JOURNEY ACROSS THE LLANOS. 
99 
America would then, like the centre of Asia, ha re had its 
conquerors, who, ascending from the plains to the table- 
rands of the Cordilleras, and abandoning a wandering life, 
would have subdued the civilized nations of Peru and New 
(rrenada, overturned the throne of the Incas and of the 
Zaque,* and substituted for the despotism which is the 
truit of theocracy, that despotism which arises from the 
patriarchal govermnent of a pastoral people. In the New 
World the human race has not experienced these great 
moral and political changes, because the steppes, though 
more tertde than those of Asia, have remained without 
lj’ because none of the animals that furnish milk in 
abundance are natives of the plains of South America ; and 
because, in the progressive unfolding of American civiliza- 
ion, the intermediate link is wanting that connects the 
hunting with the agricultural nations. 
We have thought proper to bring together these general 
notions on the plains of the New Continent, and the con- 
trast they exhibit to the deserts of Africa and the fertile 
steppes of Asia, in order to give some interest to the nar- 
rative of a journey across lands of so monotonous an aspect, 
liaving now accomplished this task, I shall trace the route 
by which we proceeded from the volcanic mountains of Para- 
para and the northern side of the Llanos, to the banks of 
the Apure, in the province of Yarinas. 
After having passed two nights on horseback, and sought 
m vain, by day, for some shelter from the heat of the 
sun beneath the tufts of the moriche palm-trees, we arrived 
before night at the little Hato del Cayman, t called also La 
(iuadaloupe. It was a solitary house in the steppes, sur- 
rounded by a few small huts, covered with reeds and skins. 
J-he cattle, oxen, horses, and mules are not penned, but 
wander freely over an extent of several square leagues 
lnere is nowhere any enclosure; men, naked to the waist and 
armed with a lance, ride over the savannahs to inspect the 
animals ; bringing hack those that wander too far from the 
pastures of the farm, and branding all that do not already bear 
e mark of their proprietor. These mulattos, who are known 
The Zaque was the secular chief of Cundinamarca. His power waa 
shared with the high priest (lama) of Iraca. 
t The Farm of the Alligator. 
H 2 
