on his deathbed, bolívar had asked his aide-de-camp, general daniel f. o'leary to burn the remaining, extensive archive of his writings, letters, and speeches. o'leary disobeyed the order and his writings survived, providing historians with a vast wealth of information about bolívar's liberal philosophy and thought, as well as details of his personal life, such as his longstanding love affair with manuela sáenz. shortly before her own death in 1856, sáenz augmented this collection by giving o'leary her own letters from bolívar.