REVOLUTION OF 1898 105 



recruiting expedition. I happened to reach Temblador 

 from the rapids of Piritu just in time to have my men 

 impressed. Fortunately I managed to arrange with 

 General Kivas, who was in charge of the troops on board 

 of the ' Apure,' to take me and my collections of birds 

 and plants to Ciudad-Bolivar. From Temblador the 

 ' Apure ' dropped down to Suapure, where a day was 

 spent recruiting. At night the men, having only their 

 blankets and unable to sleep on account of the clouds of 

 mosquitos, talked and sang and quarrelled until it was 

 time to start. It was a wild lot we had on board. 

 Without discipline, with but little respect for, or fear of 

 their chiefs, eager to get drunk wherever drink could be 

 obtained, excited by the exaggerated accounts of the 

 fighting which had taken place in the llanos, the ' Apure ' 

 carried as wild and unmanageable a set of beings as it 

 would be possible to meet with anywhere. After leaving 

 Suapure the steamer stopped at the landing-place of the 

 village of Maripa, and more generals and colonels and 

 troops came on board. The men carried large pieces 

 of meat still dripping with blood, for an ox had been 

 slaughtered and divided up amongst the soldiery. As I 

 had heard the men say when they joined the campaign, 

 ' Now we are going to eat beef,' I understood that they 

 were carrying out to the letter the promise they had 

 made themselves. Wherever the troops stopped they 

 appropriated whatever they could lay their hands on, and 

 as cattle are the mainstay of the plains, the soldiers very 

 naturally looked forward to a pleasant diet of fresh meat 

 free of cost. Few campaigns are carried on at less 

 expense to the leaders than these intestine wars which 

 are the curse of the Spanish-American republics. It is 

 difficult to understand why those who work have put up 



