45 



course, than by their abundance, and as it were 

 by " their own weight." We had two bad sta- 

 tions, at Matagorda and at Los Riecetos, before 

 we reached the little town of Pao. We met 

 every where with the same objects ; small huts 

 constructed of reeds, and roofed with leather ; 

 men on horseback armed with lances guarding 

 the herds ; herds of cattle half wild, remarkable 

 for their uniform colour, and disputing the pas- 

 turage with the horses and mules. No sheep or 

 goats are found on these immense steppes ! 

 Sheep do not breed kindly in equinoctial Ame- 

 rica, except on the table-lands above a thousand 

 toises high, where their fleece is long, and some- 

 times very fine. In the ardent climate of the 

 plains, where the wolves give place to jaguars, 

 these small ruminating animals, destitute of 

 means of defence, and so slow in their move- 

 ments, are unable to preserve themselves in great 

 numbers. 



We arrived on the 15th of July at the Funda- 

 cionov Villa del Pao, founded in 1 744, and placed 

 very favourably to serve as a commercial station 

 between Nueva Barcelona and Angostura. It's 

 real name is el Conception del Pao. Alcedo, La 

 Cruz Olmedilla, and many other geographers, 

 have mistaken it's situation ; confounding this 

 small town of the Llanos of Barcelona either 

 with San Juan Bauptisto del Pao of the Llanos 

 of Caraccas, or with El Valle del Pao de Za- 



