troops and military leadership, at one point ordering Santa Cruz to make use of certain men being transferred to his division; passes on the hopes of [Simón Bolívar], the ‘Liberador de Colombia’, for a successful conclusion of the campaign and the liberation of Ecuador from oppression; and discusses the capitulation of the Spanish forces [after the Battle of Pichincha].

On 9 October 1820, almost without bloodshed, a group of civilians, supported by soldiers from the ‘Granaderos de Reserva’ battalion quartered in Guayaquil and led by the Peruvian Colonel Gregorio Escobedo, overwhelmed the resistance of the Royalist guards and arrested the Spanish authorities. Guayaquil declared independence from Spain, becoming the ‘Provincia Libre de Guayaquil’. In 1822, General Antonio José de Sucre, sent by Simón Bolivar and supported by a division promised by José de San Martín, led the allied independence army in the Battle of Pichincha that sealed the independence of the Gran Colombia and also what would become the future Republic of Ecuador.