30 
EMPLOYMENT OF CAMELS. 
and San Sebastian, near Guatire, Guarenas, and Caurimare 
The first canes arrived m the New World from the Canary* 
Islands; and even now Canarians, or Islenos, are placed at 
the head ot most of the great plantations, and superintend 
the labours ot cultivation and refining. 1 
• I . c ™ r ' nexic, ‘ between the Canarians and the 
m labitants of A enezuela, that has given rise to the in- 
troduction ot camels into those provinces. The Marquis 
del loro caused three to be brought from Lancerote The 
expense of conveyance was very considerable, owing to the 
space which these animals occupy on board merchant-vessels 
and the great quantity of water they require during a Ion- 
sea-voyage. A camel, bought for thirty piastre!, cost! 
between eight and nine hundred before it reaches the coast 
of Caracas. We saw four of these animals at Mocundo ■ 
5S® 2 T. h i'.! ad bred in Araerica - Two others had 
died of the bite of the coral, a venomous serpent very 
common on the banks of the lake. These camels have 
hitherto been employed only m the conveyance of the sugar- 
canes to the mill The males, stronger than the females 
carry from forty to fifty arrobas. A wealthy landholder in 
the province of Varmas encouraged by the example of the 
Marquis del loro, has. allotted a sum of 15,000 piastres for 
the purpose of bringing fourteen or fifteen camels at once 
fiom the Canary Islands. It is presumed these beasts of 
burden may be employed in the conveyance of merchandise 
across the burning plants of Casanare, from the Apure and 
9 l “p 16 st ; asim of drought resemble the 
deserts ot Mnca. How advantageous it would have been 
had the Conquistadores, from the beginning of the sixteenth 
century peopled America with camels, as they have peopled 
it with horned cattle, horses, and mules. Wherever there 
are immense distances to cross in uninhabited lands • where! 
ever the construction of canals becomes difficult fas in the 
isthmus ot Panama, on the table-land of Mexico, and in the 
deserts that separate the kingdom of Quito from Peru and 
Peru from Chile), camels would be of the highest import- 
ance, to facilitate inland commerce. It seems the more 
surprising, that their introduction was not eucoura-ed bv 
the government at the beginning of the conquest, as, long 
after the taking of Grenada, camels, for which the Moors 
