Travels and adventures in South and Central America

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e streets of the beautiful town of Maracay, in the direction of the road leading to the Llanos or Pampas of Apure, a region widely celebrated for its wildness, its dangers, and the many exploits enacted therein. There the

s, and provisioning their saddle-bags with the necessaries they required; the trampling and neighing of horses; the parting adieux and waving of handkerchiefs in the hands of lively brunettes, as we defiled under the windows and balconies of the Calle Real, crowded with anxious relatives, friends, and sweethearts of many a gallant cavalier, who might never return from his

nal showers she calls upon the crocodiles and other drowsy reptiles, awakening them from their periodical summer's lethargy; and nightly the roar and screams of savage beasts answering each other in{3} the darkness. The cattle, thus roaming over extensive plains, and free of all restraint, necessarily require to be occasionally collected together for the purpose of branding and marking the young calves, which increase there with astonishing rapidity. If this precaution were neglected, th

d individuals of all grades and colors; from the bright, rubicund faces of merry England's sons, to the jet

possessed in addition the rare gift of being-in the opinion of many-"the first rider in South America,"{4} and withal the most accomplished Llanero in the Republic. His dispositions were accordingly made in a manner most likely to insure success in this strange campaign; passing in review every pers

into requisition. Although we were not now to encounter powder and ball, we had to deal with no less dangerous en

rs, ponchos, checkered linen handkerchiefs of the peculiar pattern worn with so much pride by Llaneros on the head, knives, sword blades, and vari

y at large. Attached to this office were an English amateur of wild sports, an English artist of considerable merit, and a{5} few others, who, like myself, not being sufficiently tra

ere I relished a beafsteak au naturel with as much gusto as though prepared by the Delmonicos or Maillards of New York-but an early cup of coffee was a luxury not to be despised, and an occasional scouring of our scanty wardrobe was equally an essential. The cook was a mulatto by birth, whose nam

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s. He had earned some reputation in his time as a brave soldier during the protracted war of Independence,{6} but, disabled now by a bullet and sundry tiger scars, testimonials of his good service in the cause of humanity, could perform no other work than the rath

enlivened by their chivalrous songs. After faithfully following their leader through dangers and hardships no less terrible than those of the battle-field, one by one they fell, not by foe "in battle arrayed," nor the terrible stroke of the wi

onal attendants of the former, as no blanco ventures to travel in the Llanos without some cicerone of the country to guide him over the trackless wastes, to saddle his horse, and see that both horse and rider{7} are comfortably quartered for the night. Others were app

he hot sands of Yemen or the Sahara; these were to be reinforced with fresh relays from the cattle farms

plished with great expedition and rapidity, they are comparatively worthless from the shortness of their gait, and also because their hoofs become softened by the marshy soil which everywhere prevails, they being never shod, owing to a mistaken notion of the riders, who believe that by so doing the surefootedness{8} of the animal is impaired. The best horses, consequently, had been selected on this occasion, but were not to be saddled until we reached the Llanos. These were all collected into a madrina or drove, together with the vaqueros or horses destined for the chase, and placed under the charge of half a dozen experienced Llaneros, who were to drive them loose across the country

of indigenous plants, which had been silently struggling for existence, now make their appearance, and change the aspect of the landscape with new forms of vegetation. Insignificant weeds at first, scarcely worth noticing, they soon attain sufficient strength to arrest the progress of any stragglers that might have remained of the plantation. In a short time they have acquired the size and form of well-developed trees, with boughs spreading far above a man on horseback; and before two summers have elapsed, not a vestige remains of what was once a flourishing plantation. An endless variety of creepers, such as convolvulus, bignonias, and passion flowers, now find support among their numerous branches, forming with them the most picturesque bowers and arcades, or hanging by their sides in graceful garlands and festoons of the most exquisite beauty. Our troop of supernumerary horses, as if unwilling to leave behind{10} these delightful retreats, did not fail to profit by the tangled nature of the cover, frequently eluding the vigilance of the drivers, and dashing forward whenever they saw an opening to decamp. The most skilfu

country inn, a short distance in advance-hotels being yet unknown in that{11} part of the country. Our numerous retinue, and especially our horses, accustomed to the unrestrained freedom of the potrero-an enclosed field attac

by country traders. It is, in fact, the connecting link between the agricultural and pastoral sections of the republic; hence we find there the strangest admixture of wild and civilized manners and costumes curiously intermin

rough journeys of the country, and though somewhat ponderous, renders good service to the wandering Llanero in his long peregrinations. These saddles, usually styled vaqueras, in allusion to the occupations of the riders, appear to be modelled after the gay accoutrements of the Arabs; the same profusion of silver ornament and bright-colored trimmings of morocco, the high peak in front, and still higher cantle behind. A comfortable pellon or shabrack, made either of an entire sheepskin or horse hair dyed black and neatly braided at one end, covers the entire seat, and hangs from it in graceful folds. Numbers of bags and pockets-bolsas-ma

th his big toe, so as to disentangle himself readily in case of a fall. This habit gives a crooked shape t

unavai

nsiderable taste. Their beauty is thought to consist chiefly in the two

he body moist and cool by day, and warm by night. The poncho used in Venezuela is made double, by sewing together two different blankets, the outside one being dark blue and the inner one bright red, which colors, as is well known, are differently acted upon by light and heat. By exposing alternately the sides of the poncho to{14} the light according to the state of the weather, those modifications of temperature most agreeable to the body are obtained. Thus, when the day is damp and cloudy, the dark side of the poncho, which absorbs the most heat, is turned towards the light, while the rever

h has thus far baffled the ingenuity of foreign weavers to imitate. It is woven by hand on looms of rude construction in very

ous panoply of oriental magnificence,{15} and possessing, moreover, the advantage of being easily conveyed from place to place, in a small compass, by the riders. The hammock and the poncho usually form a bundle behind the saddle; with them the traveller makes himself a tent when camping out, by stretching out a rope fro

e weight of the rider and his ponderous equipment for such considerable distances; but the fact is, that the loads ar