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felt no envy of this poety of the desert. It was 

 born in Asia. The oriental poets found it's source 

 in the nature of the country they inhabited ; 

 they were inspired by the aspect of those vast 

 solitudes, interposed like arms of the sea or 

 gulfs between lands adorned by nature with her 

 most luxuriant fertility. 



The plain assumes at sunrise a more animated 

 aspect. The cattle, which had reposed during 

 the night along the pools, or beneath clumps of 

 murichis and rhopalas, were now assembled in 

 herds ; and these solitudes became peopled with 

 horses, mules, and oxen, that live here, I will 

 not say as wild, but as free animals, without 

 settled habitations, and disdaining the care and 

 the protection of man. In these hot climates, 

 the oxeri, though of Spanish breed, like those of 

 the cold table-lands of Quito, are of a much 

 gentler disposition. A traveller runs no risk of 

 being attacked or pursued, as we were often in 

 our excursions on the back of the Cordilleras, 

 where the climate is rude, the aspect of the 

 country more wild, and food less abundant. As 

 we approached Calabozo, we saw herds of roe- 

 bucks browzing peacefully in the midst of horses 

 and oxen. They are called matacanij their 

 flesh is good ; they are a little larger than our 

 roes, and resemble deer with a very sleek skin of 

 a fawn-colour, and spotted with white. Their 

 horns appeared to me with single spears. They 



