110 EXPORTATION OF HIJ>EB. 



year; and sell to the number of five or six thousand 

 According to official documents, the exportation of hides 

 from the whole capitania-general of Caracas amounted 

 annually to 174,000 skins of oxen, and 11,500 of goats. 

 When we reflect, that these documents are taken from 

 the books of the custom-houses, where no mention is made 

 of the fraudulent dealings in hides, we are tempted to 

 believe that the estimate of 1,200,000 oxen wandering in 

 the Llanos, from the Rio Carony and the Guarapiche to the 

 lake of Maracaybo, is much underrated. The port of La 

 Gruayra alone exported annually from 1789 to 1792, 70,000 

 or 80,000 hides, entered in the custom-house books, scarcely 

 one-fifth of which was sent to Spain. The exportation from 

 Buenos Ayres, at the end of the eighteenth century, was, 

 according to Don Felix de Azara, 800,000 skins. The hides 

 of Caracas are preferred in the Peninsula to those of Buenos 

 Ayres; because the latter, on account of a longer passage, 

 undergo a loss of twelve per cent, in the tanning. The 

 southern part of the savannahs, commonly called the Upper 

 Plains (Llanos de arriba), is very productive in mules and 

 oxen ; but the pasturage being in general less good, these 

 animals are obliged to be sent to other plains to be fattened 

 before they are sold. The Llano de Monai, and all the 

 Lower Plains (Llanos de abaxo), abound less in herds, but 

 the pastures are so fertile, that they furnish meat of an 

 excellent quality for the supply of the coast. The mules, 

 which are not fit for labour before the fifth year, are pur- 

 chased on the spot at the price of fourteen or eighteen pias- 

 tres. The horses of the Llanos, descending from the fine 

 Spanish breed, are not very large ; they are generally of a 

 uniform colour, brown bay, like most of the wild animals. 

 Suffering alternately from drought and floods, tormented by 

 the stings of insects and the bites of the large bats, they 

 lead a sorry life. After having enjoyed for some months 

 the care of man, their good qualities are developed. Here 

 there are no sheep : we saw flocks only on the table-land of 

 Quito. 



The Tiatos of oxen have suffered considerably of late from 

 troops of marauders, who roam over the steppes killing the 

 animals merely to take their hides. This robbery has in- 

 creased since the trade of the Lower Orinoco has become 



