JOURNEY ACROSS THE LLANOS. 99 



America would then, like the centre of Asia, haTe had its 

 conquerors, who, ascending from the plains to the table- 

 lands of the Cordilleras, and abandoning a wandering life, 

 would have subdued the civilized nations of Peru and New 

 Grenada, overturned the throne of the Incas and of the 

 Zaque,* and substituted for the despotism which is the 

 fruit of theocracy, that despotism which arises from the 

 patriarchal government of a pastoral people. In the New 

 World the human race has not experienced these great 

 moral and political changes, because the steppes, though 

 more fertile than those of Asia, have remained without 

 herds ; because none of the animals that furnish milk in 

 abundance are natives of the plains of South America ; and 

 because, in the progressive unfolding of American civiliza- 

 tion, the intermediate link is wanting that connects the 

 hunting with the agricultural nations. 



We have thought proper to bring together these general 

 notions on the plains of the New Continent, and the con- 

 trast they exhibit to the deserts of Africa and the fertile 

 steppes of Asia, in order to give some interest to the nar- 

 rative of a journey across lands of so monotonous an aspect. 

 Having now accomplished this task, I shall trace the route 

 by which we proceeded from the volcanic mountains of Para- 

 para and the northern side of the Llanos, to the banks of 

 the Apure, in the province of Varinas. 



After having passed two nights on horseback, and sought 

 m vain, by day, for some shelter from the heat of the 

 sun beneath the tufts of the moriche palm-trees, we arrived 

 before night at the little Hato del Cayman,f called also La 

 Guadaloupe. It was a solitary house in the steppes, sur- 

 rounded by a few small huts, covered with reeds and skins. 

 The cattle, oxen, horses, and mules are not penned, but 

 wander freely over an extent of several square leagues 

 There is nowhere any enclosure ; men, naked to the waist and 

 armed with a lance, ride over the savannahs to inspect the 

 animals ; bringing back those that wander too far from the 

 pastures of the farm, and branding all that do not already bear 

 the mark of their proprietor. These mulattos, who are known 



* The Zaque was the secular chief of Cundinamarca. His power was 

 lhared with the high priest (lama) of Iraca. 



f The Farm of the Alligator. 



H 2 



