110 
EXPORTATION OP HIDES. 
year; and sell to the number of five or six thousand 
According to official documents, the exportation of hides 
from the whole capitania-general of Caracas amounted 
annually to 174,000 skins of oxen, and 11,500 of goats. 
"When we reflect, that these documents are taken from 
the hooks of the custom-houses, where no mention is made 
of the fraudulent dealings in hides, we are tempted to 
believe that the estimate of 1,200,000 oxen wandering in 
the Llanos, from the Kio Carony and the G-uarapiche to the 
lake of Maracaybo, is much underrated. The port of La 
Guayra alone exported annually from 1789 to 1792, 70,000 
or 80,000 hides, entered in the custom-house hooks, scarcely 
one-fifth of which was sent to Spain. The exportation from 
Buenos Ayres, at the end of the eighteenth century, was, 
according to Don Felix de Azara, 800,000 skins. The hides 
of Caracas are preferred in the Peninsula to those of Buenos 
Ayres; because the latter, on account of a longer passage, 
undergo a loss of twelve per cent, in the tanning. The 
southern part of the savannahs, commonly called the Upper 
Plains (Llanos de arriba), is very productive in mules and 
oxen ; but the pasturage being in general less good, these 
animals are obliged to be sent to other plains to be fattened 
before they are sold. The Llano de Monai, and all the 
Lower Plains (Llanos de abaxo), abound less in herds, but 
the pastures are so fertile, that they furnish meat of an 
excellent quality for the supply of the coast. The mules, 
which are not fit for labour before the fifth year, are pur- 
chased on the spot at the price of fourteen or eighteen pias- 
tres. The horses of the Llanos, descending from the fine 
Spanish breed, are not very large ; they are generally of a 
uniform colour, brown bay, like most of the wild animals. 
Suffering alternately from drought and floods, tormented by 
the stings of insects and the bites of the large bats, they 
lead a sorry life. After having enjoyed for some months 
the care of man, their good qualities are developed. Here 
there are no sheep : we saw flocks only on the table-land of 
Quito. 
The halos of oxen have suffered considerably of late from 
troops of marauders, who roam over the steppes killing the 
animals merely to take their hides. This robbery has in- 
creased since the trade of the Lower Orinoco has become 
