LLANEROS LLOIIENTE. 



503 



and when they are wearied, no blows will compel 

 them to proceed. In fact, one of their great faults 

 is the capriciousness of their disposition. When pro- 

 voked, they have no other mode of avenging them- 

 selves than by spitting, which faculty they possess in 

 an extraordinary degree, being capable of ejecting 

 their saliva to a distance of several yards. This is of a 

 corroding quality, causing some degree of irrita tion and 

 itching, if it falls on the naked skin. Besides their ser- 

 vices as beasts of burden, the llamas afford various 

 articles of no small utility to human life. The flesh is 

 considered very wholesome and savoury, especially 

 from the young animal. Their wool, though of a 

 strong, disagreeable scent, is in great request, espe- 

 cially among the native Indians, who employ it in the 

 manufacture of stuffs, ropes, bags, and hats. Their 

 skins are of a very close texture, and were formerly 

 employed by the Peruvians for soles of shoes, and 

 are much prized by the Spaniards for harness. The 

 female llama goes five or six months with young, 

 and produces one at a birth. The growth of the 

 young is very rapid ; being capable of producing at 

 three years of age, and beginning to decay at about 

 twelve. The llama is four feet and a half high, and 

 not more than six in length. He has a bunch on his 

 breast, which constantly exudes a yellowish oily 

 matter. His hair is long and soft ; his colours, vari- 

 ous shades of white, brown, &c. The tail is rather 

 short, curved downwards. The hoofs are divided; 

 or, rather, the toes are elongated forwards, and ter- 

 minated by small horny appendages, surrounding the 

 last phalanx only, rounded above, and on either side 

 somewhat curved. There are several specimens of 

 the llama in the different menageries in Europe, 

 where they appear to thrive very well. 



LLANEROS (from llano, plain); the inhabitants of 

 the plains, or Llanos (q. v.). In this article we 

 speak more particularly of those in Venezuela. The 

 immense plains of Venezuela, which afford excellent 

 pasture for all kinds of flocks and herds, are gener- 

 ally inhabited by converted Indians or descendants 

 of Indians and whites, who are distinguished for activ- 

 ity, ferocity, ignorance and semi-barbarous habits, 

 and are called Llaneros. From childhood they are 

 accustomed to catch and mount wild horses, which 

 roam by hundreds over the savannas. When at war, 

 they are generally armed with a long lance, and often 

 have neither swords nor pistols. Uniform is unknown 

 among them ; a few rags cover the upper part of their 

 body ; their pantaloons are broad and full, somewhat 

 in the Mameluke style. They have blankets (man- 

 fas), as is the case with most Indians in habits of 

 intercourse with whites ; many of them have ham- 

 mocks. They are brave in defending their plains. 

 Their manner of fighting is much like that of the 

 Cossacks ; they never attack in regular files, but 

 disperse themselves in every direction, rushing on- 

 ward, flying, repeatedly attacking and constantly 

 harassing the enemy. Paez, who was born and bred 

 among them, and is in manners, language and fero- 

 city, a complete Llanero, commanded them during 

 the war of Colombian independence, and is adored by 

 them. They choose their own officers, and dismiss 

 them at pleasure. They suffer no foreigners among 

 them. As they have played a conspicuous part in 

 the revolutions of Colombia, we subjoin the descrip- 

 tion of them by colonel Ilippisley, which is corro- 

 borated by general Ducoiulray Holstein, in his Me- 

 moirs of Simon Bolivar. " Sedeno's cavalry (Llan- 

 eros),'' says colonel Hippisley, " were composed of 

 all sorts and sizes, some with saddles, very many of 

 them without ; some with bits, leather head-stalls and 

 reins ; others with rope lines, with a bit of the rope 

 placed over the tongue of the horse as a bit ; some 

 with old pistols hung over the saddle bow, either in- 



cased in tiger-skin, or ox-hide holster-pipes, or hanging 

 by a thong of hide, one on each side. As for the 

 troopers themselves, they were from thirteen to for- 

 ty-six years of age, of black, brown, sallow complex- 

 ions, according to the castes of their parents. The 

 adults wore coarse, large mustachios, and short hair, 

 either woolly or black, according to their climate or 

 descent. They had a ferocious, savage look. They 

 were mounted on miserable, half-starved, jaded beasts, 

 horses or mules; some without trowsers, small clothes, 

 or any covering, except a bandage of blue cloth or 

 cotton round their loins, the end of which, passing 

 between their legs, was fastened to the girth, round 

 the waist ; others with trowsers, but without stock 

 ings, boots, or shoes, and a spur generally gracing 

 the heel of one side ; and some wearing a kind of 

 sandal made of hide, with the hair side outward. In 

 their left hand they hold their reins, and in their 

 right a pole, from eight to ten feet in length, with an 

 iron head, very sharp at the point and sides, and 

 rather flat ; in shape like our sergeants' halbert. 

 A blanket of about a yard square, with a holr, or 

 rather a slit, cut in the centre, through which the 

 wearer thrusts his head, falls on each side of his 

 shoulders, thus covering his body, and leaving his 

 bare arms at perfect liberty to manage his horse, or 

 mule, and lance. Sometimes an old musket, the 

 barrel of which has been shortened twelve inches, 

 forms his carbine, and a large sabre or hanger, or 

 cut and thrust, or even a small sword, hangs by a 

 leather thong to his side. A flat hat, a tiger skin 

 or high cap, covers his head, with a white feather 

 or a white rag stuck into it." This picture will 

 remind the reader of some of the cavalry which 

 Russia marched from her Asiatic dominions against 

 France in the final struggle with Napoleon. 



LLANOS ; the name given in the northern part of 

 South America, particularly in Colombia, to vast 

 plains, almost entirely level, and interrupted only by 

 detached elevations, called in Spanish, mesas. The 

 superficial area of the llanos is estimated at 296,800 

 square miles ; they extend from the coast of Caracas 

 to Guiana, and from Merida to the mouth of the 

 Orinoco and the Amazons. A large portion of them 

 is sandy and without much vegetation, except on the 

 banks of the rivers and during inundations: some 

 fan-palms are found. When the inundations occur, 

 the beasts take refuge upon the mesas. The llanos 

 have been supposed by some to have formerly been 

 the bottom of the sea. They are distinguished into 

 the (a.) Llano of Colombia, extending from the 

 mountains of Caracas to the mouth of the Orinoco, 

 and to the mountains of St Fe, and containing seve- 

 ral mesas (de Amana, de G uanipa, de Paja, fifty to 

 sixty-five feet in height), which, in the rainy season, 

 are covered with rich verdure, and inhabited by herdo 

 and flocks of all descriptions. (b.) Llano de Cana- 

 nare ; a continuation of the former, between the 

 Orinoco, Meta andSinaruca. (c.) Llano de S.Juan; 

 very fertile, woody, often so thickly overgrown, that 

 it can only be penetrated by means of the num erous 

 rivers ; lies on the southern bank of the Meta, reach- 

 ing to the Amazons, and was discovered in 1541 by 

 Gonzalo Ximenes Quesada. (d.) Llano of the Ama- 

 zons, or the Maranhon; on both sides of the ri ver, 

 extending from the Andes to the mouth of tl." 

 Maranhon, over 2100 miles ; it is also wooded, and 

 rich in grass, entirely without stones, and inhabited 

 by many species of animals. The inhabitants of 

 these plains are called Llaneros (q. v.). Farther to 

 the south, such plains are called pampas (q. v.). 



LLORENTE, DON JUAN ANTONIO, author of the 

 first history of the Spanish inquisition, drawn from 

 its own records, was born in 1756, near Calahorra, 

 in Arragon. He received his education at Tarra- 



