96 ANCIENT NATITE REMAINS. 



between New Grenada and tr-e western border of the 



mountains of La Parime. 



The Llanos or steppes of the Lower Orinoco and of the 

 Meta, like the deserts of Africa, bear different names in 

 different parts. From the mouths of the Dragon the Llanos 

 of Cumana, of Barcelona, and of Caracas or Venezuela,* 

 follow, running from east to west. Where the steppes turn 

 towards the south and south-south-west, from the latitude 

 of 8, between the meridians of 70 and 73, we find from 

 north to south, the Llanos of Varinas, Cawanare, the Meta, 

 Gruaviare, Caguau, and Caqueta.f The plains of Varinas 

 contain some few monuments of the industry of a nation 

 that has diappeared. Between Mijagual and the Cano de la 

 Hacha, we find some real tumuli, called in the country the 

 Serillos de los Indios. They are hillocks in the shape of cones, 

 artificially formed of earth, and probably contain bones, like 

 the tumuli in the steppes of Asia. A fine road is also 

 discovered near Hato de la Calzada, between Varinas and 

 Canagua, five leagues long, made before the conquest, in 

 the most remote times, by the natives. It is a causeway of 

 earth fifteen feet high, crossing a plain often overflowed. 

 Did nations farther advanced in civilization descend from 

 the mountains of Truxillo and Merido to the plains of the 

 Bio Apure ? The Indians whom we now find between this 

 river and the Meta, are in too rude a state to think of 

 making roads or raising tumuli. 



I calculated the area of these Llanos from the Caqueta 

 to the Apure, and from the Apure to the Delta of the 

 Orinoco, and found to be it seventeen thousand square 



* The following are subdivisions of these three great Llanos, as I 

 marked them down on the spot. The Llanos of Cumana and New Anda- 

 lusia include those of Maturin and Terecen, of Amana, Guanipa, Jonoro, 

 and Cari. The Llanos of Nueva Barcelona comprise those of Aragua, 

 Pariaguan, and Villa del Pao. We distinguish in the Llanos of Caracas 

 those of Chaguaramas, Uritucu, Calabozo or Guarico, La Portuguesa, 

 San Carlos, and Araure. 



f- The inhabitants of these plains distinguish as subdivisions, from the 

 Rio Portuguesa to Caqueta, the Llanos of Guanare, Bocono, Nutrius or 

 the Apure, Palmerito near Quintero, Guardalito and Arauca, the Meta, 

 Apiay near the port of Pachaquiaro, Vichada, Guaviare, Arriari, Inirida, 

 the Rio Hacha, and Caguan. The limits between the savannahs and the 

 forests, in the plains that extend from the sources of the Rio Negro U 

 Putumayo, are not sufficiently known. 



