302 



gul race, according to ancient and superstitious 

 custom, erect oboes, or little mounds of stone 

 on every point where the rivers flow in an op- 

 posite direction. 



The uniform landscape of the Llanos ; the 

 extreme rarity of inhabitants ; the fatigue of 

 travelling beneath a burning sky, and an atmo- 

 sphere darkened by dust ; the view of that hori- 

 zon, which seems for ever to fly before us ; those 

 lonely trunks of palm-trees, which have all the 

 same aspect, and which we despair of reaching, 

 because they are confounded with other trunks, 

 that rise by degrees on the visual horizon ; all 

 these causes combined make the steppes appear 

 far greater than they are in reality. The planters 

 who inhabit the southern declivity of the chain 

 of the coast see the steppes extend toward the 

 South, as far as the eye can reach, like an ocean of 

 verdure. They know, tha^ from the Delta of 

 the Oroonoko to the province of Varinas, and 

 thence, by traversing the banks of the Meta, 

 the Guaviare, and the Caguan, they can advance 

 three hundred and eighty leagues* in the plains, 

 first from East to West, and then from North- 

 East to South-East beyond the Equator, to the 

 foot of the Andes of Pasto. They know by the 

 accounts of travellers the Pampas of Buenos 



* This is the distance from Tombuctoo to the northern 

 coast of Africa. 



