NUMBER OF EUROPEAN CATTLE. 
Ill 
•ftore flourishing. For half a century, the banks of that 
great river, from the mouth of the Apure as far as Angostura, 
'yere known only to the missionary-monks. The exportata- 
tion of cattle took place from the ports of the northern coast 
wily, viz. from Cumana, Barcelona, Burburata, and Porto 
habello. This dependence on the coast is now much dimi- 
nished. The southern part of the plains has established an 
internal communication with the Lower Orinoco ; and this 
trade is the more brisk, as those who devote themselves to it 
easily escape the trammels of the prohibitory laws. 
The greatest herds of cattle in the Llanos of Caracas are 
those of the ha /ox of Merecure, La Cruz, Bolen, Alta Gracia, 
f'd Pavon. The Spanish cattle came from Coro and Tocuyo 
ln ^° the plains. History has preserved the name of the 
colonist who first conceived the idea of peopling these pas- 
sages, inhabited only by deer, and a large species of cavy. 
hristoval Bodriguez sent the first horned cattle into the 
J lanos, about the year 1548. He was an inhabitant of the 
°Tm°f Tocu y°> aT, d bad long resided in Hew Grenada. 
When we hear of the ‘ innumerable quantity ’ of oxen, 
y°rses, and mules, that are spread over the plains of Ame- 
r iea, we seem generally to forget that in civilized Europe, 
<iri Rinds of much less extent, there exist, in agricultural 
youn tries, quantities no less prodigious. France, accord- 
ln g to M. Peuehet, feeds 6,000,000 large homed cattle, of 
hieh 3,500,000 are oxen employed in drawing the plough. 
■ U ^i Austrian monarchy, the number of oxen, cows, 
'|l calves, has been estimated at 13,400,000 head. Paris 
‘ °ne consumes annually 155,000 horned cattle. Germany 
eceives 150,000 oxen yearly from Hungary. Domestic 
t collected in small herds, are considered by agricul- 
ai nations as a secondary object in the riches of the state, 
t^ccordingly they strike the imagination much less than 
, °se wandering droves of oxen and horses which alone fill 
8o ®. ^cultivated tracts of the Hew World. Civilization and 
mi Ik favour alike the progress of population, and the 
^plication of animals useful to man. 
elect - e - ^ oun ^ at Calabozo, in the midst of the Llanos, an 
" ncal machine with large plates, electrophori, batteries, 
• thick-nosed tapir, or river cavy (Cal in capybari ), called 
re in those countries. 
