<M) EMPLOYMENT OF CAMELS. 



and San Sebastian, near Guatire, Gluarenas, and Caurimare. 

 The first canes arrived in the New World from the Canary 

 Islands ; and even now Canarians, or Islenos, are placed at 

 the head of most of the great plantations, and superintend 

 the labours of cultivation and refining. 



It is this connexion between the Canarians and the 

 inhabitants of Venezuela, that has given rise to the in- 

 troduction of camels into those provinces. The Marquia 

 del Toro caused three to be brought from Lancerote. The 

 expense of conveyance was very considerable, owing to the 

 space which these animals occupy on board merchant- vessels, 

 and the great quantity of water they require during a long 

 sea-voyage. A camel, bought for thirty piastres, costs 

 between eight and nine hundred before it reaches the coast 

 of Caracas. We saw four of these animals at Mocundo ; 

 three of which had been bred in America. Two others had 

 died of the bite of the coral, a venomous serpent very 

 common on the banks of the lake. These camels have 

 hitherto been employed only in the conveyance of the sugar- 

 canes to the mill. The males, stronger than the females, 

 carry from forty to fifty arrobas. A wealthy landholder in 

 the province of Yarinas, encouraged by the example of the 

 Marquis del Toro, has allotted a sum of 15,000 piastres for 

 the purpose of bringing fourteen or fifteen camels at once 

 from the Canary Islands. It is presumed these beasts of 

 burden may be employed in the conveyance of merchandise 

 across the burning plains of Casanare, from the Apure and 

 Calabozo, which in the season of drought resemble the 

 deserts of Africa. How advantageous it would have been 

 had the Conquistadores, from the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, peopled America with camels, as they have peopled 

 it with horned cattle, horses, and mules. Wherever there 

 are immense distances to cross in uninhabited lands ; where- 

 ever the construction of canals becomes difficult (as in the 

 isthmus of Panama, on the table-land of Mexico, and in the 

 deserts that separate the kingdom of Quito from Peru, and 

 Peru from Chile), camels would be of the highest import- 

 ance, to facilitate inland commerce. It seems the more 

 surprising, that their introduction was not encouraged by 

 the government at the beginning of the conquest, as, long 

 after the taking of Grenada, camels, for which the Moors 



