OPPOSITION TO TIIEIB USE. 31 



had a great predilection, were still very common in the 

 south of Spain. A Biscayan, Juan de Reinaga, carried 

 some of these animals at his own expense to Peru. Father 

 Acosta saw them at the foot of the Andes, about the end 

 of the sixteenth century; but little care being taken of 

 them, they scarcely ever bred, and the race soon became 

 extinct. In those times of oppression and cruelty, which 

 have been described as the era of Spanish glory, the com- 

 mendataries (encomenderos) let out the Indians to travel- 

 lers like beasts of burden. They were assembled by hun- 

 dreds, either to carry merchandise across the Cordilleras, 

 or to follow the armies in their expeditions of discovery and 

 pillage. The Indians endured this service more patiently, 

 because, owing to the almost total want of domestic ani- 

 mals, they had long been constrained to perform it, though 

 in a less inhuman manner, under the government of their 

 own chiefs. The introduction of camels attempted by 

 Juan de Reinaga spread an alarm among the encomen- 

 deros, who w r ere, not by law, but in fact, lords of the Indian 

 villages. The court listened to the complaints of the enco- 

 menderos; and in consequence America was deprived of 

 one of the means which would have most facilitated inland 

 communication, and the exchange of productions. Now, 

 however, there is no reason why the introduction of camels 

 should not be attempted as a general measure. Some 

 hundreds of these useful animals, spread over the vast 

 surface of America, in hot and barren places, would in a 

 few years have a powerful influence on the public prosperity. 

 Provinces separated by steppes would then appear to be 

 brought nearer to each other ; several kinds of inland mer- 

 chandize would diminish in price on the coast ; and by in- 

 creasing the number of camels, above all the species called 

 hedjin, or * the ship of the desert,' a new life would be 

 given to the industry and commerce of the New World. 



On the evening of the 22ud we continued our journey from 

 Mocundo by Los Guayos to the city of Nueva Valencia. 

 We passed a little forest of palm-trees, which resembled, by 

 their appearance, and their leaves spread like a fan, the 

 Cliumaerops humilis of the coast of Barbary. The trunk, 

 however, riaes to twenty-four and sometimes thirty 



