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plains of Varinas afford some feeble monuments 

 of the industry of a nation, that has disappeared. 

 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, formed of earth by the hands 

 of men, atid probably contain bones, like the 

 tumuli in the steppes of Asia. A fine road is 

 also discovered near Hato de la Calzada, be- 

 tween 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 over- 

 flowed*. Did nations farther advanced in 

 civilization descend from the mountains 

 Truxillo and Merido toward the plains of the 

 Rio 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 Oroonoko, and found it 

 seventeen thousand square leagues of twenty to 

 a degree. The part running from North to 

 South is almost double that which stretches 

 From East to West, between the Lower Oroo- 

 noko and the littoral chain of Caraccas. The 



* Viage de Varinas a Santa- Ft, by Mr. Palarios. (MS.) 



