154 The Eve of Saint Simon, in Colombia. [AuG. 



gallant achievements which he has performed at their head, as also the 

 individual feats of intrepidity displayed by this small band (however 

 well they may be attested), would, to the generality of readers, appear 

 incredible. In the event of any sudden emergency, an intended attack 

 upon the enemy, or the necessity of acting upon the defensive (by the 

 by, a rare occurrence with Paez), he could, at a very short notice, 

 assemble three thousand men, who (from the facility which the plains 

 afford him of procuring horses) form one of the most formidable and 

 efficient cavalry forces ever embodied. Each man, whilst engaged even 

 in the culture of his small plantation of Indian corn and sugar-cane, 

 keeps his docile charger ready for instant action ; and those who might 

 neglect this precautionary measure so astonishing is the power which 

 the Llanero has obtained by practice in the manege wpuld, in the short 

 space of an hour or two, be enabled to tame the unruly spirit of the wildest 

 stallion, and render him fully adequate to all the purposes of guerilla 

 service. Paez himself has a reserve of five hundred horses, which follow 

 in the rear of all his expeditions, as a remount for himself and staff; and 

 so jealous is he of his right of exclusive possession, that he has been known 

 to refuse Bolivar (the then supreme chief of Venezuela) a single horse 

 for his personal accommodation ! 



In addition to the amusements already described as forming the prin- 

 cipal recreation of the motley inhabitants of the town and vicinity of 

 Achaquas, each leisure moment was devoted to gambling; and so 

 addicted were all classes to this vicious enjoyment, that tables were to 

 be seen by day and night at the corners of the different streets, round 

 which stood mixed groups of officers and privates, and even women, all 

 engaged in sacrificing to the blind goddess amid the blasphemous curses 

 of those whom Fortune betrayed. Paez himself, perambulating the town, 

 would frequently mingle with one or other of these parties, and, by his 

 presence, sanction a vice, the demoralizing effects of which eventually 

 produced the most pernicious consequences, and which proved, indeed, 

 the primary cause of the melancholy catastrophe which it will shortly be 

 my painful task to record. 



Ere I pursue the thread of my narration, however, it may prove agree- 

 able to my reader to learn something of the personal appearance, cha- 

 racter, and acquirements, of a chief whose present station, as head of 

 the Venezuelan confederacy, and opposition to the misnamed " Wash- 

 ington of Colombia," renders an object of public interest. 



Jose Antonio Paez is of robust though diminutive stature : his shoul- 

 ders, of extraordinary breadth, support a short neck of unusual thickness 

 (not unlike that of the enraged bull he delights in combating), and which 

 probably occasions those fits which any strong excitement is sure to 

 produce : this neck, in its turn, sustains a head of disproportionate di- 

 mensions, in which small dark eyes of uncommon brilliance light up a 

 countenance where cunning seems the predominant expression: but 

 cruelty lies concealed in his heart. Like the tiger crouching to spring 

 on its prey, Paez is to be most dreaded when he evinces least anger. His 

 features afford no intimation to the victim whose doom he meditates ; 

 and many a Spanish prisoner, lulled into fancied security by his smile, 

 has found it but the harbinger to death. Brave even to temerity (if the 

 savage ferocity of a wild beast may be termed courage), he dreads no 

 foe, and will rush, unattended, into the midst of thousands, regardless of 

 danger. At the battle of Ortez he was known, with his own hand, to 



