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 """fi^ journal of an expedition across Vene 
 
 3 1924 021 137 843 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021137843 
 
^ THE JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION 
 
 ACROSS VENEZUELA AND COLOMBIA 
 
 1906-1907 
 
The Journal of an Expedition 
 
 Across Venezuela and Colombia 
 
 1906-1907 
 
 AN EXPLORATION OF THE ROUTE OF BOLIVAR'S 
 
 CELEBRATED MARCH OF 1819 AND 
 
 OF THE BATTLE-FIELDS 
 
 OF BOYACA AND 
 
 CARABOBO 
 
 BY 
 
 Hiram Bingham, Ph.D. (Harvard), F.R.G.S. 
 
 Lecturer on Latin American History, Yale University 
 
 WITH MAP AND 133 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 NEW HAVEN, CONN. 
 
 YALE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 T. FISHER UNWIN 
 1909 
 
 0:^ 
 
A. ^^ij>)z- 
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 
 Yale Publishing Association 
 
 (incorporated) 
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
A. M. B. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 For the past eight years I have been collecting material for a 
 history of the South American Wars of Independence and for biog- 
 raphies of San Martin and Bolivar, the chief heroes of that era. As 
 I worked on the life of Bolivar it appeared to me to be particularly 
 difficult to form a just estimate of his achievements; I could find no 
 maps of his battle-fields and few trustworthy accounts of the scenes 
 of his greatest activity. 
 
 In 1 819 Bohvar conducted an army across Venezuela and Colom- 
 bia by a road that was deemed to be impassable. The official des- 
 patches state that many of the soldiers succumbed to the hardships 
 of the march and that all the saddle and pack animals died on the 
 way. The result was the permanent expulsion of Spanish power 
 from Colombia. It has been maintained by Spanish-American 
 historians that this march of Bolivar and his army was as wonderful 
 as the more famous marches of Hannibal and Napoleon. I found it 
 to be almost impossible to form an intelhgent estimate of the actual 
 obstacles that were overcome by the Liberating Army, for the region 
 is not one that is easily visited and the published descriptions of it 
 are very meagre. 
 
 I came to the conclusion that if I wished to understand this period 
 in the history of South America, it would be necessary for me to 
 undertake an expedition that should have for its object not only a 
 study of the country where Bohvar lived and fought, and a visit to 
 the scenes of his most important battles, Carabobo and Boyaca, but 
 also an exploration of the route of his most celebrated camp,a,ign. 
 Accordingly I left New York about the middle of November, 1906, 
 spent a fortnight in the islands of Vieques, Porto Rico, and Curafao, 
 and reached Caracas early in December. Here I was joined by Dr. 
 Hamilton Rice, F.R.G.S., who had some years previously experi- 
 enced the difficulties of travel in South America by going from 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 Quito to Para by way of the Napo and the Amazon, and whose love 
 of exploration led him to join me in this enterprise. 
 
 We spent a month in Caracas, ten days on the battle-field of 
 Carabobo, and four months crossing the Llanos and the Andes to 
 Bogota, following the route taken by Bohvar in 1819. The larger 
 part of our journey was through regions about which little has been 
 written, so that it seems advisable to publish the journal of the 
 expedition in detail. Although my training has been that of an 
 historian, rather than that of a naturahst, I hope that the record of 
 my observations may nevertheless prove to be of some value in the 
 fields of geography and ethnology. In the preparation of my notes 
 of scientific observations for publication I have received much assist- 
 ance of the greatest \'alue from Professor Herbert Gregory of Yale 
 University. 
 
 I desire to acknowledge my great indebtedness to Secretary, now 
 Senator, Root, and to the other officials of the Department of State, 
 and to many members of the Diplomatic and Consular Services for 
 favours without which the undertaking would have been impracti- 
 cable. To President Rafael Reyes of Colombia and the officials of 
 the Colombian Government, who took pains to facilitate in every 
 way the success of the expedition, to the Hon. Jacob Sleeper, Major 
 Wilham Heimke, Francis Stronge, Esq., Don Carlos SteUing, Mr. 
 William Phelps, Dr. Isaac Capriles, Sr. Jorge Pombo and many 
 others, who made me welcome in their homes and gave me assistance 
 and advice, I am under a lasting debt of gratitude. I only regret 
 that it is impossible to enumerate all whose kindness added to the 
 pleasures of the journey. 
 
 This volume has been printed during my absence as a delegate 
 to the Pan-American Scientific Congress held at Santiago de Chile, 
 in December, 1908. The oversight of the proof was assumed 
 by my friend, George Parker Winship, of the John Carter Brown 
 Library, who has thereby placed me under obligations which only 
 those will fully appreciate who have been in a similar position. 
 
 Hiram Bingham. 
 
 New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 Caracas ....... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 Valencia and Carabobo ......... 25 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Carabobo to Barinas ......... 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 From Barinas to the Apure River . . . . . .71 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 From the Apure River to Arauca ...... 92 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Arauca to Limbo . . . . . . . . .116 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 El Limbo to Pore 148 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 Pore ............ 163 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Pore to Nunchia .......... 172 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 Nunchia to the Paramo or Pisva ....... 184 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 From the Paramo or Pisva to Pantano de Vargas . . . 201 
 
 vii 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XII PAGE 
 
 From Pantano de Vargas to Boyaca . . . • . .216 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 From the Bridge of Boyaca to Bogota ...... 224 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 Bogota 235 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 Bogota to Cartagena ......... 251 
 
 Appendix A. Historical Sketch ....... 269 
 
 B. Battle of Carabobo . . . . . . .276 
 
 C. Temperature and Weather ..... 280 
 
 Index ............ 285 
 
 Map of Route from Caracas to Bogota . In pocket at end of book 
 
CHAPTER I 
 Caracas 
 
 December 4th, 1906. This morning I arrived at La Guayra, the 
 seaport of Caracas. The Venezuelan officials had been informed 
 of the object of the expedition and courteously passed my outfit 
 through the customs house without examination. A few hours after 
 landing I left La Guayra on the httle train that connects the port 
 with Caracas, and greatly enjoyed the ride over this wonderful rail- 
 road. With many curves it winds up the slopes of a great moun- 
 tain, giving one an inspiring view of the Caribbean. Caracas is only 
 five miles from La Guayra as the crow flies, but as it is nearly three 
 thousand feet above the sea it takes thirty miles of railroad to chmb 
 around the intervening mountain and reach the beautiful valley in 
 which lies the capital of Venezuela. y 
 
 Mr. Jacob Sleeper, the American Charge d'Affaires, met me at 
 the station and most hospitably invited me to be his guest at the 
 American legation. The house is a charming one, built around 
 two attractive courts or patios. It is the property of General Matos, 
 who financed the last serious revolution in Venezuela and spent two 
 million dollars (so it is reported) in an unsuccessful attempt to over- / 
 throw General Castro's Government. 
 
 December gth. I have been suffering from dengue fever, which 
 I picked up in Porto Rico on the way down from New York. A 
 local doctor suspected me of having yellow fever, sent me to bed 
 soon after my arrival and since then he has been trying to starve me 
 to death. I feel hardly strong enough to walk across the street and 
 whether I shall be able to cross Venezuela seems pretty doubtful. 
 However, Rice arrived today from New York, is very optimistic 
 and says all I need is plenty of good food. 
 
 It seems strange not to be able to send a cable anywhere. SomeX 
 time ago the French Cable Company got into difficulty with the 
 
VENEZUELA 
 
 Caracas ' 
 
 Venezuelan Government and since then there has been no cable 
 office nearer than the Dutch Island of Curaf ao. As a result the news 
 of the outside world which is printed in the papers is frequently a 
 ^week or ten days old. 
 
 December loih. We hear that the rains on the Llanos have 
 been extraordinarily late this year, so that we shall not be able to go 
 directly south across the plains to Achaguas, where Bohvar assembled 
 his soldiers in i8iq. 
 
 f During the rainy season the central Llanos are largely under 
 water and it is almost impossible to travel except on the rivers. 
 Accordingly we have decided to go west a hundred miles by rail to 
 Valencia, thence south to Carabobo, the most famous battle-field in 
 Venezuela, and from there southwest, skirting the western edge of 
 the Llanos until it is feasible to descend to the lower plains. We hope 
 to reach Bohvar's route near the Apure River not far from Achaguas. 
 Fortunately the eastern slope of the Andes, along which we must go, 
 is httle known and well worth visiting. 
 
 December 12th. We interviewed two negroes today who are 
 willing to share the hardships of the journey. Josh Obadiah Nero, 
 born and raised in St. Kitts, has hved in Venezuela for the past 
 fifteen years, and speaks both English and Spanish fluently. He 
 
 1 The panorama view of Caracas from the south, at the top of these pages, was 
 taken from the hills just above Castro's new villa. The Cajigal observatory is on 
 the top of the hill on the extreme left. Lower down that hill is the Calvario Park. 
 In the foreground at the left is the Municipal Electric Light plant. The conspicu- 
 ous white building is the new National Theatre, built by Castro. The peak at the 
 right above the clouds is the Silla. 
 
CARACAS 
 
 FROM THE South. 
 
 has been in the interior and is ready to qualify as chief cook. The 
 other one, Richard Harvey, comes from Trinidad, speaks almost no 
 Spanish, but has a pleasant face and is anxious to do whatever is 
 wanted of him. We have tried to discourage them by enlarging on 
 the possible difficulties and dangers of the undertaking, but they 
 have both been out of work so long that they are ready for almost 
 any employment. They little dream what is ahead of them. 
 
 December ii,th. One rarely sees any disorder in the streets.^ 
 Policemen are numerous. They carry carbines and are well dressed ' 
 in blue uniforms. The soldiers wear a cheap quality of khaki with 
 helmets to match. They are kept pretty closely confined to their 
 barracks, of which there are several large ones in the city. The 
 greatest pest on the streets are the beggars. 
 
 Caracas seems to show a mixture of Spanish and French in- ' 
 fluences. One sees a great number of httle shops where provisions 
 are sold in very small quantities. On every hand may be encountered \ 
 the tiny establishments of tailors, barbers and druggists. Their 
 large number and their small size constantly bring to mind the 
 Southern European cities. The coinage is based on the French 
 system, the unit of value being the bolivar which is worth about 
 twenty cents. There is likewise a Pantheon, a direct imitation of 
 Paris. The police call to mind the Parisian gendarmes. The 
 public carriages are little victorias such as one sees in Paris, except 
 that here it is more customary for them to have two horses than one. 
 Even the coach fare is the same, although there is one local pecuharity 
 that I do not remember having encountered elsewhere. There are, 
 
VENEZUELA 
 
 Cakacas 1 
 
 three grades of hacks, all equally comfortable. The distinction is 
 one that appeals solely to the imagination. The lowest grade is 
 distinguished by having a driver in citizen's dress and numbers on 
 the carriage lamps. The next grade has a driver in semi-hvery; 
 while the most expensive of all carry no number on their lamps and 
 are driven by Jehus in full livery. For this luxury one is charged 
 double the regular tariff. 
 
 There is a system of tram cars, primitive affairs drawn by mules. 
 Although unable to carry more than a score of passengers, each has 
 its conductor as well as a driver. 
 
 The only people in Caracas who seem to be in a hurry are the 
 hack drivers. Most of the men on the streets carry walking sticks 
 and appear to have little to do. There are always dozens of loafers 
 
 I The two views at the top of the page give a telephoto panorama of Caracas from 
 the north. On the left in the foreground is a small reservoir recently built by Castro. 
 In the centre of the foreground may be seen the old road that goes over the moun- 
 tain to La Guayra. It passes near the spot from which the picture was taken. The 
 dome in the centre of the picture is the National Capitol. The conspicuous white 
 building to the right of the centre is the Municipal Theatre. Above this and a little 
 to the right is the villa Zoila, Castro's new palace. From the hill above this the 
 other panorama of Caracas was taken. The triumphal arch on the wooded hill on 
 the right was built by General Crespo. At the left of the wooded hill near its base 
 may be seen the roof of the bull ring. In the valley at the extreme right of the pic- 
 ture are the roofs of the railroad station where trains arrive from La Guayra and 
 also from Valencia. 
 
CARACAS 
 
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 FROM THE North. 
 
 in the vicinity of the Plaza Bolivar. The prevailing colour is brown. 
 Now and then one sees a pure Indian, but not very often. Among 
 the faces are a small sprinkling of German and French types, but 
 almost never an Anglo-Saxon. The faces denoting pure Spanish 
 descent are also scarce. The great majority show the mixture of 
 Spanish, Indian and Negro. 
 
 There is a great sameness in the appearance of the houses. Most 
 of them look as though they had been built on identically the same 
 plan. A paved passage leads from the street to a small uncovered 
 patio from which one has access to the living-rooms in front and 
 rear. The main room looks out on the street, usually through two 
 barred windows that project over the sidewalk. The streets are 
 narrow, and telephone poles are placed in the sidewalk about eight 
 inches from its edge. As the sidewalks are also extremely narrow, 
 two pedestrians walking side by side cannot pass with comfort 
 between the telephone poles and the sides of the houses. And when 
 the iron framework of a window projects ten or twelve inches from 
 the wall, as it frequently does, there is barely room for even one 
 person to pass. In the suburbs, where the streets are wider, trees are 
 frequently planted in the sidewalk, a hole twenty inches in diameter 
 being left in the concrete for that purpose. Evidently it is expected 
 that people should walk in single file. 
 
 The old mule trail to La Guayra goes directly north over the 1 
 
VENEZUELA 
 
 mountain from the northwest corner of Caracas. It is still used to a 
 hmited extent, although all heavy goods are conveyed either by train 
 or by the cart road that follows more or less the line of the railway. 
 
 In places the road still 
 retains the old Spanish 
 stone paving described 
 b y Colonel William 
 Duane of Philadelphia 
 in his "Visit to Colom- 
 bia" in 1823. 
 
 South of Caracas, 
 across an attractive httle 
 river, rises a range of 
 gentle hills where Pa- 
 raiso, a fashionable 
 suburb, reached by new 
 roads and modern 
 bridges, is rapidly grow- 
 ing up. President Cas- 
 tro has built a large new 
 villa here and several of 
 his friends are doing 
 likewise. The view from 
 their houses is wonder- 
 fully attractive. I do 
 not remember ever to 
 have seen more beauti- 
 ful colours. The intense blue of the sky, the lighter blues of the 
 distant mountains, every possible shade of green on hillsides and 
 in gardens, and the red tiled roofs and whitewashed walls of Cara- 
 cas, make a wonderful combination. 
 
 Four little railroads run out of Caracas north, east, south, and west. 
 The northern one goes to La Guayra, the western to Valencia, and 
 the southern to Valle, a village about three miles from the capital 
 and the centre of an agricultural district. After winding through a 
 gap in the range of low hills south of Caracas this road passes 
 between fields of sugar-cane and reaches the terminus almost before 
 
 Courtyard of the American' Legation'. 
 
CARACAS 7 
 
 one realizes that the train has started. Valle olTers as its chief 
 attraction a view of La Silla. Tliis mountain rises so abruptly from 
 the northern suburbs of Caracas that one gets no conception of its 
 eight thousand feet until one draws away from it, when it looms up 
 and becomes more and more majestic. 
 
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 December 14th. Our kind host, Mr. Jacob Sleeper, took us 
 this morning by appointment to the foreign office, where he presented 
 us to Dr. Jose Jesus Paul, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Paul 
 is tall, has iron-gray hair, a most gracious bearing, is well educated, 
 and has travelled considerably. He speaks English readily. He 
 wished us success in our mission and promised to give us a card that 
 would request the officials along our route to place no obstacles in 
 our way. 
 
 After our call, we went to see the principal sights, accompanied 
 by Dr. Paul's secretary. First we visited the Capitol. It occupies 
 an entire city block and is built around a large attractive palio. 
 The south wing is devoted to the legislative bodies, the east and 
 
8 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 west wings to various governmental offices, and the north wing to a 
 magnificent hall. Here the more important official receptions are 
 held. On its walls are hung many historical paintings. At its east 
 
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 end is a representation of Bolivar addressing the Congress of Angos- 
 tura shortly before his famous march. The scene is a wild one, the 
 building a tumblcd-down thatched hut. Although painted when 
 most of the members of that Congress had long been dead, care was 
 
CARACAS 
 
 taken to make the faces as good likenesses as possible. The ceihng 
 is devoted to fanciful paintings of the battles of Carabobo and 
 Boyaca, in which the soldiers of the Wars of Independence achieved 
 their greatest victories. At the western end is a large painting of 
 the surrender after the 
 battle of Ayacucho, the 
 final battle for inde- 
 pendence in Spanish 
 South America. 
 
 Portraits of the 
 chief revolutionary he- 
 roes, including San 
 Martin, Paez, Sucre, 
 and Gregory Mc- 
 Gregor are hung on 
 the north and south 
 walls of the reception- 
 hall. The most inter- 
 esting is a portrait of 
 BoHvar, said to be one 
 of the three extant 
 hkenesses known to 
 have been painted 
 during his lifetime. 
 Two documents ac- 
 company the portrait. 
 In one, Antonio Guz- 
 man, the friend of 
 Bohvar and the father 
 of President Guzman 
 Blanco, writing under 
 date of 1870, states that he saw this picture painted in 1825-26, by 
 a Peruvian artist whose name he has forgotten (but which appears 
 on the canvas as Gil) in the palace at Lima. He also states that 
 many of Bolivar's friends were present during the sittings and gave 
 the artist such efficient criticism that an excellent likeness was pro- 
 cured. The other document is a letter from the former owners of 
 
 Bolivar. 
 From the portrait in the capitol at Caracas. 
 
lO 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 the picture, a niece and nephew of Bolivar, presenting it to Presi- 
 dent Guzman Blanco, in order that it may be permanently exhibited 
 in the Federal Palace, where the people of Venezuela may always 
 be able to see the best known likeness of their great hero. The 
 portrait is not flattering. The drawing of the figure is very crude 
 but the head is lifelike and is probably a faithful portrait. 
 
 Castko at the Head of his Troops. 
 
 From the Capitol we went to Independence Hall, where the 
 Venezuelan Declaration of Independence was signed in 1811. It is 
 at present used for civil marriages. At the north end of the hall is a 
 large painting representing the signing of the Declaration. The 
 picture is probably quite as correct as that of a similar event now 
 hanging in the Capitol at Washington. The most conspicuous 
 
CARACAS 
 
 II 
 
 figure in the group is General Miranda, the father of Venezuelan 
 Independence. On the east wall hangs an equestrian portrait of 
 President Castro at the head of his troops. Seated in a striking 
 attitude on a white horse, the general seems to challenge all comers. 
 On the west wall is a frame containing one of the standards supposed 
 to have been carried by Pizarro during the conquest of Peru. It 
 was captured in Cuzco by General Sucre during the final campaign 
 for Peruvian independence, and presented by him to BoHvar, who in 
 turn gave it to the city of Caracas. Pizarro doubtless had more 
 
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 Castro's Villa at Paraiso. 
 
 than one flag, so this has quite as good a claim to be genuine as the 
 two or three other "standards of Pizarro" that are preserved in vari- 
 ous South American cities. Another interesting rehc preserved here 
 is a large volume said to contain the minutes of the Venezuelan Gov- 
 ernment during the revolutionary epoch. It is kept in a glass case 
 and we were unable to examine it. 
 
 We next visited "Exposition Hall," now devoted to the two 
 Academies. The Academy of Languages occupies rooms in the 
 north wing, while the Academy of History meets in the south wing. 
 
12 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 The halls are somewhat faded and forlorn, but undoubtedly many 
 learned discussions have taken place around the long tables where 
 the academicians sit on Friday nights in comfortable armchairs. 
 
 Next door is the ancient University with its attractive quad- 
 rangles. Directly over the entrance is a grand convocation hall 
 where commencement exercises are held and degrees conferred. At 
 one end, on a raised dais under a rich canopy, is the president's 
 seat. The seats of the facuhy, large comfortable chairs upholstered 
 
 
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 in red brocade, are immediately in front of the dais, fenced off by a 
 raihng from the audience. In the centre of the hall is a beautiful 
 old pulpit, now used as a rostrum from which the candidates for 
 degrees read their theses. To enter it one has to climb a rough 
 wooden ladder as crude and undignified as the rostrum, with its 
 rich gilded carvings and beautifully decorated panels, is magnificent. 
 This contrast between splendour and squalor is one that frequently 
 .appears in Caracas. 
 
 The examination hall is on the second floor, between the first 
 
CARACAS 
 
 13 
 
 and second quadrangles. Here we listened to an examination for 
 the degree of doctor of dentistry. The president of the University 
 sat under a crimson canopy at the end of the room, flanked by several 
 of the local physicians and the professors of dentistry. The candi- 
 date, dressed in his very best, was seated in the centre of the hall at 
 a small table on which was a glass of brandy and water, from which 
 he derived inspiration from time to time. There were no charts or 
 instruments in sight and it was somewhat dif&cult for the uninitiated 
 to see how a satisfactory examination in dentistry could be con- 
 ducted entirely orally. 
 
 The Capitol and the University. 
 
 In one of the wings of the University is the National IMuseum, 
 where everything is in wretched condition. The specimens of ani- 
 mals and reptiles, badly preserved, moth-eaten and decaying, seemed 
 to be literally on their last legs. Geological specimens, stuffed birds, 
 publications of the Smithsonian Institution, Indian weapons and 
 implements, and the bones of a mastodon found near Coro, all in 
 confusion and covered with dust, made one feel that the museum 
 was not very highly appreciated by the authorities. 
 
14 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 Near the University is the ancient monastic church of San Fran- 
 cisco, which contains a marvellous altar-piece covered with elaborate 
 gilded carvings said to be three hundred years old. From here we 
 
 drove to the Pan- 
 theon, modelled on 
 the one in Paris. 
 Formerly a church, 
 it is now devoted to 
 the graves of the na- 
 tion's heroes. BoH- 
 var, Monagas, Paez, 
 O'Leary, and most 
 of the Venezuelan 
 revolutionary chiefs 
 are buried here. 
 The most notable 
 exceptions are Mi- 
 randa and Sucre, the 
 former dying in an 
 unknown Spanish 
 prison cell and the 
 latter having been 
 assassinated in Bo- 
 livia. The late 
 President Crespo, 
 the foremost patron 
 of art that Venezuela 
 has had, caused a 
 number of beautiful 
 monuments to be 
 erected in the Pantheon to the memory of the heroes. Most of 
 them were made on the spot by able sculptors who were brought 
 from Italy for that purpose. 
 
 The National Library is located on the north side of the great 
 Plaza Bolivar. The librarian, General Manuel Landaeta Resales, 
 is one of the foremost Venezuelan historians and has written a large 
 number of monographs in his chosen field. He has arranged the 
 
 The Altar in the Church of San Franxisco. 
 
CARACAS 
 
 IS 
 
 books in excellent order, and the library has every appearance of 
 being well kept. In one room, devoted to theology, we feasted our 
 eyes on ten thousand beautiful vellum-covered folios, only regretting 
 that their contents are not of a nature to inspire equal interest with 
 their printing and binding. 
 
 This afternoon we went to a tea at which we met the diplomatic 
 corps. One of the diplomats has been recently on a hunting trip 
 near San Carlos and declares that the country which we propose to 
 cross is "simply impassable." He says we "will suffer untold 
 
 The Tomb of Bolivar in the Pantheon. 
 
 horrors and will probably starve to death." Quien sabe? The prin- 
 cipal topic of conversation was the illness of President Castro. He 
 has been failing for some months and a day or two before my arrival 
 was carried down to the seashore near La Guayra in the hope that 
 a change of air might benefit him. All sorts of rumours are flying 
 about, and it is currently reported that he cannot live more than a 
 few days longer. Every one is wondering what will happen next. 
 December i^th. This morning we visited the Vargas hospital, 
 the largest in Venezuela. It has room for four hundred patients, 
 
i6 VENEZUELA 
 
 although there are only about two hundred there now. We met 
 several of the doctors and visited half a dozen wards. Each ward 
 is a separate building, connected with the other wards by cloisters 
 and separated from them by gardens, so that there is an abundance 
 of light and fresh air. We were present at an operation performed 
 by one of the leading surgeons. A placard on the wall back of the 
 operating table caused us no little amusement. It read in Spanish, 
 " Those who spit are forbidden to stand around the table during the 
 operation!" After reading this notice we were not surprised to see 
 that several of the visitors smoked, that about fifteen or sixteen curi- 
 ous persons, including doctors, students, and a convalescent patient 
 in his nightgown, crowded close around the table during the opera- 
 tion. The surgeons made some attempt at modern methods, but 
 did not wear rubber gloves and allowed the patient to lie in a cold 
 draft with almost no covering on. The whole thing was so clumsily 
 clone, it made one shiver. 
 
 After such an exhibition we were c^uite surprised in visiting the 
 department of bacteriology to find there an extremely clever young 
 doctor surrounded by first-class apparatus. Excellent microscopes, 
 good cultures, and well-made specimens were in evidence. For 
 experimental purposes he had cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea-pigs, rats, 
 mice, and a few birds. One could not help being most favourably 
 impressed with the excellent work done in this department; notwith- 
 standing the fact that the noise made by the caged animals must 
 have been rather annoying to the patients in the neighbouring wards. 
 At one end of the hospital is the laundry, a large concrete pavilion 
 where the fowls of the air congregate and assist in undoing the work 
 of the washerwomen. 
 
 / December ijth. On Sunday afternoon we attended the weekly 
 bull-fight. The toreadors were not very skilful and the bulls were 
 rather tame. The first buU was a fine, large animal whose rushes 
 and charges were most satisfactory to the audience. It took several 
 stabs to kill him even after he was once down. The second buU 
 was a nervous creature who fortunately was neatly despatched with 
 one thrust of the sword. At this exhibition of skill the crowd went 
 wild and gave the matador a great ovation, showering flowers, hats, 
 and coins on him. The next two bulls were timid and could not be 
 
CARACAS 17 
 
 coaxed to show any fight at all. They were driven out of the ring 
 amid the hisses and groans of the crowd. The next bull was more 
 lively, too lively in fact, for he seemed to have nine lives. The per- 
 formance lasted a little over two hours, but we went away before the 
 end. It was neither good sport nor an exhibition of skilful butcher- 
 ing- 
 
 December igih. One sees on the street an extraordinary number^ 
 of beggars afflicted with mahgnant diseases. Otherwise, owing to 
 frequent showers and an efficient street-cleaning brigade, the streets 
 are cleaner than one might expect. There are many street cries, 
 but the loudest are those of the venders of lottery tickets who persist 
 in repeatedly announcing the favourite numbers they have for sale. 
 
 This afternoon we went to see the lottery drawing. On Sundays 
 there is a "grand prize" of five thousand dofiars, but on Wednesdays 
 the "grand prize" is only one thousand. Each number has eighteen 
 parts and one can buy a part for ten cents. Apparently every one 
 in town who can afi^ord it takes chances semi-weekly. Naturally 
 the lottery has a bad effect on the population and tends to demoralize 
 honest labour. As the afternoon was rainy, the drawing of the lottery 
 was not held in the flower pavilion near the market-place, as usual, 
 but in the courtyard of the company's offices. It was attended by 
 about a hundred individuals, most of whom belonged to the loafing 
 class. The drawing proceeded very rapidly and the crowd watched 
 in silence, patiently waiting for the allotment of the first prize, which 
 was the only one in which they had any particular interest. Its 
 announcement was followed by a murmur of voices as the crowd 
 whispered the lucky number and wondered who was its fortunate 
 possessor. I was surprised at the small show of disappointment or 
 pleasure manifested. The same apathy is very noticeable at the 
 Club Concordia, the most fashionable club in Caracas, where bac- 
 carat is played every afternoon and evening. Although a man's 
 losses or gains may amount to thousands of dollars, it appears to 
 make very little difierence to him or the others. I have seen Cubans 
 and Porto Ricans get tremendously excited over games of chance 
 that involved altogether less than fifty dollars. Yet their cousins 
 here in Caracas, whether of the highest or the lowest class, seem to 
 take both good and bad luck very equably. ' ' 
 
i8 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 December 20th. Yesterday afternoon we went to the cathedral 
 to see a remarkable painting of the Lord's Supper by the late Vene- 
 zuelan artist Michelena.i Others of his paintings, including two that 
 had taken prizes at the Paris salon, are at the Academy of Fine 
 Arts. He was deservedly patronized by the late President Crespo 
 and painted several pictures for his palace of Miraflores. It is a 
 great misfortune that he died when still quite a young man. 
 
 This morning we visited Miraflores, which is now vacant. It was 
 occupied for several years by President Castro, who, it is said, neg- 
 lected to pay any rent to its owner, the widow of General Crespo. 
 Perhaps he regarded it as the property of the state. The palace. 
 
 
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 Looking Northwest from CAL^■AEIO. 
 
 which is said to have cost two million dollars, stands on a bluff, and 
 its roof, on which there was once a small park of artillery, commands 
 all the approaches to Caracas. It impresses one as being a most 
 appropriate residence for the President of Venezuela. 
 
 From Miraflores we drove to the Cajigal observatorv, which 
 is situated on top of a hill west of the city and above Calvario, the 
 attractive park built by the late President Guzman Blanco. We 
 were most kindly received by Dr. Urgueto, the astronomer in charge, 
 
 ^ One of his hislorical paintings is in the City Hall, New York. 
 
CARACAS 19 
 
 who showed us his instruments and explained the careful methods 
 by which the new military map of Venezuela is being made. By 
 means of the government telegraph, the observatory acts in conjunc- 
 tion with men in the field and is thus able to determine the correct 
 latitude and longitude of a large number of places. The map com- 
 mission seems to be doing excellent topographical work. We have 
 been allowed to see and admire some of their maps, but not to make 
 copies or take any notes, although these would make our journey 
 somewhat easier. 
 
 This afternoon we met a famous general who has been in many 
 revolutions and has had a most romantic career. Cowboy and 
 soldier, distinguished for daring and courage, he has spent many 
 days in prison and has lived some time in exile. During the last 
 serious revolution, he was on the losing side and was captured by 
 General Castro's forces and imprisoned. Being by nature extremely 
 active and energetic he grasped at an opportunity to while away his 
 time of imprisonment which was offered by the gift of two or three 
 silkworm eggs and some books on the subject. He told us that he 
 raised silkworms in his cell and in four months had three thousand 
 cocoons. From these he made silk thread and finally fabricated a 
 beautiful sash which he sent to the President. General Castro was 
 so pleased at this undertaking, that he pardoned him and tendered 
 him a fine estate near Caracas, where the silkworm industry is to 
 be encouraged. The old soldier has made a wonderful collection 
 of Venezuelan butterflies and is as thoroughly absorbed in his cocoons 
 and mulberry trees as he once was in guerrilla warfare. 
 
 December 22d. One of the many charming people who have 
 been so very kind to us in Caracas drove us out this morning to a 
 sugar plantation in the suburbs which has been in this family for 
 many years. The main dwelling-house is a wonderful old Spanish 
 mansion that has withstood the earthquakes of the past one hundred 
 and fifty years. Within its walls it now shelters three distinct house- 
 holds that have entirely separate establishments; but as the building 
 itself is one hundred and fifty feet wide and two hundred and twenty- 
 five feet long, it will be seen that its tenants have no lack of room for 
 comfort. Three hundred yards away is the sugar mill, a romantic] 
 Spanish structure where the same primitive methods of sugar-making ' 
 
20 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 are followed that have been in use for generations. The mill is a 
 small three-roller affair to which cane is brought to be ground each 
 day in the year, excepting always Sundays and hohdays. As the 
 bagasse falls from the rollers it is caught in a rawhide stretcher and 
 
 The Univeesity and the Academy of History. 
 
 carried away by two labourers to the drying sheds. From there a 
 small car on a track sixteen inches wide takes the dried bagasse to 
 the furnaces under the vats where the juice is boiled. In front of 
 each of the four vats stands a man with a huge oar which he rows in 
 such a manner as to cause the scum to slop over into the next vat. 
 
CARACAS 21 
 
 From the last vat in which it is boiled, the juice is poured into sugar- 
 loaf moulds to cool and harden in the form in which it appears the 
 next day in the shops of Caracas. The daily capacity of this mill is 
 about three and a half tons of sugar, the yield of an acre and a quarter 
 of cane. The manager and owner is an intelligent young man, 
 educated in England and America, yet he assures us that no other 
 method would pay here. Probably he is right, but I could not help 
 wondering what the people of Honolulu would say if they had such 
 a primitive mill in operation within a few miles of the capital of 
 Hawaii. Sugar is highly protected in Venezuela, its importation 
 being forbidden. 
 
 December 24th. A few years ago President Castro decided to 
 erect a National Theatre and gave orders for some of the trees in 
 the Plaza Washington to be cut down to make room for the new 
 building. It is related that one Saturday night a wag approached 
 the statue of Washington that stands in the centre of the plaza and 
 proceeded to condole the Father of His Country on the despohation 
 of his trees. Finally, as the statue returned no answer, the joyful 
 wag became gently resentful and turned sadly away with the remark: 
 "Anyhow I suppose you realize it serves you right; for it was you, 
 was it not, who cut down your father's tree?" 
 
 Last evening we attended a concert at the theatre. It is arranged 
 after the usual Spanish manner, having a tier of boxes in place of 
 the balcony. In the "gallery" directly over the boxes were some 
 fifty men with their hats on, two Indian women, and a little child. 
 Most of the ladies in the boxes wore large picture hats, but a few 
 were in conventional evening attire. In the orchestra circle were a 
 number of men in evening dress and a third as many ladies. In 
 the orchestra itself ladies are not allowed. The programme included 
 numbers by a symphony orchestra, a pianist, and a boy violinist who 
 was making his first appearance in public. The orchestral music 
 was fair although the orchestra clearly needed more rehearsals. 
 The players varied in colour from pure white to jet black, but the 
 majority were brown. The pianist performed prodigies of valour on 
 a grand concert piano, a "tin pan" that would not have been toler- 
 ated for a moment in any private house in the States, much less in a 
 concert hall. The little violinist in white shorts, bare legs, white 
 
2 2 VENEZUELA 
 
 socks, and black pumps, appeared to be about eleven years old and 
 very much frightened. Neither he nor the piano soloist had com- 
 mitted their pieces to memory and the latter actually had to turn 
 his own music. The most striking diiTerence between this audience 
 and a concert audience in the States was the fact that more than two- 
 thirds of those present were men. 
 
 The women of Caracas appear to have rather a dull time. They 
 seldom go out except to mass and their chief amusement seems to be 
 sitting behind the iron bars of their windows watching the passers- 
 by and gossiping with their neighbours. As the windows nearly 
 always project, it is easy to talk from one window to the next without 
 leaving the house. On Sunday evenings the ladies attend the band 
 concerts on the plaza. Their escorts rent chairs for them and they 
 sit in the glare of the electric hghts to be stared at by the young 
 gentlemen of the city who parade up and down the walks. Anglo- 
 Saxons would find it annoying, but that is because their ancestors 
 did not live in sunny Spain. 
 
 After the concert we went to La India, the best known restaurant 
 in Caracas. One of the customs of the place is for everyone who 
 enters tne room to bow right and left to those who are seated at the 
 tables and who look up and bow in return. The action is so courte- 
 ous, friendly, and persona] that it is quite embarrassing — to an 
 Anglo-Sa.xon. Everything about La India is expensive. I bought 
 two cigars for a friend and with difficulty concealed my surprise 
 when told that they were a dollar apiece. The best chocolate is a 
 dollar a pound, although this is the home of the cocoa bean and the 
 refined product is made in Caracas. The three better grades they 
 tell me are not imported into the United States, as no one there cares 
 to pay what they cost. 
 
 December 2Sih. Last night, shortly before 12 o'clock, we went 
 to the church of the Capuchins to witness La Misa del Gallo (the 
 midnight mass or the mass of the cock). The church was beau- 
 tifully illuminated with candles in magnificent crystal candelabra 
 and was thronged with people. Although some were evidently 
 attending out of a spirit of curiosity, all were reverent and many had 
 come prepared to spend the night in prayer and worship. In one 
 of the shrines was a grotto, representing Bethlehem and the Nativity, 
 
CARACAS 
 
 23 
 
 illuminated with electric lights. During the mass an orchestra 
 supplemented the organ. The special feature of the music was the 
 occasional squawk of a native instrument that is supposed to imitate 
 the crowing of a cock. 
 
 December i^ist. The Capuchin fathers maintain an interesting 
 museum of natural history in a large room in one of the buildings at 
 the rear of their church. Brother Cornehs, collector, taxidermist, 
 and curator, is a born naturahst of the old school. He does beau- 
 tiful work, and his collections are in marked contrast with those 
 
 Plaza Bolivar on New Year's Eve. 
 
 of the National Museum. He has been most pohte in showing us 
 the results of his six years' devotion to science and the church in 
 Venezuela. Moved by humanitarian principles he has made a spe- 
 cialty of snakes and has a wonderful collection of the most deadly 
 varieties. 
 
 I have called on him several times at the close of a day of sight- 
 seeing, for he is most restful. It makes one feel as though one were 
 living in the middle ages to hear the monks laughing, singing, and 
 talking in the garden, while one, the most learned of all, seated in a 
 dark corner of the great room Hned with specimens of his craft, 
 reads aloud from a scientific treatise. It was a picture for an artist 
 
24 VENEZUELA 
 
 to see. The old man with his long flowing beard, his brown coarse 
 cloth robe tied with a rope, and his picturesque sandals, reading in a 
 gentle voice from a page dimly lighted by a single candle. 
 
 January ist, 1907. Last evening we went with nearly every- 
 body else in Caracas to the Plaza Bohvar, to greet the new year. 
 Electric hghts, placed in the trees and clustered in stars and mottoes, 
 made the plaza very brilliant. A military band played from 10.3c p.m. 
 until after midnight. The arrival of the new year was marked by 
 the flashing forth of an electric sign bearing the words "Feliz Ano 
 Nuevo" (Happy New Year) on one of the government buildings, a 
 discharge of musketry, and scores of rockets. This was immediately 
 followed by a universal hand-shaking, embracing, and kissing, while 
 the band played a lively air and the forts fired a salute of twenty- 
 one guns. It is the custom for friends and acquaintances to indulge 
 in much embracing in the Spanish fashion, and there was general 
 fehcitation on all sides. 
 
 After the universal exchange of greetings we followed the crowd 
 to La India, where a gay assemblage was partaking of ices and pledg- 
 ing each other a Happy New Year. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Valencia and Carabobo 
 
 January 2d. Tomorrow morning we take the train for Valen- 
 cia. We calculate that our route to Bogota is about one thousand 
 miles in length. With the necessary stops at the battle-fields of 
 Carabobo and Boyaca, and the few days we shall need to purchase 
 mules and complete our outfit at Valencia, it will probably be March 
 15th before we reach Bogota. If we average fifteen miles a day, 
 we shall be doing well. Most of our friends here are confident that 
 we will never get there and are bidding us good-by with gloomy 
 forebodings. Hardly any of them have ever travelled in the interior 
 and no one has any idea of the actual route that we shall be obHged 
 to take. 
 
 Our outfit consists of everything which we expect to require in 
 crossing barren plains and unfrequented mountain passes. Saddles, 
 mountain breeching, bridles, tents, blankets, surveying instruments, 
 a theodohte, prismatic compasses, a sextant, brass folding lanterns, 
 kitchen utensils, emergency rations including erbswurst, julienne, 
 beef-tea capsules, coffee, chocolate, flour, sugar, rice, and salt. In 
 selecting articles I found R. H. Davis's fist in Scribner's Magazine of 
 considerable value. On his advice I am taking a folding cot and 
 a folding chair, much to Rice's amusement. We are taking both 
 films and plates in our photographic outfit, as we have heard that 
 the latter do much better in this climate, although they are heavy 
 to carry and very fragile. Rice carries his valuables, including a 
 fine set of surgical instruments, in a tin trunk, while I am entrust- 
 ing mine to a sole leather trunk. We are taking two Winchester 
 rifles, a Mauser, and two Winchester repeating shotguns, besides 
 three revolvers and a suflicient supply of ammunition. A few books, 
 such maps as we have been able to procure, and clothes for a four 
 months' trip make up the rest of the outfit. 
 
 25 
 
26 VENEZUELA 
 
 / 
 
 January T,d. The train for Valencia left Caracas about 8 a.m. 
 /'/ The railroad is owned and operated by Germans. We were out- 
 ^ rageously overcharged for our luggage. The outfit weighed alto- 
 gether about HOC pounds, but the baggage master declared it weighed 
 1 100 kilograms or 2400 pounds! Notwithstanding a vigorous pro- 
 , test we were obliged to pay for over half a ton of excess luggage 
 that we did not have. Sixty-five dollars "excess" on a journey of 
 one hundred miles was an entirely new and unlooked-for experience. 
 The road ought to pay good dividends if everyone is treated that 
 way. 
 
 Our train consisted of a small engine made in Germany, three 
 freight cars, a baggage car, a first-class coach with seats for twent}'- 
 two people, and a second-class coach of about the same capacity. 
 The passengers were nearly all men, the only women being two nuns. 
 Most of the men were Venezuelans, but there were a few Germans 
 and an Italian priest. 
 
 After leaving Caracas the road passes through sugar-cane fields, 
 then enters a beautiful valley densely covered with tropical foliage. 
 Occasionally we passed coffee plantations and small clearings. The 
 valley constantly grew narrower and the mountains rose higher on 
 each side until the scene reminded me of the Crawford Notch in the 
 White Mountains. Then we entered a wonderful region of tunnels 
 and viaducts. Before stopping for lunch we passed through more 
 than ninety tunnels, fortunately none of them very long. For an 
 hour we averaged a tunnel a minute. Finally we came out on the 
 western slopes of the mountains and the view became inspiring. 
 One curve looked hke "Cape Horn" on the Central Pacific Rail- 
 road. 
 
 After lunch at Victoria, where General Castro won his decisive 
 victory over General Matos in the last serious revolution, we left 
 the hills and skirted the northern shore of Lake Valencia. The 
 appearance of the lake disappointed us. Its islands are rather 
 pretty, but one reads such glowing accounts of its beauty that it 
 was surprising to find the views we got of it so unattractive. On 
 its south side a range of rather barren mountains seems to rise abruptly 
 from the water. The railroad skirts the north shore, but at such a 
 distance that the lake is not visible much of the time. We had, 
 
VALENCIA AND CARABOBO 27 
 
 however, a glimpse of the tiny steamboat that is said to be the sole 
 disturber of its waters. The crazy craft did not look as though it 
 would make many more trips. 
 
 There was little foliage on the plain over which we passed. We 
 saw almost no grass and the trees and bushes looked stunted and 
 burned. The coast range lies at some distance from the road until, 
 near Valencia, a spur comes south into the plain. Shortly before 
 reaching Valencia the train stopped abruptly and we learned that 
 there was a man asleep on the track. 
 
 January 4th. Valencia resembles Caracas in some respects, 
 much as a French provincial capital resembles Paris. One sees the j 
 same kind of carriages, but they are older and look as though theyi 
 had been bought at second hand. The streets are not as clean and 
 few houses give the impression of prosperous owners. The cathedral] 
 is attractive and the Plaza Bolivar is quite pretty. 
 
 The pleasant Itahan priest, Father Voghera, whom we met on 
 the train is the director of a college here. With several of his Salesian 
 brothers he founded the establishment ten years ago, having come 
 from Turin for that purpose. The college accommodates thirty 
 boarders and ninety day scholars, and is really what we should term 
 an academy in the United States. It has a small theatre and a 
 printing office where the boys print their own text-books. 
 
 Valencia is the capital of the State of Carabobo. This morning 
 we presented our letter of introduction to the President of the State, 
 or the Governor as we should style him. He received us graciously 
 but appeared to be much troubled by our request for information 
 in regard to the battle-field of Carabobo. In fact he seemed to be 
 suspicious of us but finally gave us a letter to the Governor of the 
 city with instructions to aid us in securing mules for our journey. 
 
 One of the President's secretaries showed us over the State Capitol. 
 It is a fine old Spanish monastery and was used as a convent until 
 thirty years ago, when President Guzman Blanco converted it to its 
 present purpose. Near it are the University and the barracks. 
 
 January 6th. We have been trying and buying mules. As we 
 gallop about the streets on the animals that are offered for purchase, 
 we are quite the centre of interest, but the citizens are very friendly 
 and not at all rude. 
 
28 VENEZUELA 
 
 Valencia, Looking North 
 
 We have been most fortunate in making the acquaintance of 
 one of the leading citizens, Don Carlos SteUing, whose maternal 
 grandfather fought with the British Legion at the battle of Carabobo. 
 He owns the electric light plant here and is interested in various 
 enterprises. He has introduced us to an old follower of his, Antonio, 
 a typical horse trader, very plausible but a little too sharp. The 
 latter has tried very hard to sell us a number of mules, some with 
 girth sores and others with back sores, but we have not patronized 
 him as yet. 
 
 People here say that in the dry season, from December to March, 
 there is a passable cart road from here to Barinas, a distance of about 
 two hundred miles. No one knows what kind of country hes be- 
 tween Barinas and Arauca on the Colombia frontier, or whether 
 it will be possible to take a cart beyond Barinas. Our friend Don 
 Carlos thinks that we will be able to do so, although we may be check- 
 mated by some of the rivers. As we can put all of our outfit on a 
 light cart, where it will be much safer and give us less trouble than 
 if transported on pack mules, we have decided to try that method 
 as far as it is practicable. Don Carlos has been interesting himself 
 in finding out what is known about the battle-field of Carabobo. 
 He owns a pack of hounds and has frequently taken them to hunt 
 deer and peccaries in that locality, but has not been much concerned 
 with its history heretofore. He says that one of his hounds is "an 
 English setter that was elevated in Denmark." 
 
VALENCIA AND CARABOBO 
 
 29 
 
 FROM THE Tower or the Cathedral. 
 
 January 8th. We have finally purchased five saddle mules, at 1 
 prices varying from sixty-five dollars to one hundred dollars. ' 
 
 The leading commercial house here is a branch of the Bloehmj 
 Company, a German concern that controls more business than any^ 
 other house in Venezuela. From them we have obtained a letter^ 
 of credit to one of their correspondents in Guanare, so that we shall: 
 not be obliged to carry all our money with us. 
 
 In Caracas, and to a certain extent in Valencia, Venezuelan bank 
 notes are accepted without question, but we are told that paper cur- 
 rency does not pass at all in the interior and that we must have gold 
 and silver. The current gold coins are called onzas, ounces, and 
 are valued at $16.40. Most of them are handsome old Spanish 
 doubloons bearing eighteenth-century dates, but there are a few 
 Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian coins. All the silver is Venezue- 
 lan but we have not seen a single Venezuelan gold piece so far. 
 Although the unit coin is the silver bolivar (twenty cents), one rarely 
 hears that term. Small sums are given in reals (ten cents). Larger 
 amounts are given in pesos (eighty cents). In Caracas one commonly 
 hears the word fuerte, which is the term applied to the largest silver 
 coin, worth about a dollar. In buying mules we have heard another 
 term, marocote, a $20 gold piece. 
 
 Today we had some trouble with a m_an who sold us three of 
 the mules. He claims we ought to pay him a commission of $15, 
 over and above the price agreed upon and paid for the mules. He 
 
3° 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 finally had to be kicked out of the hotel. The proprietor of the hotel 
 is an Italian who has travelled in Madagascar, Austraha, China, and 
 California. Six years ago he had the bad judgment to buy this 
 property, so that his wanderings appear to have ceased. The rooms 
 are almost entirely neglected but the table is excellent. 
 
 January gth. We have purchased a strong cart and a good 
 
 solid cart mule for $140, and 
 engaged as cartman, Rafael 
 Rivas, a Venezuelan peon 
 recommended to us by Don 
 Carlos. He says he has been 
 as far as Barinas once and 
 agrees to accompany us to 
 Arauca if we can possibly 
 get the cart that far. Our 
 helpers now consist of Josh 
 and Richard, the two negroes 
 who joined us at Caracas, and 
 Rafael the cartman. We 
 have completed all our pur- 
 chases and hope to start early 
 tomorrow. 
 
 January loth. We rose 
 at six so as to be packed 
 when the cart should come. 
 It had been promised for 
 seven o'clock, but as was to 
 be expected in this country 
 it did not arrive on time. 
 Rafael came at eight. The 
 cart had not yet appeared so 
 he desired to "go back and 
 say good-by again" to his family. The result was that the cart did 
 not get away from Valencia until eleven. 
 
 We started after lunch. Don Carlos, according to the old Span- 
 ish custom, mounted his best horse and accompanied us some dis- 
 tance out of the city. After leaving Valencia the road passes over 
 
 Plaza Bolivar, Valencia. 
 
VALENCIA AND CARABOBO 31 
 
 a plain covered with chapparal, little grass and small stunted trees. 
 Behind us to the north, east, and west the mountains surround 
 Valencia. They are not forested and have been dissected by erosion 
 in an interesting manner. 
 
 Half-way from Valencia to Carabobo is the village of Tocuyito 
 where General Castro won his first important battle. He had raised 
 a small army in the Andes which was augmented as he marched 
 eastward against Caracas. At Tocuyito he was met by the Govern- 
 ment forces, who greatly outnumbered him. Night fell before the 
 battle was decided, and he was considering the necessity of with- 
 drawing in the face of superior numbers when he learned that the 
 Government troops were already in precipitate flight, leaving him 
 master of the situation. To commemorate this victory he has had 
 a striking monument erected on the plaza. 
 
 From Tocuyito our road continued southward over the plains of 
 Carabobo. Four hours after leaving Valencia we reached a posada 
 or inn near the battle-field. It is kept by a picturesque old fellow 
 named Don Leonte, who is an ideal host and takes excellent care 
 of his guests. The inn is a clean little establishment and enjoys a 
 good trade, as nearly all travellers to and from the Llanos and the 
 Andes stop here for a meal or two. There is only one sleeping-room, 
 but it is large and furnished with a dozen canvas cots which seem 
 to be entirely free from fleas. 
 
 It is very curious that no one has ever made even a rough sketch 
 of this battle-field.^ Although many Spanish writers have treated 
 of the battle, in which nearly twelve thousand men were engaged 
 and the fate of Venezuelan independence decided, no plan of it has 
 hitherto been published so far as I have been able to discover. Tra- 
 ditions differ very much as to the place where certain things hap- 
 pened during the battle, and it is to be our business to try and 
 determine, if possible, their actual location. 
 
 January 11th. The cart arrived late last evening and this 
 morning we started out to find a suitable location for a camp. A 
 mile southwest of the inn we came to the white obelisk which has 
 been erected by Castro's Government to commemorate the battle 
 of 1821. After some reconnoitring we found an excellent location 
 
 ' For an account of the battle see Appendix B. 
 
32 VENEZUELA 
 
 Battle-field of Carabobo 
 
 for a permanent camp four miles south of the monument in tlie valley 
 of Naipe. It is close to the road and sheltered from it by a grove 
 of orange trees. Less than twenty feet away is a clear httle stream 
 and not far off are a few thatched huts where we can secure eggs, 
 fowls, and arepa (maize cake), the staple of this part of Venezuela. 
 
 January 12th. As the camp is two thousand feet above the sea, 
 the night was very cool and extremely clear. Jupiter was so brilliant 
 that it woke me up and for a moment I thought some one had 
 hghted a lantern outside the tent. 
 
 This morning, guided by a one-eyed old vagabond named "Ber- 
 nardo the Bohemian," I went in search of points of historic interest. 
 For miles in every direction the region is a perfect maze of hills and 
 valleys. There are not many trees but the slopes are covered with 
 such rank high grass and dense bush foliage that it is almost impos- 
 sible to go anywhere except on the paths, which are most confusing. 
 It is to be our task to make a map and attempt to locate definitelv 
 the important points. Bernardo took me first to Buenavista, which 
 commands an extensive prospect in every direction. The old bridle 
 path from Tinaquillo passes over it and from here Bolivar studied 
 the Spanish position and settled on his plan of battle. Our most 
 serious problem is to find the trail by which the British Legion was 
 able to thread the mazes of the hills, avoid the main road and reach 
 the Spanish flank. 
 
 January 13^/j. Our good friend Don Carlos rode out from 
 
VALENCIA AND CARABOBO 3S 
 
 FROM THE Southeast. 
 
 Valencia last evening and called on us at the camp soon after four 
 o'clock this morning. He has brought several friends with him for 
 one of his weekly hunts, but says that he is going to combine historical 
 research with search for deer. We had an exciting hunt soon after 
 sunrise. The method is to surround a promising little valley with 
 hunters carrying shotguns, placed sufficiently far apart so that there 
 is no danger of their hitting one another with stray shot. Then six 
 or eight of the hounds are sent into the valley with two or three 
 beaters, and the deer, if one is there, is driven out. As the deer 
 comes from cover in running jumps it is more than likely to get 
 through the cordon of hunters. 
 
 After the hunt we breakfasted at Don Leonte's on thick soup, 
 beef stew, fried eggs, fried plantains, maize cakes, doughnuts, and 
 coffee, the fare that we are destined to have at all the inns as far as 
 Barinas. 
 
 January 14th. This morning the hunters joined us in historical 
 research. We traversed overgrown trails, plunged through banana 
 plantations and made our way through deep gulches and over steep 
 hillsides, where several of the hunters were obliged to dismount in 
 following a route said to have been that used by General Paez and 
 the British Legion, but we have all agreed that they could not possibly 
 have come this way. It is far too difficult and would have required 
 more time than they took. 
 
 On our ride we conversed with an old woman who appeared to 
 
34 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 fa 
 
 
VALENCIA AND CARABOBO 35 
 
 be about seventy years old. She declared that she had a clear recol- 
 lection of the battle of Carabobo as she was " hving here at the time 
 and was eleven years old"! Later in the day we met another old 
 resident who looked to be at least eighty, and who said his mother 
 was nine years old at the time of the battle, and that the old lady we 
 had met earlier in the day was not as old as he, instead of being 
 ninety-five as she claims. Nearly all these people know of the flank 
 movement of General Paez, and most of them claim that it took 
 place through their own Kttle valley or over the path that goes past 
 their particular thatched hut. 
 
 January i^th. Another hunt this morning included the trails 
 both of deer and revolutionary generals. We saw no deer although 
 we enjoyed the excitement of hearing the baying of the dogs and the 
 curious cries and shouts of the beaters encouraging them. We had 
 a hunt breakfast at Don Leonte's tavern and a good siesta before the 
 hunters returned to Valencia. 
 
 January 16th. The average daily range of temperature seems 
 to be about 30°. The coldest time is just before sunrise and the 
 warmest at 2 p.m. At half-past six this morning the thermometer 
 was 55°F. In six hours it had reached 9i°F. During the day there 
 is nearly always a gentle breeze, but the nights are clear, calm, and 
 cold. 
 
 This morning Don Alfredo Pietri, who owns more than twenty- 
 five square miles of land in this vicinity, came to show us a trail that 
 he considers must be the one used by the British Legion. It an- 
 swers all the requirements and we feel satisfied that at last we have 
 solved the mystery. We found on the battle-field the barrel of an 
 old-fashioned pistol; also a number of large white snail shells, three 
 or four inches long {Bulimus oblongus). 
 
 January 20th. We have been at Carabobo longer than we in- 
 tended, but I have been able to visit the points of interest three 
 or four times and become well acquainted with the battle-field. I 
 have spent most of my time exploring the numerous paths that wind 
 through the valleys and making sketches from the hilltops. While 
 in Valencia I received a call from a distinguished Venezuelan his- 
 torian who has written about the battle. He was kind enough to 
 give me an hour's lecture on the subject of Carabobo. At its close 
 
36 VENEZUELA 
 
 I asked him whether he had ever explored the battle-field and made 
 a study of its topography. He replied " no, that was not necessary 
 as I have read the documents." He admitted that he had passed it 
 once when riding into the interior, but said he understood the battle 
 perfectly. It makes us feel as though we must be very stupid in- 
 deed to have taken ten days to unravel the puzzle presented by the 
 conflicting traditions and the lack of maps and plans of the battle! 
 
 Our study of the topography of the region has led me to adopt 
 the version of the battle which is given in the Appendix. It seems 
 to us as though the Spaniards could have done much better if they 
 had attempted to hold the passes in the hills instead of allowing the 
 patriot army to reach the plain without being molested. Yet the 
 position which the Spaniards took at the edge of the plain is much 
 stronger than one would imagine. There is room for only a small 
 number of men to deploy on to the plain from the valley of Naipe 
 and these could easily have been driven back by the Spanish infantry 
 and artillery had the flank attack been unsuccessful. It must be 
 admitted that the British Legion won the battle with their courageous 
 hollow square. At the same time the credit for the strategy that 
 divided the Spanish forces and finally outflanked their main army 
 rests with BoHvar. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Caeabobo to Barinas 
 
 January 21st. Early this morning we broke camp and left 
 the charming little valley of Naipe where we have been for ten days. 
 In order to make good headway in the cool of the morning we rose 
 a little before four, but it was almost seven when we succeeded in 
 getting off. At the time this seemed most extraordinary; but we 
 learned before long that in this part of the world one must allow 
 from two to three hours every morning for the business of breakfast, 
 packing, and saddhng. 
 
 Our party now consists of four men besides ourselves: Josh 
 Obadiah Nero, chief cook, Richard Harvey, general utility man, 
 Rafael Rivas, cartman, and Waldemera, a pleasant-faced Venezuelan 
 boy, twenty years old, a friend of Rafael who has voluntarily attached 
 himself to the expedition "to keep Rafael company and see the 
 world." Four of us are mounted, but the two peons must walk as 
 far as the cart goes. 
 
 We reached the Chirgua River in an hour, after passing over 
 very rough roads through a well-watered hilly country where we saw 
 many roadside pulperias (small tavernsj and other evidences of a 
 numerous population. An hour later we left the green hills for the 
 chapparal covered plain of Tinaquillo where Bolivar held his grand 
 review the day before the battle of Carabobo. As no rain had fallen 
 for over a month, the plain was hot and dusty. After two leagues 
 of this we crossed the sluggish little Guayavita and entered the out- I 
 skirts of Tinaquillo, a struggling town with two inns, a few shops, ! 
 and the ruins of a new church. The roof of the church fell in dur- ! 
 ing a heavy thunder shower, so that the building collapsed before ■ 
 it was consecrated. Its white tower still stands, however, and is a 
 good landmark. We had seen it from Buenavista, where Bolivar 
 got his first glimpse of the Spanish army drawn up on the plain of 
 
 37 
 
38 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 Fording the Chirgua River. 
 
 Carabobo. We spent the heat of the day here at a comfortable 
 little inn and left shortly before three. A league beyond Tinaquillo 
 the road left the plain and made its way painfully through a range 
 of barren hills. Shortly before dark we reached the solitary inn of 
 Guamita. 
 
 The poor cart mule is having a very hard time. Rafael leads 
 him carefully with his hand on the rein close to the bit, while " Walde- 
 mar" pushes the cart from behind. When an unusually large rock, 
 
 The Plain of Tinaquillo. 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 39 
 
 perhaps as big as the cart itself, obstructs the narrow road on a steep 
 up grade, the amount of navigating and shouting that lias to be done 
 is extraordinary, but not so remarkable as the fact that the cart 
 eventually surmounts the obstacle, and that the mule continues to 
 live. In the rainy season carts do not attempt to pass this way at 
 all. Fortunately another day will get us out of the hills to the edge 
 of the great Llanos, where the road is said to be " as smooth as a 
 billiard table." 
 
 Rafael and Waldemera. 
 
 January 22d. The innkeeper is a jolly old fellow, quite a 
 gentleman, but his man-of- all-work is a thorough-going rascal who 
 charged us double and treble for all that we had. 
 
 A league beyond Guamita we crossed the Rio Tamanaco and 
 after another league the Macapo. Both are clear streams of moder- 
 ate size about sixty to one hundred feet across and two feet deep at 
 this time of the year. We saw many small fishes in each stream. 
 Birds are abundant; parrots and paroquets, blackbirds, orioles, 
 buzzards, "scissors birds" and many others. We passed numerous 
 huts with palm-thatched roofs, mud-plastered wattled walls, and dirt 
 
40 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 floors. Each hut seemed to have its own pigs, chickens, and naked 
 infants. 
 
 We stopped for breakfast at "El Salto," a posada named after 
 the falls of the Tinaco half a mile away. The ten-year-old son of 
 the proprietor, a pleasant httle fellow, had accompanied us from 
 Tinaquillo. He now acted as Ganymede and served us with cool 
 Caracas lager on a tray with clean napkins! His people seemed to 
 be of good stock, with blue eyes and good manners, but their inn was 
 of the poorest class, scarcely more than a pulperia. 
 
 El Salto de Tinaco. 
 
 There are two distinct falls near here, the upper one ten feet 
 and the lower one about forty feet in height. The ravine which 
 has been cut by the falls is about half a mile long. Rapids extend 
 for some miles further and there are many pools and small falls. 
 The banks are well wooded and the region supports a moderately 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 41 
 
 large population. The river is stocked with fish from eight to eighteen 
 inches long. They jump the smaller falls and the local fishermen 
 suspend baskets from the rocks to catch those that make poor jumps. 
 We saw a few baskets suspended over the rapids lower down the river. 
 The surroundings are wild and picturesque, and the whole scene is 
 
 The Tinaco Falls. 
 
 most attractive, except for the fact that a number of lepers and other 
 beggars have built Httle shelters on the road in the vicinity, where 
 they can tell their pitiful tales to the traveller who halts to enjoy the 
 view of the falls. Whether the presence of these lepers here bears 
 any relation to the quantities of fish in the river and the fact that 
 fish forms a large part of the local diet, is a question. About eight 
 miles beyond the falls the road climbs out of the valley, crosses some 
 low hills, and descends on to the plain of Tinaco. 
 
 The cart road is the worst I have ever seen. Enormous ruts, 
 treacherous mud-holes, bogs, steep grades, ledges of rock that 
 should have been blasted when the road was made, all together 
 detract considerably from Rafael's enjoyment of the scenery. The 
 cart mule was about "all in" when he reached Tinaco. 
 
42 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 January 2T,d. Tinaco is on the northern edge of the great Llanos, 
 about a league south of the hills. Here the road from Valencia 
 diverges to the Eastern and East Central Llanos, to San Fernando 
 de Apure and the Central and Southern Llanos, and to San Carlos, 
 the Western Llanos, and the Andean Provinces. Consequently it 
 has several inns, one hotel, and a number of well-stocked shops. 
 When the world is sufficiently crowded to make it necessary to irri- 
 gate the IJanos and use them for agricultural instead of grazing pur- 
 poses, Tinaco will probably wake up and amount to something and 
 the attractive falls will be used for grist-mills. 
 
 Fish-Baskets on the Tinaco. 
 
 This morning we turned westward. The road to San Carlos 
 crosses a succession of small rivulets with wooded banks and grassy 
 savannas. We saw scores of small pigeons {Zenaida vinaceo riefa) 
 by the roadside. The most frequent animals are the lizards. They 
 are of all sizes. The largest variety, about a foot in length, has the 
 fastest movements of any animal I have ever seen. It runs like a 
 streak of lightning, although rarely for more than a couple of rods. 
 
 The view of the domes and spires of San Carlos which one gets 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 43 
 
 from the plain has been spoken of by Duane and other travellers, 
 and it is as attractive as ever. As we entered the long street which 
 is now almost the only inhabited part of a city that once boasted a 
 population of thirty thousand souls, we met half a dozen carts loaded 
 with hides and bound for Valencia. There are two barracks in the 
 town and a few companies of sad-eyed conscripts. If ever men 
 
 Bolivar's Headquarters at San Carlos. 
 
 envied us our liberty, they did. A cloth sign hanging across the road 
 indicated the whereabouts of the "Hotel Central," once a fine old 
 residence with an attractive patio. We found that it was the tempo- 
 rary home of half a dozen bureaucrats who have lived here since 
 the capital of the State of Zamora has been transferred to San Carlos 
 from Guanare. They did not relish our presence at the table and 
 tried to show us by their rude manners that they were not like the 
 ordinary country folk, who are very polite. 
 
 In the days of BoHvar this was a fine city. Before the march 
 to Tinaquillo and Carabobo in 1821 he was entertained here by 
 General Manriquez in a palatial dwelling that covered a city block. 
 
 f 
 
44 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 Some of its walls are still standing and one corner has recently been 
 roofed over for a butcher shop. Earthquakes, revolutions, and cattle 
 plagues have reduced San Carlos so low that even the addition of 
 pohticians, bureaucrats, and soldiers give it barely two thousand 
 people. Never in America have I seen such picturesque ruins. A 
 
 gateway with a Latin in- 
 scription on a panel over 
 the lintel made one think 
 of Rome; while the Casa 
 Blanqueria with its 
 painted frescoes, elabo- 
 rate reliefs, carved ceil- 
 ings, and tiled floors 
 reminded me of Pompeii. 
 Its exterior is decorated 
 with Inca caryatides, but 
 the interior is the present 
 abode of pigs and chick- 
 ens and their poverty- 
 stricken masters. 
 
 The plaza of San Car- 
 los is a sad sight, — not 
 a tree or a shrub, simply 
 the ruins of concrete 
 walks to show that it 
 once had been a fine 
 square. We were told 
 by a local antiquary that 
 it had once been sur- 
 rounded on three sides 
 by two-story houses, only two of which are now standing. The 
 fourth side is still occupied by a large church; but the whole aspect 
 of the place is very depressing. 
 
 January 24th. We left San Carlos this morning. Our road, 
 instead of skirting the plains as we had been led to suppose, lay 
 through some low hills. A league beyond San Carlos we entered 
 the village of San Jose. It had a few fine houses a hundred vears 
 
 Ruined Gateway. 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 45 
 
 ago, but these are now in ruins and overgrown with vines and shrubs, 
 while twenty wretched huts and a wayside pulperia are all that keep 
 San Jose in existence. 
 
 The banks of all the streams are thickly wooded, chiefly with 
 bamboo. This is cut for various purposes, chiefly to make fences 
 and wattles for the mud huts. The wooded streams are so frequent 
 hereabouts that the road continually appears to cross savannas 
 that are surrounded by forests. It is hard to realize that the woods 
 
 Casa Blanqueria, San Carlos. 
 
 are rarely more than an eighth of a mile across. There are many 
 little paths that lead off to ranches. Richard and I followed one 
 this morning, mistaking it for the highway. Passing through a 
 grove of mango trees we presently reached a small sugar plantation 
 and the most primitive sugar mill I had ever seen. It had no roof, 
 although it only takes these people a couple of days to put a palm- 
 thatched roof over anything. A primitive windlass turned the 
 central vertical roller, and this, by rude wooden cogs, caused two 
 other rollers to rotate. The furnace for boiling the juice and the 
 moulds for making "papelon" were only a few feet from the rollers. 
 
46 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 The windlass was of "one 
 
 The fuel was dry cane tops and bagasse, 
 horse-power" or, to be more exact, one "ox power." 
 
 On the road today we met a fine wild bull on his way to the 
 Sunday bull-fight in Caracas. His head was completely tied up in a 
 sack. Only his nose protruded and this was fastened by a rawhide 
 
 The Plaza at San Carlos. 
 
 lasso, passed through a hole in the cartilage, to the tail of a horse 
 forty feet in front of the poor bull. On the horse rode a Llanero 
 whose mournful whistle, oft repeated, announced the approach of a 
 wild animal, served to pacify the buU and encouraged him to pro- 
 ceed. In driving cattle across the plains one Llanero usually rides 
 ahead and with this same mournful whistle bids the cattle follow 
 him. Another cowboy rode behind the bull, likewise to encourage 
 his orderly march towards Caracas. 
 
 A familiar sight from the road is the grass fires, set by anyone 
 with a match to spare who wishes to see dry grass and bushes burn. 
 No one watches these fires and sometimes they burn for days. It 
 is an old custom and benefits the country by keeping the grass short 
 and sweet, killing snakes and noxious insects, and keeping the trails 
 open. At night the fires look Hke lava flows. The birds have long 
 since learned to watch the fires and hover in the bushes and on the 
 ground just ahead of the flames looking for all the httle animals 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 47 
 
 and insects that are driven from their liomes. Sometimes we saw 
 thirty or forty birds, including half a dozen large hawks, attending 
 to this ceremony. 
 
 During the afternoon we saw two small red deer, Odocoileus 
 gymnotus. They noticed us first and bounded away over the savanna, 
 their white tails flying the danger signal. When about four hun- 
 dred yards away, they paused a moment to satisfy their curiosity 
 before entering the jungle, and I wished that my rifle had not been 
 packed in the cart. This jungle is in the flood plain of the Camoruco 
 River and extends for more than a mile from its left bank. Here 
 I saw for the first time wonderful ant roads, as wide as sheep paths, 
 and thousands of the workers, half an inch long, hurrying along on 
 their highway in a most business-like manner. 
 
 A San Jose Sugar Mux. 
 
 January 2^th. About five o'clock last evening Richard and I, 
 riding ahead of the rest of the part}', reached the posada near the 
 ford over the Camoruco. As we supposed the village of Cojedes 
 to be only a league beyond, we decided not to stop, although the 
 innkeeper assured us it was over two leagues away. A boy who 
 was bathing a horse in the river said it was only one and his opinion 
 was confirmed by a man in a garden a few rods beyond the river. 
 
48 VENEZUELA 
 
 The next man we met said it was two leagues and a half, but we chose 
 to think him in collusion with the innkeeper to detain us over night, 
 and pressed on. The road soon entered a wild hilly region but kept 
 turning northward. We knew Cojedes lay to the southwest and 
 looked in vain for a left turn or fork in the road. It grew darker 
 until we could see only a few rods ahead. Hoping every minute to 
 see the lights of a house, we kept on for two leagues until the bark- 
 ing of dogs told us we were near some habitation. It turned out to 
 be a little hut or rancheria. There were no hghts burning, it was 
 after eight o'clock, and the inhabitants had all retired except four 
 or five large dogs that seemed ready to eat us alive. I raised my 
 voice loud enough to be heard over the din of the barking and called 
 out " Amigos! " (Friends.) No answer. " Amigos 1 " — in my most 
 pleading tones. "What is it ? " — a timid shout from the hut. " Can 
 you tell us how far it is to Cojedes?" "Two leagues and a half!" 
 "But we were told that three hours ago." "You are on the wrong 
 road." " Alas! then we are lost and have nothing to eat and nowhere 
 to sleep." Finally the frightened householder came out with two 
 other men and a lantern, inspected us and agreed to give us eggs and 
 coffee and the mules some corn. We were not allowed to enter the 
 hut, but had to shift for ourselves in the thatched shelter outside. 
 We had no blankets. The wind was cold. Sleep was out of the 
 question. The mules kept munching corn for hours. Dogs and 
 burros came to satisfy their curiosity or steal the mules' provender. 
 Finahy at half-past three we got up, saddled, and rode two leagues 
 to the hamlet of Apartaderos. 
 
 Here the trail from Barquisimeto to Cojedes, two leagues south 
 of us, crosses the main road. We now discovered that travellers 
 rarely pass through Cojedes and that we had followed the main road 
 quite properly. Carts going to Barquisimeto continue to Acarigua, 
 but travellers on horseback turn to the right here and go by way of 
 the pass of El Altar, as was done by Colonel Duane and the anony- 
 mous author of "Letters written from Colombia during a journey 
 from Caracas to Bogota in 1823" (London, 1824). 
 
 As we crossed the Cojedes River I saw for the first time a flock 
 of macaws. There are few more striking sights than a dozen or 
 twenty macaws flying rapidly in the morning hght from their roosts 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 49 
 
 to their feeding-grounds, screaming the while at tlie top of their 
 lungs. 
 
 San Rafael, one of at least three villages of that name in Vene- 
 zuela, hcs half a mile west of the Cojedes, just beyond the flood 
 plain. From here we caught our first glimpse of the Andes, far 
 away to the westward. 
 
 Crossing the Cojedes River. 
 
 The village of Agua Blanca, our next stop, lies in the midst of an 
 excellent cattle country, and there are a few small sugar plantations 
 in the neighbourhood. At the inn where we spent the hottest four 
 hours of the day, I met an intelligent cattle owner who was very 
 anxious to hear all about our journey and the reasons for it. It 
 was quite incredible to him that two private citizens of the United 
 States should take the trouble to cross Venezuela on a scientific 
 mission unless paid to do so by their Government. His idea, based 
 on his own experience in driving cattle from one part of Venezuela 
 to another, was that all scientific work must be subsidized by the 
 Government. Therefore, since it was quite beyond reason that we 
 should be paying for this expedition ourselves and as we did not 
 pretend that the Venezuelan Government was subsidizing it, the only 
 possible conclusion in his mind was that its cost was paid by the 
 United States. He was most insistent to know "why our Govern- 
 ment had sent us." "Was it contemplating taking Venezuela next 
 
so VENEZUELA 
 
 after Panama?" "Of course no government would pay for the 
 exploration of another country, unless it had ideas of territorial 
 aggrandizement." As I persisted in denying both his premises and 
 his conclusions, he decided I must be a spy or an army officer in dis- 
 guise. He was not the only Venezuelan that arrived at this enter- 
 taining conclusion, but he was more frank about it than most of 
 the others. 
 
 To suspect travellers of being emissaries of their governments is 
 an Oriental and also a Spanish trait. Richard Ford says in his 
 "Gatherings from Spain": "Nor can Spaniards at all understand 
 why any man should incur trouble and expense, which no native 
 ever does, for the mere purpose of acquiring knowledge of foreign 
 countries or for his own private improvement or amusement." 
 
 In the course of the afternoon's ride of three leagues between 
 Agua Blanca and Acarigua, I counted only sixty-seven head of 
 cattle feeding in the savannas, although there was pasturage for 
 hundreds, if not thousands. We have been continually surprised 
 at the scarcity of horses and cattle. Of course such easily movable 
 property is the first to suffer in a revolution. Once the brands have 
 been destroyed there is no way of proving property, and it is very 
 difficult to get any redress. The natural consequence is that no 
 one takes any interest in raising cattle — or anything else for that 
 matter — and the country appears to be in a state of stagnation. 
 
 January 26th. Acarigua is the first place we have seen that 
 shows any signs of growth and progress. It lies half a mile south 
 of the more respectable and ancient town of Araure, which is, for no 
 apparent reason, suffering a decline. The latter may have a thousand 
 inhabitants, but Acarigua has at least three thousand. Excellent 
 hammocks and hats are made here. Since the Bohvar Railroad 
 has been completed from Puerto Tucacas to Barquisimeto, a cart 
 road has been made from the latter place to Acarigua, which has 
 thus become an important distributing point for the Northwestern 
 Llanos. 
 
 A recent writer on South America, an American commercial 
 traveller, says his brethren are the real heroes of modern times, sur- 
 passing the missionary and the scientific explorer in searching out 
 the dark places of the earth. We are told that only one American 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 51 
 
 has ever been seen here before — and that was over forty years ago. 
 I wonder if he was a commercial traveller and why none of his fel- 
 lows have been here since. Has the opening of the railroad made 
 it too easy? 
 
 West of the town is a terrace rising possibly one hundred and 
 fifty feet above the level of the plain. Here occurred quite a bloody 
 encounter in 1813, during the Wars of Independence. The story goes 
 that a hastily organized regiment of volunteers won the battle for 
 the patriots. Bohvar was so pleased with the courage of the raw 
 recruits that he bestowed upon the regiment the name of "Bravos de 
 
 The Church of Acarigua. 
 
 Araure," much to their joy. If there is anything a Spanish soldier 
 loves it is to belong to a regiment with a resounding appellation. 
 The story of this episode was told me with much gusto by a decrepit 
 old fellow who hves in a hut on the hiU terrace above the battle-field. 
 After he had finished his tale he wiped his eyes with his sleeve, 
 heaved a heavy sigh, and finally pulled out from his pocket a little 
 horn box, about as large as a walnut. It was partly filled with a 
 nasty black nicotine paste which is made hereabouts by mixing the 
 essence of tobacco leaf with a mineral salt found in Los Andes. 
 
52 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 53 
 
 With a small stick, picked up from the ground, he extracted a bit of 
 paste, the size of a pea, and carefully scraped it off on the back of 
 his upper front teeth. This he assured me was far better than smok- 
 ing. (I found that the use of this paste is quite common in the 
 towns on the eastern slopes of the Andes.) 
 
 We left Acarigua about half-past three and reached the Carigua 
 River before sunset. There is a posada here called Choro, on the 
 right bank of the river. It consists of the usual collection of thatched 
 huts, a shelter for the mules, another for the hogs, of which the pro- 
 prietor has a hundred or more, and a third for the kitchen and bar. 
 
 January 2'jth. The sleeping-room was so filthy we chose to 
 sleep in the inn yard last night. We had little rest. Every hour 
 scores of the half-starved hogs would emerge from their shelter and 
 go on foraging expeditions in the moonlight. The mules were 
 threatened with the loss of their corn and took to chasing the emaci- 
 ated pigs round the yard. The sober old cart mule made vain efforts 
 to land a blow on the largest hog. The latter sought refuge beneath 
 our hammocks. My cot was altogether too near the ground. The 
 pigs attacked boots and instruments, clothes bags and food bags. 
 Altogether it was a night long to be remembered, — but not for 
 refreshing slumber. The air was cool and fresh, a gentle breeze 
 drove away the flies and mosquitoes, the stars and the moon vied in 
 briUiancy. But all the beauties of nature did not compensate us 
 for the attacks of the hungry hogs. We were glad to get away with- 
 out a fight, for Rafael in his zeal had thrown a stone with fatal ac- 
 curacy at one of the pigs which was stealing the cart mule's supper. 
 He concealed his crime by throwing the porker into a neighbouring 
 banana patch, leaving the evidence behind us. Had our host been 
 sober it would have been a simple matter to pay for the pig, but under 
 the circumstances we did not breathe freely until we crossed the Rio 
 Guachi, two leagues and a half beyond the Carigua. 
 
 Another two leagues brought us to the magnificently deserted 
 plaza of Aparicion. Its church is a curiosity, with huge buttresses 
 on each side, and, in one of them, three bells. Services are still 
 held here once a year and the tiled roof is in moderately good repair. 
 Diagonally across the "plaza," which is nothing but an open waste, 
 is the only other building, a "general store " kept by an enterprising 
 
54 VENEZUELA 
 
 Indian. Cotton cloth, chinchoras (hammocks), lager beer from Cara- 
 cas, "Extra Soda" biscuits from New York, "Love Drops" from 
 London, and watermelons from the patch back of the house, together 
 with a few other trinkets, made up the stock in trade. Half a mile 
 beyond, having passed perhaps two houses, we came to the inn. 
 Aparicion is quite a place on the map, and is spread over consider- 
 able territory, but I doubt if it has more than twenty-five inhabitants. 
 
 The Village of Aparicion. 
 
 I spent the noon hours swinging in a hammock in the outer 
 open room of the inn, trying to make up for the loss of sleep; but 
 the proprietor's pigs took up the tale where their friends had left it 
 the night before, and proceeded to disturb my slumbers by scratch- 
 ing their backs on the under side of my hammock. When they tired 
 of this, their friends, the chickens, got busy scratching up the earthen 
 floor. The once smooth floor is now in ruts from the hoofs of the 
 mules that are brought in here to be saddled, the snouts of the 
 rooting hogs, and the feet of the energetic fowls. On one side of 
 this so-called room, which is in reahty nothing more than a thatched 
 shed, is the shop, a broken chair leaning against its rough mud- 
 plastered walls. 
 
 A little porker dodges under the hammock and through the open 
 door of the shop, which chances to be open. Driven out of there 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 55 
 
 he runs into the dining-room, which opens off the kitchen and the 
 proprietor's quarters. Three great blacls hogs, as fat as corn can 
 make them, lie grunting in the hollows of the earthen floor. Two 
 more waddle in out of the heat, while a fowl dodges them in its search 
 for crumbs. A pet oriole overhead pulls insects out of the badly 
 thatched roof, and incidentally releases pieces of the roof to fall 
 on my head. In the middle of the floor is a crotched post set in the 
 ground, on which we hang our cameras, coats, spurs, and knap- 
 sacks. The pigs keep up a continual snoring and grunting. A 
 thoughtful youth, who can scarcely keep his eyes off the strange 
 North Americans, occasionally drives away the pigs; but they pay 
 little attention to his whip, and as he goes into the shop to get some 
 maize for the kitchen maid to pound up for our luncheon, a huge 
 hog, twice as large as the boy, follows him with a cheerful grunt, 
 but is driven out squealing before he has time to steal any food.' 
 However, a cool breeze, a keen appetite, a plentiful luncheon, and 
 the sense of having at last reached the heart of Western Venezuela, 
 make one quite happy and willing to overlook the intimate acquaint- 
 ance of our host's live stock. 
 
 After leaving Aparicion, we continued through the same kind 
 of country, small savannas, frequent wooded streams, hills and 
 distant mountains on our right, and plains on our left. This after- 
 noon we saw for the first time a tree full of large oriole nests, their 
 tenants being black and yellow birds about three times as large as 
 the Baltimore oriole. They seem fond of building as many nests 
 as possible in the same tree. 
 
 Ever since leaving Tinaco the road has been quite fair, presenting 
 no serious obstacles, although it looks as though it might be quite 
 impassable in the rainy season. There are almost no houses to be 
 seen now between the towns or villages. This is excellent grazing 
 country, but to our surprise we saw very few cattle and almost no 
 horses. This afternoon, for the first time, we passed two small 
 ponds that seemed to be drying up. They are quite characteristic 
 of the Llanos. 
 
 About ten miles beyond Aparicion we came to Ospino, an unpre- 
 tentious town. Two young gentlemen whom we met at Aparicion 
 had preceded us and notified the keeper of the more modest inn, 
 
56 VENEZUELA 
 
 who sent a messenger to meet us, in order that we might not fall into 
 the hands of the rival posada. Here we found our acquaintances, 
 one of whom spoke a little English, and was very fond of repeating 
 with most extraordinary sing-song accent, "Ah, my friend!" 
 
 January 28th. Ospino is a quiet little town. The citizens are 
 too lazy to gather any cocoanuts from the graceful trees which are 
 well laden with fruit. The only local enterprise of which we heard is 
 the manufacture of little horn boxes for nicotine paste. 
 
 Last evening we were entertained by our two young Venezuelan 
 friends, who speak a little English and desired to try it on us. They 
 attended the University of Caracas a few years ago and chose Eng- 
 lish as one of their "Modern Languages." One lives in Guanare 
 where his father is the first citizen of the town. The other is a local 
 sport and has a "pack of hounds." He tells us they are all "fox 
 terriers," and that he has seven, — his friend says "three." He is 
 a mighty hunter and often goes out after deer, peccaries, and 
 wild fowl "with a Smith and Wesson revolver." Our conversation 
 dragged somewhat until he remarked, "New York is always in 
 January very glad. No?" We suggested that he meant "cold," 
 but he did not seem familiar with that word and soon took his 
 departure. 
 
 We left Ospino early this morning. Such hills as we see are 
 much eroded. The road keeps within a mile or two of them and 
 as usual crosses savannas and wooded watercourses. Occasionally 
 we see large trees in the woods. This morning we passed one that 
 measured twenty-one feet in circumference at a height of five feet 
 from the ground. Richard said it was common in Trinidad and is 
 caUed there the "wild cusha." Although we see hundreds of lizards 
 every day, we have as yet not seen a single snake. The numerous 
 fires that annually sweep over the savannas apparently have made 
 snakes quite scarce. The flowers that one notices most often are 
 large yellow ones seen everywhere, frequently on fence posts. The 
 trees used for this purpose here seem to have great tenacity of hfe, 
 and even as fence posts continue to live and bear flowers. The road 
 is never quiet. The chirp of insects and the chatter of birds are 
 almost constant, except in the middle of the day, but one never hears 
 anv sounds of cattle or horses. 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 57 
 
 About twelve miles from Ospino we came to another San Rafael, 
 with an elaborately decorated church. The front view is not un- 
 attractive, as the fafade presents an imposing appearance; but the 
 side view is as ridiculous as possible. The building is in reahty 
 low, and the fafade, three or four feet thick, rises hke a wall to twice 
 the height of the roof. 
 
 
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 The Jungle of the Rio Portuguesa. 
 
 After luncheon we pushed on, and toward evening came to a 
 grand jungle, the flood plain of the Rio Portuguesa, which extends 
 for a width of two miles on the left bank of the river and is the finest 
 forest we have yet seen. It was after sunset, but the moon was full 
 and the ride through the woods in the moonlight was one not soon 
 to be forgotten. Vines that looked like snakes hung down from 
 the giant trees. Bright eyes seemed to glisten in the inky shadows, 
 and the crashing sound of some large animal hurrying off in the 
 thicket gave one a pleasant sense of jaguars and other interesting 
 possibilities. It was a time when one appreciated the value of fire- 
 arms; but nothing happened. We reached the Portuguesa at seven 
 o'clock, forded it without difficulty, and soon after entered the 
 
58 VENEZUELA 
 
 enclosure of an excellent posada, where half a dozen carters on their 
 way to Valencia had already arrived. 
 
 In the courtyard of the thatched inn were hung long lines of fish 
 to dry. Most of them were about a foot long; but there were two 
 specimens of a large fish, a kind of salmon, that measured forty 
 inches from neck to tip of tail after the head had been removed. 
 
 January 2gih. Every one that can afford to do so in this country 
 sleeps in hammocks. One never sees a bedstead of any kind. The 
 peons, when they have no hammocks, sleep on mats or rawhide 
 laid on the ground. The night was very cold and damp. Yet at 
 4.15 A.M. the thermometer registered 61° F. The cartmen were all 
 shivering. It may seem ridiculous to think of shivering within nine 
 degrees of the equator when the temperature is above 60° F., but 
 the dampness and the daily change from 90° F. in the early afternoon 
 to 60° F. in the early morning is very trying. 
 
 We made an early start, but as it was my first sight of a large 
 tropical river I went back half a mile to the Portuguesa and was 
 well rewarded by the novelty of my surroundings. I reached the 
 river just as the sun was rising slowly over the great forest on the 
 left bank. The jungle family was just waking up. Scores of doves 
 were cooing in the trees. Wild pigeons flew rapidly across the sky. 
 Parrots and paroquets chattered. Hundreds of small birds kept 
 up a continual chirping. Two large herons added their screams 
 to the chorus; but the most fascinating sound of all was the mimic 
 roar of the aragiiatos or howling monkeys, rising and falling like 
 the moaning of a wind, in a weird cadence. They are very shy 
 beasts, and almost impossible to find. 
 
 A slight mist lay on the water but rapidly disappeared as the sun 
 rose higher. The river was confined to its deeper channel so that 
 the sandy shoals were left quite dry. Wandering along them I turned 
 a bend in the river and swept the canebrakes and the banks of the 
 stream with my Zeiss glasses in the hope of new sights. First an 
 iguana sunning himself on top of a vine-covered tree, then a gray 
 heron quietly watching me from a branch in the shadow beneath, 
 and finally an alligator basking in the sun on a sand bank not far 
 off, came slowly into the field. A pair of beautiful storks that looked 
 as though they had stepped out of a Japanese screen flew majestically 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 59 
 
 from tree to tree above the river looking for tlie fish that occasionally 
 splashed in the stream. It is difficult to do justice to the enchant- 
 ment of the scene. 
 
 Two leagues south of the Portuguesa is Guanare, once the capital 
 of the State of Zamora, but now reduced to a quiet somnolence that 
 gives no promise of being disturbed for many years to come. The j 
 latest official figures give it a population of thirty thousand. But as i 
 there are only five very small shops and certainly not three hundred I 
 houses standing, it is difficult to account for more than two thousandj 
 residents. I very much doubt if there are fifteen hundred. 
 
 The Entrance to Guanare. 
 
 A small bridge, thirty feet long and covered with a corrugated 
 iron roof, leads over a little stream to the main street of the town. 
 A crowd of good-natured boys and men followed us about and pointed 
 out the sights of the town. There is a quaint old college with a 
 pleasant cloister that lends to the place an atmosphere of monastic 
 learning. About fifty students are on the rolls. West of the college 
 is the Calvario, a hill devoted to religious purposes, from which we 
 had a fine view of the town and the plains which stretch away into 
 the interminable distance. The plaza is shady and well kept. On 
 
6o 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 its east side is a well-built house said to have been the headquarters 
 of Bolivar. During the days of Guanare's political importance a 
 reservoir was built in the hills back of the town, so that some of the 
 houses enjoy running water. 
 
 The Church at Guanare. 
 
 In Valencia we had secured a letter of credit to the correspondent 
 of Bloehm & Co., in Guanare, and he turns out to be the most 
 important person in town. He is a very fine old fellow with fourteen 
 children, who did not make the slightest fuss about furnishing us 
 with $200 in gold and silver. He keeps a store on the corner of the 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 6 1 
 
 plaza, but tells us that this town is too slow for him, and he intends 
 to move as soon as possible to Barquisimeto. 
 
 January T,oih. We left Guanare this morning, and in about an 
 hour reached the river Guanare, a magnificent stream, quite shal- 
 low, filled with islands, and flanked by great jungles. In one tree 
 we counted sixty-three beautiful egrets, who were joined in a few 
 minutes by twenty others. 
 
 Bolivar's Headquakiers at Guanare. 
 
 After passing the Guanare, the fauna seemed to change slightly. 
 The blackbirds, buzzards, and hawks continue as before, but are 
 joined now by many new birds that I had never seen, — occasional 
 hornbills and many kinds of fishing birds. Few carts ever go 
 beyond Guanare, although a passable road continues to follow the 
 lone telegraph wire as far as Barinas. Swallows sit on the wire here 
 just as they do in New England. This morning in the trees on 
 the banks of the river Tocupido I saw some monkeys. They 
 were the small red variety that are common here. Near by were 
 some guacharacas {hoafzin, O pisthocomus cristatus). They made a 
 great noise. They look like crested pheasants and their plumage is 
 most striking. There must have been eight or ten of them together. 
 
62 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 In the river was a small alligator and a fair-sized skate. Bites of 
 assorted kinds and sizes are accumulating on arms and hands. Flies 
 are getting verj' troublesome, and the little midgets bite badh', 
 leaving a little blotch with a black nucleus that lasts for two or 
 three weeks. It seems to be a kind of blood blister. 
 
 The Shopping District of Guanare. 
 
 A mile beyond the river we came to the picturesque ruins of the 
 old Tocupido church. One of the arches is still standing, but a tree 
 twent}' or thirty years old is growing in the aisle. Thirty thatched 
 huts and a small church with a little thatched belfry, a deserted 
 plaza and a few cocoanut trees are all that is left of this old Spanish 
 town. The innkeeper told us that the road to Barinas by way of 
 the village of Bocond was impassable for the cart, and that we must 
 go by way of Sabaneta, crossing the river Bocond ten miles below 
 the village of that name. We might have spent the night here in 
 Tocupido, but we preferred to get on as far as possible. 
 
 About sundown we camped near a stream on the edge of a big 
 savanna. Just before dark I managed to shoot one of the strange 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 63 
 
 wild fowl called guacharacas as it hopped silently through the branches 
 of a tree beside the stream. We roasted it over a fine bed of coals, 
 but it was as tough as leather. 
 
 January 315/. Last night was fine and we swung our hammocks 
 in the open. This morning we reached the river Bocono. It is 
 quite different from anything we have seen so far. Instead of being 
 a wide, shallow rocky stream hke the Portuguesa and the Guanare, 
 it has a sandy bottom and flows between well-defined banks. As 
 is to be expected the banks are heavily wooded. The jungles of 
 the Bocono have a wonderful variety of flora and fauna. Monkeys 
 abound, parrots and macaws are very common, while hornbills, 
 hawks, red squirrels {sciurus variabilis) and millions of insects make 
 it interesting but not always pleasant. 
 
 The Plaza, Tocupido. 
 
 In the afternoon we were poled over the river in a big dugout 
 canoe. The Bocono here is about a thousand feet wide, but hardly 
 more than four feet deep. We could have ridden across perfectly 
 well, but naturally the canoemen exaggerated its depth and the 
 dangerous character of its sandy bottom. There is a primitive inn 
 on each side of the river. The houses have walls of split bamboo 
 and jungle reed and palm leaf thatched roofs. 
 
 On the south side of the river the jungle is very deep and we 
 passed through a great forest which extended for nearly two leagues, 
 
64 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 as far as Sabaneta. This is a little village of no importance except 
 that it has a good inn which is the natural "half-way house" between 
 Guanare and Barinas. Two ancient ladies, Spanish Creoles, are the 
 owners. Their daughters are mestizos, and their kitchen-maids 
 look like zambos. In the course of the evening Rice got out his the- 
 odolite, as usual, and took observations; Richard amused himself 
 skinning the parrots that I had shot, Josh spun "yarns," and I was 
 busy with my httle red lanterns changing plates in a dark corner of 
 the hving-room. Our audience divided its chief interest between 
 speculating as to Rice's astrology and my alchemy, the httle red 
 lamps having almost as much fascination for them as the theodoHte. 
 
 The Bocono Rr'er. 
 
 February ist. We had expected to go from Sabaneta to Barinas 
 by way of Obispo, but learned this morning that the cart road was 
 new and very heavy. To reach Barinas, we must avoid Obispo, go 
 west and shghtly north through the great jungle that lies for miles 
 on the right bank of the Bocon6, then turn south and make for the 
 town of Barrancas. For ten miles the road lav through the most 
 magnificent tropical forest I have ever seen. Trees with a girth of 
 twenty to twenty-five feet and a spread of one hundred and fiftv to 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 6S 
 
 two hundred feet were not uncommon. Flocks of chattering monkeys, 
 quantities of gaily colored birds, numerous stinging insects, and 
 miUions of ants made the day one of uninterrupted interest. 
 
 At the Sabaneta Inn. 
 
 Some of the ant heaps covered six or eight square yards, and were 
 over two feet in height. At one place which was rather sandy, the 
 ants had made a novel causeway over the fine sand of the man- 
 travelled path. In order to keep up the great speed at which the 
 majority wished to travel, several hundred of the workers lay locked 
 together in the dust, making a bridge over which their companions, 
 the soldier ants, could run as fast as on the hard little paths which 
 they make in the jungle. This hving causeway was over a foot in 
 length, two inches wide, and from one to three ants deep. When 
 I first saw it I thought that the ants in the road had been killed by 
 passersby stepping on them, although I found later to my cost that 
 they were extremely hard to kill in that or any other way. A kick 
 from my boot broke up the hving roadway, which soon formed again 
 in another place, each ant setthng himself in the fine dust and taking 
 hold with his fore legs of the hind legs of the ant in front. Others 
 mounted the first layer and gripped them with such tenacity that the 
 causeway held together like a ribbon. By thrusting a stick under- 
 
66 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 neath, I lifted it five inclies from the ground before the ants decided 
 to let go. The worliing ants were about half an inch long and of a 
 dusty black colour. The soldier ants were a third as long again. 
 
 On the Road to Barrancas. 
 
 Soon after this I heard what sounded hke falls or large rapids, 
 but the jungle was too dense to penetrate and see which it was. The 
 foot-hills in this region are grassy and without trees, but the banks 
 of the watercourses even where the stream has run dry are well 
 wooded. A mile farther on we emerged from the forest and caught 
 a glimpse of the Andes through the gap in the foot-hills made by the 
 Bocono River. Then the road took a sharp turn to the left and south. 
 
 We spent the middle of the day in a wretched little thatched hut 
 on the right bank of the Masparro River. The owner appeared to 
 have three wives and a large amount of other hve stock, including 
 cattle, goats, dogs, and pigs. His wives and children were all more or 
 less ill and diseased, and so were the dogs. Rice held a "clinic" and 
 told us that nearly all had enlarged spleens due to malaria. Shortly 
 before sunset we reached Barrancas, a village of fifteen or twenty 
 thatched huts, besides some ruins to show that it was once a place 
 of more importance. The flies and bees were maddening this morning 
 and I suffered greatly from the bites of all kinds of insects, although 
 I wore gauntlets and a head net most of the time. This evening I 
 counted sixty-three bites on my left hand and arm, and over forty 
 on mv right. 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 67 
 
 February 2d. Our weather for the past three weeks has been 
 quite uniform, no rain, httle wind, and cumulous clouds. 
 
 We spent a large part of the afternoon on the banks of the Yuca 
 River, as we had been informed that it was only a league from here 
 to Barinas. The result was we did not reach the Santo Domingo 
 River until after dark. It is a large stream with many islands, much 
 like the Portuguesa and the Guanare, and has a very wide flood plain. 
 The cart got stuck in a bog before we entered the jungles of the Santo 
 Domingo, and spent the night in the savanna, but we rode on hoping 
 to reach Barinas without difficulty. The road through the jungle was 
 well marked, but the ford at the Santo Domingo was a different mat- 
 ter. After several vain attempts we were obliged to light one of the 
 folding lanterns, wade across and hunt for the landing-place before we 
 
 The Marquis ate, Barinas. 
 
 could follow the direction of the ford. As the river was quite rapid, 
 three feet deep, and the bottom rocky and treacherous, the mules 
 made a great fuss about crossing. At length, about eight o'clock, we 
 reached the famous old city of Barinas and found a posada. 
 
 February ^d. Barinas was founded earlier than Caracas, the 
 
68 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 Spaniards having explored this part of Venezuela before they pene- 
 trated the region immediately south of the Coast Range. The 
 city prospered greatly during the Colonial epoch and was famous 
 for its tobacco, which commanded a high price in the German markets. 
 
 The Courtyard of the Marquisate, 
 
 Barinas was at that time the capital of the province. One of the 
 Government buildings is still standing, and presents a fine appear- 
 ance. There are probably not more than one thousand people living 
 here now. I presume six hundred would be a closer estimate. The 
 official figures give it twenty-five hundred. It once had ten thou- 
 sand inhabitants. 
 
 There is some interest taken in music, and an aggregation con- 
 sisting of a bassoon, a violin, a tuba, and a flute are spending the 
 Sunday afternoon "rehearsing" in one of the rooms of the inn. It 
 makes writing rather difficult. 
 
 In the latter part of the eighteenth century a great cattle king, 
 who had social ambitions, built himself a palace here. During the 
 wars with Spain he assisted the Loyalists and was made a marquis 
 for his pains. The ruins of his great establishment, the "Marqui- 
 sate," are most interesting. The house measures 138 by 114 feet. 
 
CARABOBO TO BARINAS 
 
 69 
 
 The roof is gone and much of the rich ornamentation, but the grand 
 court is surrounded by columns which are still standing. There 
 were seventeen rooms besides the hallways. Other large ruins in 
 the vicinity, and many mounds scattered through the city, might be 
 explored with profit. 
 
 Barinas is the last city we shall see for some time. It is like the 
 other cities of the Western Llanos, San Carlos, Araure, and Guanare. 
 All bear witness of a departed greatness. In the last days of the 
 Colonial epoch there must have been at least ten times as many 
 people here. Those that remain are poor and unenterprising. 
 Apathy is their most marked characteristic. Their houses are gen- 
 erally built of adobe, sometimes with red-tiled roofs but more often 
 with palm-leaf thatch. Their churches are in a better state of preser- 
 vation than might have been expected. Yet one sees very few signs 
 
 
 
 
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 A Bowling Green. 
 
 of superstition. Schools of a primary grade are common in the towns 
 and every one seems to be able to read and write. Except on Sunday 
 afternoons we have seen few cock fights. Bowhng seems to be the 
 most popular form of amusement. Nearly every posada, and many 
 pulperias, have alleys laid out on a smooth bit of ground near by. 
 
70 VENEZUELA 
 
 Sometimes the game resembles the old English "bowling on the 
 green," but more often it is a variety of skittles, with three pins. 
 Generally small silver coins are placed under or behind the pins, as 
 rewards to the successful bowler. 
 
 The main industry is cattle breeding, although the hogs of Araure, 
 Aparicion, and Ospino are considered the best that are raised in 
 Venezuela. We are not likely to forget them. The only manu- 
 factures seem to be coarse sugar in loaves (papelon), straw hats, 
 hammocks, crude pottery, and horn boxes. The staple food is the 
 plantain, a fine large banana, cooked in various ways. Excellent 
 coffee is raised in the hills west of the cities. In fact coffee has been 
 our greatest luxury. The cities are about five hundred feet above 
 the level of the sea. From them the plains slope very gently east- 
 ward down to the Orinoco. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 From Barinas to the Apure River 
 
 Fehruary 4th. We had intended to go from Barinas to Pedraza 
 and thence to Guasdualito and Arauca, but were told yesterday that 
 we would have great difficulty in fording the rivers and might not be 
 able to reach the frontier unless we go via Boca Suripa, where a 
 canoe ferry is maintained at the junction of the most important 
 rivers that lie between us and Guasduahto. This will take us east- 
 ward into the heart of the Llanos of Apure, whence came the Bravos 
 de Apure, that famous regiment of cowboys which, supported by 
 the British Legion, fought so fiercely at Carabobo. In this region, 
 Venezuela's Rough Rider hero. General Paez, was raised, and it is 
 possible that we may see the ranch where he lived and the grove 
 called the Temple of Independence where he hid when closely pur- 
 sued by the Spaniards. 
 
 Hitherto we have been following the Government telegraph wire 
 but this is the end of the line. Last evening we engaged a guide. 
 He is to get three dollars and his food for taking us to Totomal (San 
 Sylvestre) on the river Paguei, which will necessitate a walk on his 
 part of about sixty-five miles. 
 
 We rose at 2.53 this morning in an effort to make a good day's 
 march. It is astonishing how long it takes to get started after one 
 gets up in the morning. You may fuss and fume as much as you like, 
 the men will take about two hours to get the sand out of their eyes 
 and the animals saddled, even if they do not have to wait for break- 
 fast. The cart was packed last night so that there was Httle to do 
 besides loading the pack mule, saddling the others, and eating break- 
 fast, but the operation took the usual two hours, and it was five 
 o'clock before we left the vicinity of Barinas and started off in the 
 moonlight. 
 
 Hardly had we got well under way before we encountered a bog, 
 
 7^ 
 
72 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 where we were delayed more than an hour as the cart had to be 
 entirely unloaded. Once through this we turned our backs to the 
 mountains, which presented a beautiful sight as the rising sun lighted 
 
 The Jabiru's Nest. 
 
 their eastern slopes. We took up our march over a magnificent 
 savanna parallel to the rivers that flow into the Apure, and passed a 
 number of lagoons or ponds full of game birds. So near together 
 did the ducks sit on the water that I killed sixteen with four car- 
 tridges. One of the ducks which had apparently fallen dead began 
 to act very strangely, alternately diving and swimming on its back. 
 The motive power proved to be a small alhgator, which was finally 
 persuaded to relinquish his prey. 
 
 About five leagues from Barinas we saw a nest of the giant jabiru 
 high up in a very tall tree. One parent and two chicks were perched 
 on the nest and seemed to have no fear of us at all, although the 
 parent kept up a continuous warning rattle with its long beak. 
 
 We had hitherto found six leagues to be about the limit of our 
 cart mule's endurance, but we succeeded to-day in doing nearly eight, 
 as we had no rivers to cross and a slight down grade. Our guide is 
 an excellent fellow with a rapid walk and a cheerful spirit. He 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 
 
 73 
 
 amused himself all day by lighting fires in the dry grass of the plain, 
 and kept this up during the evening, as we did not reach water until 
 about seven o'clock. In time the woods and the savannas surround- 
 ing us were all blazing and it looked like a scene from the Inferno. 
 The risk from these fires is not very great. They help to keep the 
 paths open, besides improving the pasturage. So far we have seen 
 few cattle. 
 
 February ^th. One is continually impressed by the desolateness 
 of this entire region. We reached the Paguei in the middle of the 
 morning, after passing through a fine jungle where we saw a large 
 troop of monkeys. In order to get the cart across the river it had to 
 be unloaded and the stuff ferried over in a big dugout canoe. As the 
 water only came up to the floor of the cart, Rafael had little difficulty 
 in drivinsr it across. 
 
 Tet.ephoto View of the Jabiru axd Nest. 
 
 The Paguei resembles the Bocono in that it has rather high banks, 
 few if any islands, and a slow current over a sandy bottom, in dis- 
 tinction from the Santo Domingo and the Guanare which are rapid, 
 
74 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 shallow, wide, and rockw But it must be remembered that we crossed 
 the Guanare and the Santo Domingo near the foot-hills and the 
 Bocond and Paguei at a distance of at least eleven miles below them. 
 We have not had an opportunity of exploring the rivers from source 
 to mouth, but I presume it would be found that they are all alike. 
 They probably all have wide stony beds near the hills and change 
 their appearance slowly as they get farther into the Llanos where 
 there are no stones and the streams cut their way through sandy 
 banks. It would be interesting to know where the change begins. 
 
 Crossing the Paguei River. 
 
 On the south bank of the Paguei is Totomal, or San Sylvestre as 
 it is now called, a poverty-stricken collection of a dozen thatched 
 huts. As the bank is quite high and rises somewhat above high 
 water, there is little danger of floods and the village lies on the bank 
 instead of being some distance from it, as is the case with most of 
 the river towns we have seen. Here we secured the services of 
 another guide, who was too lazy to go on foot, but fortunately owned 
 a huge tame ox that was quite a fast walker. 
 
 The jungle on the south side of the Paguei is over two miles wide. 
 Passing through it we entered another great savanna and shortly 
 after dark reached a solitary ranch where we bivouacked for the night. 
 The men were away when we arrived and the womenfolk were very 
 much frightened, but their Llanero husbands soon returned and 
 silently made us welcome, although evidently regarding us as highly 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 
 
 75 
 
 suspicious characters. They were not willing to give us any food 
 but allowed us to take one of their pots in which to cook some of the 
 game shot during the day. For light they had primitive tallow dips, 
 and for a candlestick used the mud-plastered walls of the hut, to 
 which they stuck the dip by means of its own melting tallow. 
 
 February 6th. This morning we met a herd of over three hun- 
 dred cattle being driven to Barinas and the northern markets. A 
 little later we came to a prosperous looking ranch, quite an oasis in 
 the desert, its buildings all in good repair and a strongly built fence 
 enclosing a large grove of plantains. We were kindly received here 
 by the majordomo, who looked like a cross between a Hawaiian and 
 a Chinese. His master returned in the course of the day, and was 
 kind enough to say that he had plenty of everything and would Hke 
 to have us spend several days with him. " Everything " here means 
 fried plantains and dried beef, varied occasionally by the addition 
 of a little coffee. But plantains are scarce, and considered such a 
 
 Cattle on their way to Market. 
 
 delicacy that the cowboys are given nothing but beef. It turns out 
 that this place is historically known as the Corral Falzo of General 
 Paez. Here that famous Llanero chief established a temporary 
 enclosure where horses and cattle could be collected for the patriots 
 in the War for Independence. From this corral in the heart of the 
 Llanos rode the Bravos de Apure who were foremost in the fight at 
 
76 VENEZUELA 
 
 Carabobo. Paez was born near Acarigua, but was brought to Apure 
 when two or three years old and spent his boyhood at a ranch not far 
 away called La Calzada. It is now owned by a Colombian, Don 
 Francisco Parada Leal, who happened to arrive at Corral Faizo this 
 evening. He is most cordial, and invites us to visit him. He comes 
 from Sogamoso, where his people still live, and is quite the most 
 intelligent person that we have met in some weeks. He has travelled 
 extensively, and is able to give fairly exact information in regard to 
 routes. It is astonishing how few of these people know the dis- 
 tances, or even how long it takes to go to any place that is more than 
 a day's journey away. So far as these people are concerned, Caracas 
 is quite as far away as Bogota. Work is hard, and there is plenty 
 of it. During the dry season it consists chiefly of handling cattle. 
 There are no fences of any description to separate the ranches; the 
 yearly branding is of great importance, and has to be done with 
 considerable care. Usually the cattle owners attend one another's 
 round-ups so as to keep track of their own cattle and make sure that 
 the calves are branded with the same brand the mothers carry. It 
 is for this errand that Don Francisco is visiting this ranch, but he 
 says he will return home tomorrow in order to accompany us and 
 see us comfortably settled at La Calzada. 
 
 We have several times met wild bulls on the road that were being 
 dragged to the bull ring of Caracas, fastened to the tail of a strong 
 horse. It seems that the cowboys in this country have such wretched 
 saddles that they are obliged to rely on the strength of their horses' 
 tails. Before starting for the day's work the cowboy takes one end 
 of his rawhide lasso, doubles the tail over the rope, binds the lasso 
 several times around it and thus secures it firmly to his patient 
 horse. It is only when handling animals that are too large or too 
 wild to be trusted to the pommel of the badly made saddles that the 
 cowboys resort to this ridiculous method of roping cattle. It looks 
 as though it might hurt the horses, but they do not appear to mind it. 
 February jlIi. We had not intended to spend the night at Corral 
 Falzo, but Ramon Chapparo, the owner, was so cordially insistent 
 in his invitation that we remained. We flattered ourselves that we 
 were actually enjoying the proverbial free-handed hospitality of the 
 plainsman. Imagine our surprise this morning when he announced 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 
 
 77 
 
 as we were about to leave that we owed him fourteen boUvars ($2.80). 
 He said this was for the food for our men and mules. He assured 
 us that he was charging nothing for our own board. Nevertheless, 
 this was hardly the kind of hospitality that we had been led to expect 
 by his repeated and urgent invitations. 
 
 A league beyond Corral Falzo we came to the Canagua River. 
 It is about one hundred and twenty feet across, and looks like the 
 Bocono and the Paguei. The river at this season was not more than 
 
 The Banks of the Canagua. 
 
 three feet deep and there are no canoes here. The banks are fairly 
 steep, and the men worked hard for two hours to make it possible 
 for the empty cart to pass. To carry over the heavy luggage we 
 pressed the guide's saddle ox into service. 
 
 Don Francisco had thoughtfully provided light refreshments, 
 biTt he waited until the men and the cart had gone on before he 
 brought them out. Food is so hard to get in this half-starved coun- 
 try that those who have any variety resort to various dodges in order 
 to prevent their supply from being too speedily consumed. The 
 
78 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 lunch consisted of sugar-cane, cold boiled eggs, cold boiled sweet 
 cassava, salt, and muddy river water. When we were camping^ at 
 Carabobo, and for a week thereafter, we were very careful to drink 
 only boiled water, but we have gradually allowed that custom to fall 
 into desuetude. 
 
 Three leagues beyond the Canagua River brought us to La Cal- 
 zada, Don Francisco's comfortable ranch. It was hke other ranches 
 
 Our Host at La Calzada. 
 
 in general appearance, but it did not take long to see that the owner 
 was much more energetic than his \'enezuelan neighbours. In the 
 construction of the main dwelling he had taken pains to build some- 
 thing a httle out of the ordinary, rounding one end of the house so as 
 to make a very attractive living-room, e\-en though the floor was, as 
 usual, of baked earth, and the roof of thatch. 
 
 Nothing remains of the house where General Paez hved but a 
 charred post or so in a neighbouring grove. It is said that Paez hved 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 79 
 
 here from the time he was three years old until he entered the army. 
 Here he first organized his cowboy regiment, the Bravos of Apure. 
 To this ranch he fled for safety when defeated by the Spaniards. 
 When they followed him he hid in a grove near by, which is now 
 known as the Temple of Independence. He was Venezuela's Rough 
 Rider, the most popular soldier of the Wars of Independence. The 
 first president of Venezuela after the separation from Colombia in 
 1830, he led a very active life, although obliged to pass the latter part 
 of it as an exile in New York, where he died in 1873. It is to the 
 credit of President Castro that he is the first dictator of Venezuela 
 who has had the courage to perpetuate the memory of this famous 
 Liberal by erecting a statue to his memory in the new Paraiso park 
 in Caracas. 
 
 A quarter of a mile from the ranch house is a little hill from which 
 one gets a marvellous view of the plains, stretching away as flat as a 
 billiard table in every direction, the horizon bounded by the heavily 
 wooded banks of streams. Although it is not more than thirty feet 
 high we have not seen any hill like it since we left Barinas. It may 
 be artificial. On its sides Don Francisco has planted sugar-cane 
 and also several kinds of beans, cassava, potatoes, maize, and tobacco. 
 There is an irrigation canal running by his little plantation which 
 he says was dug by the Spaniards. Don Francisco owns about one 
 thousand head of cattle and nine leagues of land. The whole estab- 
 lishment is an evidence of what an energetic man can do in this 
 country. Our host is a bachelor, but has a dozen house servants 
 besides a number of cowboys, and sets a better table and enjoys 
 more luxuries than any one within a radius of a hundred miles. 
 While his neighbours are content with one vegetable, he has half a 
 dozen. Where they have possibly one book, he has twenty, and 
 for every bath that they take he takes fifty. In fact Don Francisco 
 is quite the most active, intelligent person we have seen since we bade 
 farewell to Don Carlos in Valencia. 
 
 February 8lh. Don Francisco has worked hard writing letters 
 for us to take to his friends in Arauca and his brothers in Sogamoso. 
 The nearest post-office is fifty miles away. This morning he had to 
 leave us, but he bade us stay as long as we could be comfortable. We 
 decided to rest the weary cart mule and not go on until tomorrow. 
 
8o 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 The housekeeper, a wizened up old lady of sixty, gave us a magnili- 
 cent breakfast this morning about nine o'clock which included an 
 omelctle-aux-fines-herbes, a most delightful surprise. We have greatly 
 enjoyed the ease and luxury of this little oasis. 
 
 The temperature here was 64° F. at six o'clock, So° at nine o'clock, 
 86° at twelve o'clock, 89° at three o'clock, 82° at 6 p.m., 77° at 
 9 P.M., 75° at 10.30 P.M. This was a fair average day. In general 
 there is a daily range in the temperature of twenty-five to thirty 
 degrees. 
 
 Grinding Sugar at La Cai.zada. 
 
 February glh. We rose at 4.30 this morning and left La 
 Calzada about six o'clock. Although the cart had been fully 
 packed the night before, it took us nearly as long to get started after 
 arising as it usually does. The men simplv cannot hurry. We 
 rigged a tandem harness yesterday and put the blue mule in as 
 leader. He soon learned to pull well and helps to keep things 
 moving. Our guide to-day was a nephew of the housekeeper. He 
 is a rather stupid boy of sixteen, and rides a meek little donkey. 
 Our greatest annoyance is a little fly which is very active except when 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 8 1 
 
 the breeze is blowing. A fresh breeze that blows for three or four 
 hours every morning from the northeast is the salvation of these hot 
 plains. 
 
 We saw several deer this morning, and I shot a young buck that 
 proved to be very toothsome. The country seems to be well stocked 
 with game, chiefly water-fowl. I was so fortunate as to bring down 
 a jabiru with my rifle. This giant stork measured, standing, five 
 
 Dr. Rice, Richard and the Jabiru. 
 
 feet ten inches from the point of its beak to its toes. Its spread from 
 tip to tip of wings was seven feet ten inches and the beak alone was 
 a foot long. The neck had almost no feathers but a very tough dark 
 gray skin, with a red band at its base. The body was covered with 
 beautiful white feathers; some of the wing feathers being 14 inches 
 long. These have a commercial value, so the birds are exceedingly 
 shy, quite as shy in fact as the egrets, and it is almost impossible to 
 get within gunshot of them. When approaching a lagoon or a river 
 
82 VENEZUELA 
 
 bank, the jabirus and the egrets are always the first to fly away, 
 while the hawks, buzzards, and other carnivorous and carrion birds 
 are extremely tame and sometimes allow one to approach within a 
 few feet. No one ever takes the trouble to kill them, and they seem 
 to realize it. The birds whose feathers are salable are hunted in the 
 wet season when the plains are flooded and it is easy to pass quietly 
 in canoes through the jungle to their nests. It is difficult to handle 
 cattle then, and the bird-hunting fits in well. Unfortunately the wet 
 season is the breeding season, so the egrets and jabirus arc becoming 
 scarcer every year. 
 
 Four leagues beyond La Calzada we came to the little hamlet 
 of Suripa. The temperature in the shade at noon was 93° F. This 
 is the hottest yet. The guide wanted to spend the night here, but as 
 there were still several hours of daylight we determined to reel off 
 another league or two before dark. Night fell before we reached 
 water, the guide lost his bearings, but we followed a path until nine 
 o'clock, when we found ourselves on the banks of a great river which 
 the guide said he had never seen before. It was a fine night, so we 
 camped in the open. 
 
 February icth. As soon as it was light this morning we made 
 out four houses not far off. Boca Suripa, for which we were aiming, 
 was only a mile away. We found that we had camped on the banks 
 of the Suripa River, which is like the Bocono and Canagua in appear- 
 ance, a deep muddy stream with high banks and sandy shores. 
 We had happened upon a great spot for alligators and had the satis- 
 faction of shooting eight or ten in the course of half an hour. 
 
 At the mouth of the Suripa, where its waters flow into the Apure, 
 is Boca Suripa, a hamlet of half a dozen thatched huts, the homes 
 of the ferrymen and of Dr. Gabaldon who owns the ferry rights. 
 There are a number of canoes here and the men are skilled in swim- 
 ming cattle across the rapid current. The cattle raised in the great 
 region to the south of us are generally brought across the Apure at a 
 point just below the junction of the rivers where the Apure is quite 
 narrow. There is a good beach on the south side with a feasible 
 landing-place on the north side. It would have been impossible to 
 take our cart across the large rivers that form the Apure and the 
 Suripd, but we had heard that we could get it ferried across here. 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 83 
 
 Dr. Gabaldon was not at home, but his son Dr. Miguel was in charge 
 of the establishment. He and his helpers had been quite alarmed 
 by our camp-fire last night and our firing at the alligators in the morn- 
 ing. They supposed us to be a revolutionary band. As soon as he 
 read our letters of introduction he made us most welcome and urged 
 us to spend the night as his guests after sending our men and ani- 
 mals across the river. The empty cart was put athwart one of the 
 canoes and with its wheels slowly revolving in the water looked like 
 some strange paddle steamer. It was an awkward load to handle 
 on the little dugout, but skilful canoemen got it safely across. Towed 
 by men in canoes, the mules swam across, most of them showing 
 nothing above the water except head and ears. But the cart mule 
 evidently desired to keep his tail dry, for he waved it violently all the 
 way across the river. It was so ridiculous it made us roar with 
 laughter, until we saw several large alligators swimming near the 
 mules. Fortunately we shot two and the others disappeared. At 
 this season of the year the water is low enough to allow the canoes 
 to be poled nearly all the way across the river by poles twelve feet 
 long. During the winter season a small steamer comes from Ciudad 
 Bohvar up the Apure and goes to Periquera some distance beyond 
 this point. 
 
 Achaguas, the rendezvous for the Liberating Army in 1819, is 
 only seventy-five miles to the eastward.' On its celebrated march to 
 Colombia the army passed over a trail a mile south of us, which we 
 shall strike soon after crossing the river. From here to the Bridge 
 of Boyaca, the scene of the culminating victory of the campaign, 
 we shall try to follow Bolivar's route as closely as possible. 
 
 The Caparro River, once the most important affluent of the 
 Apure above its junction with the Suripa, no longer flows into that 
 river, except on the maps. A few years ago the Caparro left its old 
 bed some distance above Mamporal, and finding a new passage 
 northward joined the Suripa above Santa Rosalia. At present the 
 region near here presents a very pretty example of river formation 
 going on at a rapid rate. The stream of the Suripa is very muddy 
 and carries a large amount of sediment, while the Apure is quite 
 clear. There are many shoals and islands where the ri\'ers join. 
 
 ' For an account of the Campaign of 1819 see Appendix A. 
 
84 VENEZUELA 
 
 The Suripa, now larger than the Apurc, is rapidly cutting a new 
 channel for itself in order to become adjusted to the new conditions. 
 
 February nth. Late last evening Dr. Gabaidon arrived on horse- 
 back from a place sixteen leagues away. This seemed to us like very 
 rapid transit, as only once have we succeeded in making more than 
 seven leagues. Contrary to the habits of the country, he had not 
 stopped in the middle of the day, but had been riding all day long. 
 His servant who rode with him was quite exhausted, but our host, 
 although seventy-three years old, declared that he was not in the least 
 fatigued. He is a fine old fellow, and looks very much like Sehor 
 Sagasta, the late Spanish Premier. Unlike most of his countrymen, he 
 appears to have only pure Spanish blood in his veins. His eyes are 
 bright, he is very fond of a joke and he has a fine figure. He has 
 travelled in Europe and all over Venezuela and Colombia; saw the 
 Philadelphia Exposition; lived for several months in New York 
 City during Grant's Administration, and again in 1892; and has seen 
 Niagara Falls. He is fond of dispensing hospitaHty and manages 
 to live fairly well even in this little thatched hut on the edge of the 
 world. Every now and then he brings out from his private stores 
 some choice delicacy or a rare fruit with which to tempt our appe- 
 tites. It seemed very strange to find such well-read, intelligent men 
 as Dr. Gabaidon and his son so far off in the wilderness. However, 
 they see various people who come here to cross the ferry, and their 
 monopoly of the charges brings them in a very comfortable income. 
 They get two bolivars a head for all the cattle that cross the river 
 here, and this amounts in some weeks to a couple of hundred dollars. 
 
 This morning a cattle speculator, a friend of Castro's, crossed 
 the river with about three hundred head of cattle. Some fifty or 
 sixty of the frightened animals were cut out of the herd by the cow- 
 boys on the south side of the river and driven down to the beach, 
 where a lane made of bamboo was intended to guide them to the 
 water's edge and aid in forcing them in. Then a tame ox with a 
 rope tied to the end of his nose was pulled into the river and across 
 by the ferrymen in a canoe. The cowboys yelled and shouted, urg- 
 ing the cattle into the water, but the first lot of steers stampeded 
 when they came to the river's edge and smashed up the bamboo 
 fences. One steer was killed and others were injured, but finally 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 85 
 
 fifty of them were forced into the river and proceeded to swim across, 
 several canoes keeping them from going too far down stream. They 
 all had long horns, and that was about all one could sec of them 
 as they swam the river. The long line of horns following the lead- 
 ing canoe, other canoes on flank and rear, made an interesting sight. 
 The shouting of the ferrymen and the cowboys added to the excite- 
 ment, whicli was not lessened by the appearance of several large 
 alligators close to the swimming herd. 
 
 Dr. GabaldoR insisted on our spending another day with him "so 
 that the mules might have a rest." In fact, he urges us to stay for 
 ten days, but is willing that we should talk about going " tomorrow." 
 
 February 12II1. As soon as wc get up in the morning our genial 
 host brings us a cup of most delicious coffee. The first sound we 
 hear in the morning and the last at night is the "crunch, cruncli" of 
 the coffee beans as the maid-servants grind them slowly to powder 
 with a small round stone on a large flat stone that has been hollowed 
 out. Fresh milk is a rarity in this cattle country as it is "too much 
 trouble" to tame a cow and milk her with the aid of her calf. But 
 Dr. Gabaldon is accustomed to making people work, and as soon as 
 we have finished our hot coffee he brings us great gourds of foam- 
 ing milk fresh from the cow. 
 
 We expected to cross the Apurc today, but our polite host has 
 put all manner of obstacles in the way. It appears to be tremendously 
 difficult to get a competent guide! A boy was introduced yesterday 
 who was willing for four dollars to guide us for eight leagues. As 
 our last boy guide lost his head completely, we did not take kindly 
 to the idea of engaging this one, especially at such an exorbitant 
 price. We were then told that Liborio, the chief of the canoemen 
 and a most intelligent fellow, would go as our guide as far as Palmarito, 
 but this morning another cattle speculator arri^•ed on the south bank 
 of the river and required the services of every available man to assist 
 him in bringing four hundred head of cattle across. Nevertheless, 
 Liborio was to finish this task very quickly and start with us " after 
 breakfast." As the only other good guide was drunk, we were 
 obhged to wait for Liborio. "After breakfast" turned out to mean 
 "not at all," for the cowboys on the south side of the river got very 
 drunk last nisrht and were in no condition to make an early start this 
 
86 VENEZUELA 
 
 morning. The usual strong breeze springing up on time at 8.15 
 made the river too rough for safety. The current is strong and the 
 wind blowing up-stream made a very choppy sea with waves of 
 considerable size, so the cattle and the cowboys and the ferrymen and 
 Liborio had to wait until afternoon, and by the time all the cattle 
 were safely across the river it was too late to do anything. 
 
 Since leaving Corral Falzo we have observed a daily change in 
 the wind, which, we are told, is characteristic of the dry season. 
 During the night it is scarcely more than a zephyr; increases a little 
 with the sunrise but does not really attract one's attention until 
 shortly after eight, when it begins to freshen rapidly and by ten 
 o'clock is blowing almost a gale from the east. Towards noon it 
 dies down, and in the afternoon there is scarcely any motion in the 
 air. 
 
 February iT,th. The breeze began an hour earlier today, and 
 by nine o'clock was blowing very freshly, so that some of the thatch 
 was torn off the roof of the house. It was decided this morning that 
 Liborio could not be spared, but fortunately the other available 
 guide had sobered up and was ready to proceed. Dr. Miguel 
 desires to go up the Apure to Palmarito and invited me to accompany 
 him in his canoe. We are to be two days on the ri\'cr, and shall 
 spend the night camping on one of the sand banks on its edge. 
 
 The canoe was of average size, a dugout about two and one-half 
 feet wide and twenty-five feet long. Ten or eleven feet of the fore 
 part of the canoe was reserved as a runway for the pole-man. The 
 pilot with a paddle sat in the stern, the boxes and bundles were placed 
 amidships, and Dr. Miguel and I made ourselves as comfortable as 
 possible between the pilot and the luggage. Our cargo, though small, 
 was quite varied and included two large tortoises, a Yi\t duck, rice, 
 macaroni, salt, coffee, beans, eggs, native sugar, Danish canned 
 butter, Spanish sardines, plantains, and cooking utensils. Soon after 
 embarking we passed a sand bank where I had shot a small alligator 
 the previous day. Notwithstanding the toughness of its skin, the 
 buzzards had attacked the carcass and about finished their work. 
 There remained two large birds called King Samurs which we saw 
 nowhere else. Dr. Miguel told me he had never seen two together 
 before and that it was a rare occurrence to see even one. They 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 87 
 
 appeared to be nearly twice as large as ordinary buzzards. Their 
 heads were red, body white, wings tipped with black, and tail black. 
 
 Whenever it was possible we set a small sail and gave the pole- 
 man a rest. His method is to walk slowly to the bow, turn about, 
 plant his pole finxily on the bottom of the stream, and with five short 
 steps at a half trot give the boat a good impetus, when he would turn 
 and with five slow steps go back again to the bow. 
 
 We left Boca Suripa about eleven o'clock and at one reached the 
 village of Grateral on the right bank of the Apure. We landed and 
 found half a dozen thatched huts where we tried to purchase some 
 fresh eggs, but did not succeed until we reached the last hut, where 
 an old Indian woman who wore a beautiful gold necklace was willing 
 to sell us a few. She had a couple of interesting chairs with rawhide 
 seats that I should like to have sent home. One often wishes for 
 means of easy transportation for the interesting things to be found 
 here. 
 
 For lunch we had some "gofio," a nutritious cake made of finely 
 ground maize and "papelon." The maize is cooked before being 
 mixed with the sugar, and the cake is baked in the sun. It is very 
 palatable and a favourite food for travellers. We left Grateral at 
 half-past one. The wind had died down completely and the little 
 black flies were an awful plague. Even our stolid Indian pilot 
 groaned. A swarm of from forty to fifty flies buzzed around each 
 person. With my head-net and gloves I was the only person in the 
 canoe that had any comfort. It is much pleasanter to travel up these 
 streams than down, for the prevailing winds blow from the north- 
 east, up-stream, and persons going down stream frequently find that 
 in the morning while the breeze is blowing they can miake no prog- 
 ress at all. This necessitates travelling in the hottest time of the day 
 when the breeze has died down and the flies are very bad. 
 
 We saw numbers of alligators, a few iguanas who had holes in 
 the banks of the river, and a great many birds. In one tree there 
 were sixteen large macaws. The egrets and jabirus were noticeably 
 shy. In fact it was extremely difficult to come within gunshot of 
 the birds that are hunted for food or feathers. About three o'clock 
 we saw a hundred jabirus having a meeting on a great sandy beach. 
 In a quiet cove near by were sixteen alligators. It seemed to be a 
 
88 VENEZUELA 
 
 favourite spot for an animal congress. Among the birds we saw 
 a few large, handsome ducks called carreieros. They walk with a 
 strut like a grandee and hold their heads very high, somewhat hke 
 geese. I am told that when their eggs are hatched by a barn-yard 
 fowl, the carretero makes an excellent domestic animal, being espe- 
 cially useful as a substitute for a watch-dog; but if the ducklings are 
 hatched by their mother it is impossible to tame them. 
 
 About five o'clock we reached a sand-bank known as La Tigra, 
 a favourite camping place for river travellers during the dry season. 
 In the winter it is submerged to a depth of from five to six feet. We 
 easily found plenty of driftwood for our camp-fire, and three large 
 pieces to serve as posts for the ends of our hammocks. One can 
 nearly always tell where the rivermen have camped by these strange- 
 looking posts that are planted fairly close together on the sand-banks. 
 
 February 14th. Last evening I had a long conversation in regard 
 to theosophy. Dr. Miguel is an ardent behever, and regards Madam 
 Blavatsky's "Isis Unveiled" as the greatest book of modern times. 
 He was born in Colombia, where his father was a political exile for 
 fourteen years, but lived as a student in Caracas for eleven years and 
 took his degree as doctor of laws at the University, later entering 
 upon the practice of law in that city. He speaks English fairly well, 
 as he once lived in Barbados for more than a year and in Trinidad 
 for two months. 
 
 During the night we had a hght breeze from the north, but early 
 this morning it shifted around to the east. The air was damp and 
 cold and my heavy Jaeger blankets were none too warm. There 
 were a few mosquitoes. The river people all use thick curtain mos- 
 quito nets which they hang from a string stretched over the hammock. 
 As I had no net I put on my gloves and my head -net and was able to 
 enjoy a good night's rest. 
 
 The banks of the river are in general from eight to sixteen feet 
 above us as we go along. The soil seems to be a mixture of clay and 
 sand. One sees practically no stones. This morning we met four 
 or live canoes going down stream. When exactly abeam of us, all 
 hands simuUaneously shouted, "Adios" or " Adios pucs." We left 
 La Tigra at about quarter before seven and reached Algarobo at 
 half-past eight, just as the breeze was freshening, .\lgarobo con- 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 89 
 
 sists of but two or three houses, and we sta3'ed only long enough to 
 learn that Rice and the caravan had spent the night here and gone 
 on just before our arrival. The breeze now increased in velocity 
 so as to raise great clouds of sand from the exposed shoals. It was 
 almost too strong for our little sail, but we made great headway for a 
 couple of hours, until half-past eleven, when the breeze diminished 
 perceptibly, as was to be expected, and by noon was reduced to a 
 series of fitful gusts. 
 
 We reached Palmarito about two o'clock and found that the 
 caravan had arrived half an hour before us. It had a fairly straight 
 
 A Bunco on the Apure River. 
 
 road all the way from Boca Suripa but made almost exactly the same 
 progress as the canoe, which had to follow the windings of the river. 
 There is no inn here and we are staying with a friend of Dr. Miguel's 
 who does not furnish us with any food, and we should have been 
 rather badly off but for the supplies in the canoe. 
 
 Shortly before reaching Palmarito, we passed what had once 
 been the mouth of the Caparro River, but is now only a small inlet 
 or backwater. 
 
 Palmarito is a thriving little river town of about fifty houses, 
 situated on the south side of the Apure at a place where the bank 
 is unusually high, twenty feet, above the stream. Steamers touch 
 here during five months of the year, June to November, on their way 
 
90 VENEZUELA 
 
 to Periquera from Ciudad Bolivar; consequently all the houses that 
 can afford it have corrugated iron roofs. There are several good 
 shops; the best ones being owned by Syrians. At this time of the 
 year there is httle business in these river tov?ns, and they depend for 
 communication with the outside world on canoes and bungoes, large 
 cargo canoes that are poled by three or four men. 
 
 Rice found a case of appendicitis at Algarobo and another here 
 at Palmarito, so that next to malaria, which seems to affect nine 
 tenths of the population, it is apparently the fashionable disease in 
 this locality. 
 
 A young lawyer here told me the story of how he came to leave 
 Caracas. It seems that four years ago there died in Caracas a 
 Colombian leaving an estate of about sixty-eight thousand dollars, 
 which included a dozen houses in that city. He left no will and it 
 was some months before his nephew, representing his natural heirs, 
 arrived from Colombia. In the meantime, the public administrator, 
 the courts and a few "great ones" had been dividing the property 
 amongst themselves. Absurd claims against the estate were ordered 
 to be paid, the claimants getting a small fraction while the larger 
 proportion went to the judge and the administrator. The heir at 
 law employed this lawyer and his partner to rescue what they could 
 of the estate. All they succeeded in saving was about eighteen thou- 
 sand dollars. However, the graft had been taken so openlv that they 
 felt sure of being able to bring a criminal suit whereby a large part 
 of the estate could be recovered. The heir offered them half of what 
 they might recover. They proceeded to bring the case before the 
 criminal courts, but had reckoned without realizing how powerful 
 the political machine is in Caracas. The morning after liling the 
 complaint my friend, who fortunately was living at the same board- 
 ing-house with one of the chief city officials, was informed by that 
 gentleman that he had in his pocket a warrant for his arrest, which 
 would be turned over to the police in the course of the morning. It 
 seems that the grafters had obtained an order for the arrest of both 
 lawyers and their imprisonment without trial for eighteen days, a 
 period just long enough to cause the criminal suit to go by default. 
 My acquaintance was warned by the friendly official to stay in his 
 room, and was further advised that there was a good hiding-place 
 
FROM BARINAS TO THE APURE RIVER 91 
 
 in the house where he could secrete himself whenever the police 
 came. A special poHce officer detailed for the service of this official 
 was instructed to warn the young lawyer whenever the house was 
 hkely to be searched. By this means, owing to his friendship with 
 the city official, he was able to avoid going to jail, but his partner 
 was not so fortunate, and languished in the filth of the city prison 
 until the time had lapsed during which their criminal suit could be 
 brought. After his partner was let out of jail, my friend was free to 
 go and come as he pleased, but soon found he had lost all chance 
 of winning any cases in the courts of Caracas. He was told in fact 
 that it would be better for him to leave the city, so he packed his 
 trunk and retired to the interior, where the aggrieved Government 
 authorities have so far left him alone. The story is quite a commen- 
 tary on Venezuelan justice, and offers an explanation why foreigners 
 are loath to have their cases against the Government tried by the 
 Government's own courts. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 From the Apure River to Arauca 
 
 February i^ih. We were obliged to engage a new guide yester- 
 day, as the guide from Boca Suripa was angry with Josh, who is of 
 little use except as a talker, and would go no farther. Our new guide 
 rides an ox and agrees to go with us as far as El Amparo on the 
 frontier. He came at half-past eight, but finding that we were not 
 ready, went off again while we were packing. We spent nearly aU 
 
 Iguanas. 
 
 day waiting for him to return. In a tree near the house were three 
 or four large iguanas, which we shot hoping to have them cooked. 
 The largest one measured nearly five feet in length, but no one was 
 willing to prepare it for food. We finally left Palmarito about four 
 o'clock and struck off away from the river across the plains again, 
 reaching about eight o'clock a small lagoon or pond where we camped 
 for the night. 
 
 February i6/h. It was quite cold last night and very damp, so 
 
 92 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 93 
 
 that I found three thick blankets and four thin ones none too warm, 
 although we are only five hundred feet above the sea and within 
 seven degrees of the equator. Just at dawn I made out a flock of 
 ducks swimming on the pond and succeeded in kiUing four with one 
 shot. These with some plantains bought at a ranch we passed last 
 evening made a good breakfast. The familiar breeze began at half- 
 past seven this morning, and in an hour increased with considerable 
 freshness. The guide caught a small armadillo just after breakfast, 
 and we saw them quite frequently today. None of them behaved 
 properly. The books say: "When attacked, they curl up into a ball, 
 presenting their armour on all sides." These did nothing of the 
 kind but ran and hid under little bushes and would not "curl up" 
 under any circumstances. But they are good eating. 
 
 About noon I noticed a mirage for the first time. It was south 
 of us and extended over a distance of two or three miles. The 
 trees did not appear to be inverted, but were raised quite off the 
 plain. 
 
 Since leaving Barinas there has been no pretense at a road what- 
 ever. We have generally followed cattle paths over the level plains, 
 but today these got much worse. Animals passing over them in 
 the wet season have sometimes stepped so regularly as to make them 
 completely corrugated. When the corrugations are from eight to 
 ten inches high and a foot and a half across, it may easily be imagined 
 that our tired cart mule finds his work anything but easy. As a large 
 percentage of these plains are swamps in wet season, and now look 
 like baked honeycomb, it makes terribly rough going. 
 
 On cur right, north of us, the horizon is generally bounded by 
 the jungles on the right bank of the Apure. On our left the plain 
 seems to stretch away indefinitely to the south. Occasionally we 
 see a clump of palms or an oasis. This noon we stopped at an oasis, 
 a bit larger than the average. It contained several deer, a wild hog, 
 a few armadillos and two golden agouti. The latter we shot and 
 found very good eating. They are rodents, a little larger than 
 rabbits, have smaller heads and look more like large squirrels. Our 
 guide calls them pagaris. The word agouti does not seem to be 
 known here. At two o'clock the temperature was 95° F., a rise of 
 thirty degrees since six this morning. , ■, 
 
94 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 This evening we reached La Gloria, a large ranch belonging to 
 General Guerrera. He was not at home, but his cowboys made us 
 welcome, after I had read to them a letter from Dr. Gabaldon to 
 their master. No one at the ranch was able to read. The huts 
 were so full of bats we preferred to sleep out of doors. 
 
 February iph. The country continues to have the same appear- 
 ance as for weeks past. There are occasional isolated thickets, but 
 in general trees are only found along the banks of the watercourses 
 and in the flood plains of rivers. 
 
 Soon after leaving La Gloria I saw a small armadillo nosing 
 about the plain getting his breakfast. He made so little effort to 
 get out of the way that I dismounted and picked him up, rather to 
 his surprise and that of my mule's. The latter promptly ran away. 
 But the armadillo was perfectly quiet until I put him down on the 
 ground, when he waited several moments and then slowly toddled 
 off in a casual manner until quite out of sight. Richard says they 
 are very wild in Trinidad. They are tame enough here. 
 
 Game is plentiful. This morning I shot a scarlet ibis, four mal- 
 lards, and two venados, one of them a fine buck with si.x points. 
 As the caravan got a long way ahead while we were filling the game 
 bag and skinning the deer, Richard and I did not try to catch up 
 with it before lunch, but spent the hot hours at Grenadillo, a ranch 
 owned by General Narcisso Paz, to whom we had a letter of intro- 
 duction from Dr. Gabaldon. 
 
 The General was at home and gave us a warm welcome. He is 
 quite old, almost entirely bald, and appears to be quite a character. 
 He was anxious to learn the news of the day and deplored the state 
 of his country. He said its greatest need was immigration. Labor 
 is scarce and wages are very high here. A few men, the cattle kings, 
 are rich; the rest very poor, largely on account of their extreme lazi- 
 ness. The Llaneros are picturesque in appearance, with their 
 brilhant red and blue ponchos, but they are excessively lazy, do not 
 appear to care for games, and rarely indulge in song. They will not 
 work except for high wages, which they rarely receive. When the 
 cattle kings require their services during the annual round-ups, they 
 receive from three to five dollars a day. They are contented with 
 very poor food. We have seen no arepa (maize cake) for nearly 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 95 
 
 three weeks. The people raise Indian corn but are too lazy to grind 
 it, and feed it only to horses, mules, pigs, and chickens. 
 
 We had reached the ranch about half-past twelve, and asked to 
 have the ducks which we brought cooked at once, telling them we 
 were very hungry. It was half-past three before anything was put 
 on the table. We were nearly starved. The common people do 
 not appear to have much of anything to eat besides beef and plan- 
 tains. Even the cattle kings are too lazy to vary this more than by 
 the addition of an occasional tin of some canned luxury or a sweet 
 
 Llaneros at Geenadillo. 
 
 bun brought a couple of hundred miles from the nearest town where 
 there is a bakery. As a special mark of his good-will. General Paz 
 gave me with my coffee one of these hard, stale buns from his private 
 store. No one else had any. 
 
 There seems to be no regular law of hospitality on the plains, 
 although so far we have never been refused shelter, and generally 
 food is provided without difficulty. This may be due to our number 
 and the fact that we carry firearms. It is hard to lay down a general 
 rule in a country where one day we are charged for very poor fare 
 
96 VENEZUELA 
 
 after being urged to remain as guests; where the next day we are 
 given excellent food in good variety for which we are not allowed to 
 pay; while a few days later we are kindly received but told that 
 there is no food unless we choose to buy some and have it cooked at 
 our own expense. 
 
 The people in the heart of the Llanos seem to be less suspicious 
 and more inquisitive than those Hving in the cities on the edge of 
 the plain, from San Carlos to Guanare. They are likewise less 
 modest, perhaps less honest, but more hospitable. 
 
 Immediately after lunch we set out accompanied by General 
 Paz's majordomo for a mile or so until we found the trail of our 
 cart. Riding at a good jog-trot we reached Desuela in an hour and 
 a half. The people at this ranch were very kind and urged us to 
 spend the night here as it was growing dark, but as the caravan had 
 gone on, we declined, and half an hour later overtook the cart stuck 
 in a bad bit of road. The bad trail had quite used up the cart mule, 
 so that he lay down in the shafts and refused to go any further. Poor 
 Rafael was in despair, and it certainly looked as if he would never 
 get back to Valencia with cart and mule. He determined to spend 
 the night in the savanna while we pushed on to the ranch called 
 Gamelotal. 
 
 February iSth. Gamelotal belongs to Don Fernando Rangel, 
 who owns a dozen milch cows and makes delicious cheese. He was 
 quite alarmed by our arrival last night, as very few people travel 
 after dark. He refused to receive us in the house where he was 
 living, saying that there was no room, but offered us the shelter of a 
 vacant house a couple of hundred yards away. We discovered 
 today that the reason the house was vacant was that his wife and 
 an eighteen-year-old daughter died there a few weeks ago, both of 
 pulmonary troubles. He has four children left, three of whom are 
 wretchedly ill with malaria and anaemia. The baby is not old 
 enough to have caught anything yet and is the only well person in 
 the house. Rice prescribed quinine and iron for the three sad-look- 
 ing children. The nearest drug shop is eighteen miles away in 
 Periquera, and as Don Fernando was anxious to get the medicine 
 at once he offered to accompany us thither. The cart arrived here 
 this morning after a bad night. 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 97 
 
 The new dwelling, evidently erected since the deaths, is extremely 
 primitive and is occupied in part by a dozen calves. It is supposed 
 that milch cows will not give down their milk unless they are 
 deceived into beheving that their calves are getting their breakfast. 
 Consequently, the method of milking is to tie the calf to the cow's 
 front leg so that its struggles to get something to eat keep the cow's 
 attention engaged while she is being milked. At most of the ranches 
 the people are so lazy and the cattle are so wild that fresh milk is an 
 unheard-of luxury. Once in a while one finds an exception as here, 
 where we had all the foamy, fresh milk we could possibly drink and 
 all the fresh cheese and fried plantain we could eat for breakfast. 
 
 Don Fernando is anxious to send his oldest boy to the States to 
 improve his health and get a little learning, but as he could afford to 
 pay only a hundred dollars a year, we advised him to send the boy 
 to Valencia to our friend Father Voghera. Don Fernando had not 
 been in Valencia since 1875 and he had not heard of the new board- 
 ing-school there. 
 
 Soon after leaving Gamelotal we came to "Las Queseras del 
 Medio," a bit of chapparal where General Paez had a bloody en- 
 counter with the Spaniards in the Wars of Independence.^ In 
 appearance it is not different from the other parts of the plain. 
 
 The savannas are growing smaller, marshes more frequent and 
 the lines of trees indicating river-courses closer together. About 
 noon, after a hard trot in insufferable heat and dust, we reached a 
 small village two leagues from Periquera. We decided to spend the 
 heat of the day at "La Siberia," a new house built a year and a half 
 ago by Rafael Briceno, who had lost most of his money gambhng in 
 Periquera. He made us welcome with the usual formalities, placing 
 everything at our service, but contrary to custom immediately opened 
 trade relations. He was extraordinarily inquisitive, wanted to see 
 everything we had and to know its cost, and tried to buy the various 
 things in our outfit that attracted his attention. Although he annoyed 
 us exceedingly, we put up with his questions and his bothersome 
 hogs that had free run of the living-room, as he seemed to be a kind 
 
 ' In Januar)', iSgi, a number of Venezuelans presented the city of New York 
 with a painting by Michelena commemorative of this battle, as a token of gratitude 
 for the hospitality extended to their hero, who died as an exile in New York. 
 
98 VENEZUELA 
 
 host and his wife prepared us a good meal. Our opinion of him did 
 not improve when he insisted on our paying one dollar a head for 
 our luncheon. The prevailing price, whenever one is allowed to 
 pay anything, throughout this country, is never more than twenty 
 cents. We finally offered him thirty cents, which he indignantly 
 refused until almost the last moment of our stay. He is the most 
 of a Yankee that we have seen in Venezuela, alert, intelhgent, never 
 loafing, keen to trade, considerate to his wife, proud of his achieve- 
 ments and willing to charge all the trafific will bear. His better 
 quahties are sorely needed throughout Venezuela. 
 
 We left "La Siberia," as Don Rafael calls his establishment, 
 about four o'clock and reached Periquera at dusk. The last mile 
 or two was the very worst bit of road that we had seen anywhere, 
 so bad in fact that the cart could not possibly enter the town. The 
 ruts, or rather corrugations, made in the road by the hoofs of animals 
 in the wet season and now baked hard as rock by the summer sun, 
 were about two feet deep and two feet across. We did not attempt 
 to bring the cart into the town, but turned back to stop it before it 
 should attempt that awful last mile, and passed the night at Las 
 Corrales, an excellent caravanserai on the outskirts of the town. 
 Our avoidance of Periquera came near costing us all our guns and 
 ammunition. 
 
 February igth. We were told last evening that it was about 
 four leagues to El Amparo, the frontier town which is on the River 
 Arauca opposite the town of that name in Colombia. Accordingly, 
 wc rose at 4.30 this morning in order to reach the frontier early enough 
 to cross the river before dark. But one of the mules had broken 
 loose during the night, and it took so long to find him that it was 
 half-past nine before wc left the posada. This is the first inn that we 
 have seen since leaving Barinas. Two large orange trees full of 
 fruit gave a pleasant change to the bill of fare. 
 
 The road this morning wound through partly dried swamps, 
 jungle and small savannas until it entered a large grove where the 
 ancient city of Guasduahto stood. One can find it on almost any 
 large map of South America, but all that remains of it in reality is a 
 pile of bricks and ruined adobe walls where once stood the church. 
 It had a dry, healthy location, much better than that of the new 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 99 
 
 city, Periquera, a league awa)' on the banks of the Apure. The 
 development of steam navigation on that river and the presence of 
 swamps between old Guasdualito and the landing-place, which are 
 quite impassable in the only time of year that the steamers come up 
 
 The Hostess at Las Coerales. 
 
 the river, led the inhabitants to abandon the old town entirely and 
 settle on the river bank, although the new site is frequently sub- 
 merged by floods. 
 
 Near old Guasdualito we saw a little sugar factory consisting of 
 three thatched roof huts. Two are occupied by the "hands" and 
 the largest one by the sugar mill itself. The cane is brought to the 
 
lOO VENEZUELA 
 
 mill on the back of a small ox and deposited in a pile near the rollers. 
 The latter were in the centre of the hut. A pair of small bulls pulled 
 a windlass which acted directly on the centre roller. Two boys fed 
 the cane into the mill and the juice trickled down into a wooden 
 trough. At one end of the hut was an adobe furnace with two large 
 pots or boiling pans about three feet in diameter. A low platform 
 
 The Sugar Factorv near Guasddalito. 
 
 enabled one to skim the boiling molasses. The bagasse was spread 
 out in the sun to dry, to be used for fuel in the adobe furnace. Two 
 boys and a girl seemed to be running the entire establishment. The 
 adults were probably in hiding as they supposed from our hunting 
 guns that we were a revolutionary band looking for "volunteers." I 
 bought a cake of their " panela" for ten cents. It measured 8 x 6 x if 
 inches and tasted very much like a poor quality of maple sugar. 
 
 By noon we reached the straggling village of Cana Flores, in the 
 "border country." The women and children were obliging, gave 
 us some food, and asked what the revolution was about. They said 
 it was no use trying to work as there was always warfare. As we 
 rode up to one hut to inquire the way, a man who had been sleeping 
 in a hammock sprang out of it with a great bound and made for the 
 woods as fast as he could run. 
 
 This afternoon we saw a shower in the distance, the first one 
 since leaving Valencia. The country all about here abounds in 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 lOI 
 
 marshes. It is fairly well inhabited, but the people have seen so 
 much border warfare and so many escaping criminals that they are 
 very timid, and we met few men. The paths were perfectly abomi- 
 nable. The cart was obhged to make long detours in order to avoid 
 bad swamps and our guide finally lost his way. 
 
 About four o'clock we came to a fork in the trail near a fine of 
 poles that have been placed to accommodate a projected telephone 
 between Periquera and El Amparo. We differed as to which was 
 the best way to go. Rice and the cart took the left. I followed the 
 right fork and about five o'clock reached El Amparo. Across the 
 river was Colombia, where a diminutive hut, which does duty for a 
 
 Cana Flores. 
 
 customs house guard, was all I could see of Arauca. Rice lost his 
 way and did not arrive until four hours later. 
 
 El Amparo has the appearance of being rather recently built, 
 many of the houses having corrugated iron roofs. All are huddled 
 together on the left bank of the Arauca River. There are half a 
 dozen shops and fifty or sixty dwellings. From May to November, 
 
I02 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 when the river is full of water, 
 the place is in monthly com- 
 munication by steamboat with 
 Ciudad Bolivar. The princi- 
 pal business here is shipping 
 hides and feathers. 
 
 February 20th. This morn- 
 ing shortly before six o'clock 
 the official interpreter, a weak- 
 kneed fellow of French descent, 
 called on us to say that the 
 "jefe civil" or alcalde had re- 
 ceived orders from the Gov- 
 ernor of the district at Periquera 
 to send us back to that place 
 for examination, first taking 
 charge of all our arms and 
 ammunition and giving us a 
 receipt for same! The fact of 
 our having ridden in and out of 
 Periquera in such a hurry in the 
 dusk day before yesterday had 
 aroused his suspicions, espe- 
 cially as we carried arms. The 
 country people had reported to 
 him that we were "a party of 
 six armed men carrying four 
 Winchesters and two Mauser 
 rifles, engaged in convoying a 
 cart-load of arms and ammuni- 
 tion to aid the refugee revolu- 
 tionists in Colombia!" At least 
 so the Governor said. Accord- 
 ingly, we were ordered to re- 
 port at Periquera. Could we 
 have foreseen the attitude of 
 these people towards firearms, we might easily have avoided all 
 
 The Mistkess of Cana Flores. 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 103 
 
 trouble by packing up our guns shortly before reaching the outskirts 
 of Periquera, spending the night there and presenting our letter of 
 introduction to the Governor in due form. But we had acted in a 
 strangely suspicious manner and they could not possibly imagine 
 what our heavily laden cart contained if not arms and ammunition. 
 
 .... ,. 
 
 ^^^^*'^^^BBHllB^^^^^S!^ta,-L^ ■ 
 
 
 
 j^i#j|immQy^^'' '^'"'^ 
 
 Witiv//,,^ '^■'^«miAMK.„ . 
 
 ^si^kimm 
 
 
 ''Tfsn 
 
 
 Our First View of Colombia. 
 
 About 6.30 A.M. a young man of twenty, carrying a sword and 
 wearing an old felt hat but no shoes, called to pay his respects and 
 say that the alcalde would like to have us call at seven o'clock. I 
 called on the alcalde at the appointed time and found him occupied 
 in washing down his game-cocks that had been engaged in a main 
 the night before. He showed me his orders and I rephed by handing 
 him our passports and the card from the Venezuelan Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs requesting all Venezuelan officials to put no difhculties. 
 in our way. We decHned to go back to Periquera and desired him 
 to allow us to cross the river at once. This he represented himself 
 as entirely unable to do, as the Governor of the district. General 
 Vallee, would dismiss him from his position were he to allow us 
 to proceed. Accordingly we requested him to send to Periquera 
 
104 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 demanding our release. This he finally agreed to do and a messenger 
 went off bearing a letter of introduction to the Governor from our 
 friend Dr. Gabaldon, and also our card from the Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs at Caracas. 
 
 The cart, which arrived about half-past eight, had finished its 
 
 journey; being by all accounts the first 
 cart to cross Venezuela. The last two 
 or three days have been extremely hard 
 for the tired mule. Had it not been 
 for the guide's ox, which we harnessed 
 tandem, it would have taken us much 
 longer to reach this place. As it is, the 
 mule has a frightfully sore back and lies 
 down frequently, but Rafael is much 
 cheered up at having actually reached 
 the end of his journey and has hopes 
 of getting both mule and cart safely 
 back to Valencia. (This he eventually 
 accomplished.) 
 
 As the swamps to the north and the 
 river on the south do not leave much 
 room for the houses here, there is no 
 place for beasts in the yard of our little 
 posada, but some enterprising Syrians 
 who have a small shop own a three-acre 
 lot which they have fenced with barbed 
 wire, where they allow beasts to be 
 pastured for twenty cents a day. 
 
 This afternoon we received a call 
 from the aged French Creole whose son 
 is the official interpreter. He came here 
 six years ago to speculate in feathers, buying egret feathers at $150 
 a pound, and taking them to Paris where he sold them for $400. 
 Believing that he was now on the high road to great wealth, he came 
 back the next year with his entire capital and all that he could bor- 
 row, in\'csted it all in feathers, which had meanwhile risen to $225 
 a pound and returned with them to Paris, onlv to find that the price 
 
 The Alcalde of El Amparo. 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 105 
 
 had fallen to $125, so that instead of making a profit, he lost $100 per 
 pound. He came back hoping to retrieve his fortune, but is still 
 here living in great poverty. 
 
 February 21st. The messenger did not return from Periquera 
 until this morning, when he brought a letter ordering the alcalde to 
 allow us to cross the river with all our goods "except the four Win- 
 chesters and the two Mausers" which are to be sent to General 
 Vallee as a present. As it would be quite impossible for us to attempt 
 to cross the next two hundred miles of country without arms and 
 
 The Arrival of our Caravan at El Amparo. 
 
 ammunition, we spent the morning arguing with the alcalde, explain- 
 ing that the Governor had been quite misinformed about our arms, 
 that we had no "four Winchesters and two Mausers," but only such 
 arms as we needed for hunting, and that we had been delayed long 
 enough and proposed to cross the river. We sent one of the men 
 to buy the necessary canoe ferry tickets, which he was allowed to 
 do. At the same time the entire armed force of Venezuela detailed 
 for service on this frontier, consisting of four soldiers, was ordered 
 to take up its station in front of our posada with Mausers and a 
 
io6 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 hundred rounds of ammunition and prevent our departure. We 
 held a council of war and discussed the feasibility of swimming 
 the river at night, which might have been done had we not had 
 so much luggage and so many mules. However, Josh lost his nerve 
 completely, although he had hitherto been quite willing to aid us in 
 crossing "at any hour," and begged Rice not to try to cross, saying 
 that he was sure he would get shot, and that he, Josh, had friends 
 at home! 
 
 The Frontier Guard at El Amparo. 
 
 The alcalde in the meantime got very nervous and begged us to 
 go back to Periquera and see General Vallee. He offered to lend 
 me a good horse and to accompany me himself. I had little faith in 
 what I could accomplish, but iinally consented to go under protest, 
 as Josh was unwilling to attempt to cross the river at night. 
 
 We started off at noon, accompanied by a son of General Vallee, 
 who acted as escort — to see that I did not kill the alcalde, I suppose. 
 The temperature was 95 degrees in the shade, but we rode hard and, 
 by taking a short route and forcing our way across several bad 
 swamps, reached Periquera about half-past two. We went at once 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 107 
 
 to the provincial capitol, a new house, small but neat, where the 
 venerable General Vallee, with gray hair and a long gray beard 
 and spectacles, received me very graciously. He is the son of a 
 former French consul at Ciudad Bolivar and has always lived in the 
 country. Half a dozen officials 
 besides three of his sons were 
 gathered with him and I was 
 shown every mark of courtesy. I 
 knew I should get into difficulty 
 if they began to talk fast, so I 
 spoke my best Spanish slowly and 
 very distinctly to encourage them 
 to do the same. In order to im- 
 press the General with the im- 
 portance of the expedition and the 
 friendhness and harmlessness of 
 all concerned, I had him read my 
 passports and various letters from 
 Secretary Root and others, inclu- 
 ding several private letters of in- 
 troduction. He was particularly 
 impressed by a letter from the 
 First Vice-President of the Ameri- 
 can Historical Association. 
 Finally I handed him an enve- 
 lope addressed to General Reyes, 
 President of Colombia, from his 
 Minister in Washington. Al- 
 though marked "private," he 
 opened it without a moment's 
 hesitation, quite eagerly in fact, 
 expecting that this would reveal 
 our true status. He seemed a trifle disappointed, but nevertheless 
 duly impressed with its contents. Then he asked us why we car- 
 ried six rifles. I told him we had only hunting arms. The alcalde 
 confirmed this although he had seen no weapons at all. 
 
 A dozen bottles of imported German beer were then opened and 
 
 General Vallee. 
 
lo8 VENEZUELA 
 
 ■\ve solemnly drank one another's health. All seemed relieved and 
 I hoped to be allowed to depart in peace, but the General expressed 
 his desire to accompany me back to El Amparo and, I suppose, see 
 for himself what we had. We reached El Amparo shortly after 
 seven and were invited to dine with a brother of his. Rice and I 
 were quite ready to enjoy the novelty of a good dinner and excellent 
 claret, but the poor alcalde, more accustomed to cock-fighting than 
 long horseback journeys, was completely played out by the thirty- 
 six-mile ride in the hot sun and had to decline. 
 
 After dinner we adjourned to the posada, where we showed the 
 General our outfits, including our books, maps, surgical and sur- 
 veying instruments, tents, etc. Two rifles had been hidden last 
 night in the jungle, the other rifle and the guns had been "taken 
 down" and stowed away in the clothes bags, for we feared that they 
 might arouse the General's cupidity, and we were sure he would not 
 care to have the clothes bags opened. When it was all over and he 
 had apparently seen everything, we asked him if he would like to 
 see our guns. He looked puzzled but politely remarked that it was 
 not necessary. 
 
 February 22d. This morning we received calls from all the local 
 officials. They are evidently trying to apologize for their mistake. 
 One of them gave us an old silver coin which had been found in an 
 Indian ruin near Pedraza; while another gave us a Bohvian coin. 
 All tried their best to overcome the unpleasant impression created by 
 our detention. It was hard to beheve that these suave oihcials had 
 actually ordered the soldiers to fire on us if we attempted to pass 
 the river without leaving "four Winchesters and two Mausers" 
 behind. 
 
 After lunch we took our stuff down the steep bank to the river 
 and were ferried across by an Indian, the official canoeman of El 
 Amparo. Rafael and his good-natured assistant Waldemera de- 
 clined to accompany us into Colombia, and we had to bid them 
 adieu. The five saddle mules were towed across the river. Rafael 
 assisted in the process and was unexpectedly obliged to land on 
 Colombian soil in order to get the mules ashore. He was very 
 much frightened at finding himself in a foreign land and made all 
 possible haste to get back to Venezuela. We shall miss him sadly 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 109 
 
 for he has been exceedingly faithful and most efficient. More than 
 once, after doing his own work he has had to come to the assistance 
 of the lazy inefficient negroes. The difference between a West 
 Indian negro and a Venezuelan peon is not only one of colour. 
 
 When we landed on the Colombian side we received at first a 
 very quiet welcome. Not a soul came near us or our stuff which 
 was piled up on the beach. At the litde hut where the customs 
 guards stay we found a notice saying that no arms or ammunition 
 could be landed or taken into the country. It looked as though in 
 one way or another these people were determined that we should 
 enter the wilderness that lay ahead of us for two hundred miles 
 without any means of defense or of securing food. 
 
 El Amparo from the Colombian side of the Arauca. 
 
 The town of Arauca hes half a mile south of the bank of the river, 
 a large swamp intervening. After the mules had been landed I 
 rode into the town to find the customs house. Here, to my surprise, 
 I was most cordially received by the Collector of the Port, Colonel 
 Gamboa, who had just received by the semi-monthly overland mail 
 from Cucuta a telegram from the Secretary of the Treasury, dated 
 Bogota, February 5th, instructing him to allow our outfit to pass 
 freely through the customs without examination, and to offer us 
 
no 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 every facility for our journey, requiring only a list of our possessions 
 for the information of the Government. It was a relief to have this 
 telegram arrive so providentially on the very day we needed it. The 
 orders worked wonders. 
 
 Colonel Gamboa was most attentive, rented a house for us on the 
 corner of the Plaza, quite the best location in town, for sixty cents, 
 and sent some furniture from his offices for our use. The house was 
 cool and commodious, with a nice yard, a good well, and a pump 
 made in New York City. 
 
 Our House on the Plaza at Arauca. 
 
 February 2^d. Last evening we received a number of callers, 
 including the local dignitaries and a visiting dentist from Ciudad 
 Bohvar, who said that he had been educated in New York. When 
 asked if he had travelled any in the United States he replied: "Oh 
 yes, I went to Brooklyn once!" Later in the evening we were all 
 invited down to the favourite drinking shop of the town, where we 
 had to drink warm Bremen beer while being entertained by the 
 music of a ilute and a curiously strung guitar, played by two local 
 musicians. Four or five doctors of law and medicine were present 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA iii 
 
 and we discussed history, philosophy, and geography until late in the 
 evening. Altogether it was quite a celebration. 
 
 It has been very warm to-day, the thermometer reaching 94° F. 
 at two o'clock and not going below 90° F. until half-past four. 
 
 It appears to be almost impossible to secure any pack mules here, 
 as all the carrying is done by oxen. A man who owns six pack 
 oxen came to see us this afternoon and is willing to carry our stuff 
 to Tame, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles by the 
 usual trail, for the sum of one hundred dollars. When told that 
 his price was too high he went off most unconcernedly and seemed 
 relieved that he would not be obliged to perform such a disagreeable 
 journey. As he is said to be the only local contractor we determined 
 to purchase enough oxen to carry our stuff as far as they can go. 
 
 An Indian guide also was brought to us who offered to show us 
 the road to Tame for forty dollars. We declined his services with 
 thanks. Later in the afternoon we received a call from General 
 Perez, who has recently bought "Limbo," a large ranch near Tame. 
 He offers to provide us with a "very good" guide. We are told that 
 the usual way to go to Tame is by way of Cravo. Although much 
 longer than the route used by Bolivar's army, it avoids the country 
 of the savage "Yaruros" Indians who live on the upper Rio Ele and 
 the Lipa. General Perez says his man Juan knows the route used 
 by Bolivar and Santander, which we desire to take. 
 
 February 25^/f. The guide, a strong-looking Indian called Juan 
 de Dios, came this morning and offered to go "by whatever route we 
 please for whatever we choose to give him at the end of the journey." 
 He seems like a lithe, able-bodied man and was promptly engaged 
 to pilot us through the country of the "Indios bravos." He wanted 
 a little money in advance in order to purchase a few "necessary 
 articles," and in the evening turned up very drunk, as was to be 
 expected. He uses the nicotine paste which I first saw at Acarigua. 
 
 Two oxen were brought this morning and offered for sale for 
 twenty dollars and twenty-four dollars respectively. We took them 
 on trial and had them tied by their noses in the back yard. In the 
 afternoon two more were brought. We had them also put away 
 pending the morrow. 
 
 The temperature today was slightly hotter than yesterday, the 
 
112 VENEZUELA 
 
 thermometer going as high as 95° F. at one o'clock and falling again 
 to 75° at night. 
 
 February 26th. Last night one of the larger oxen got loose and 
 proceeded to gore the others. We had quite an exciting ox hunt in 
 the moonlight until the wild one was captured. We bought three 
 of the oxen this morning, The pack saddles used on the oxen are 
 primitive affairs, a rectangular piece of rawhide bound by means of 
 thongs to a large pad made of dry banana leaves. It may easily be 
 imagined that such a saddle is somewhat difficult to secure to the 
 rounded back of a large ox. 
 
 The big white ox took his load well. The red ox was packed 
 and finally the small white ox, but the latter immediately proceeded 
 to buck his load all to pieces, smashing a thermometer and a hick- 
 ory ax helve. While he was being reloaded, the red ox got restless 
 and proceeded to buck off his load. Then followed two hours of 
 excitement and hard labour on the part of everybody, including several 
 of the customs house officials. No end of advice was offered by the 
 Prefect and his friends, but all to no purpose. The white ox would 
 not allow himself to be loaded at all and the red ox threw off his 
 load ten times. We finally decided that tliese oxen did not suit our 
 purpose and gave up trying to start today. It is evidently a long 
 time since Arauca has had so much excitement. We are praying for 
 some tame oxen that are willing to work. The people here are too 
 lazy to train their oxen. Ordinary cattle sell for five dollars a head, 
 while oxen are worth from twenty dollars up. 
 
 Prices in Arauca are high. All imported articles are obliged to 
 pay two duties. The Venezuelan Government collects its duties on 
 all goods that pass Ciudad Bolivar on the Orinoco, and the Colom- 
 bian Government collects its duties when the goods enter the port 
 of Arauca. German beer is sixty cents a bottle, Bordeaux fifty 
 cents a pint, old Chocolate Menier (with worms in it) was offered at 
 one dollar and twenty cents a pound, but finally the store-keeper sold 
 the only pound he had for sixty cents. Rope costs forty cents a pound 
 and candles the same. 
 
 One sees almost no Colombian paper money here and very little 
 Colombian silver. The common coin is Venezuelan silver, which is 
 accepted at its face value. Prices here are quoted indiscriminately 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 
 
 113 
 
 in "gold," "silver," "Venezuelan," "Colombian" and "billetes." 
 "Gold" and "Venezuelan" are synonymous, while "silver" is at a 
 " discount " in the local parlance of 250 per cent and "Colombian" 
 or "billetes" at a "discount" of 10,000 per cent. In other words, 
 a saddle mule costs one hundred dollars in "Venezuelan" or "gold"; 
 two hundred and fifty dollars in "silver" or ten thousand dollars in 
 "billetes" or "Colombian." It is a fine thing to have a mule 
 "worth ten thousand dollars"! 
 
 It is extremely difficult to get accurate information about the 
 country even from the more intelligent classes. Their knowledge is 
 very limited. They know how long it takes to get to the next town; 
 sometimes they know the usual names of the common birds and 
 animals, although it is more than likely that the name they give you 
 is a purely local one. They almost never know whether an animal 
 is edible, but only whether they have ever eaten any of its kind them- 
 selves. They differ among themselves as to whether iguanas and 
 such things are ever eaten by anyone. They seem to be quite con- 
 tent with a very limited bill of fare. 
 
 One has to be extremely careful to verify their statements, as 
 they are quite likely to contradict themselves without the slightest 
 hesitation. It makes one extremely shy of believing what one is 
 told. And yet much of the literature in regard to Venezuela and 
 Colombia seems to be based on just such hearsay evidence. The 
 great fact that does impress one is the general shiftlessness and care- 
 lessness of the common people. They seem to be contented with 
 less than any civilized people that I have ever seen. Their food is 
 wretched and infrequent, their houses are extremely dirty, they are 
 constantly tormented by noxious insects, everything that they can 
 buy is expensive, there is little evidence of a beneficent Government, 
 titles to property seem to be insecure and yet with it all they rarely 
 complain. They seem to be without ambition. Those in authority 
 are as a rule rather haughty and proud, ill-mannered and disagreeable. 
 Their good manners do not appear to be very deep-seated for they 
 easily forget them. This was particularly noticeable in such a place 
 as San Carlos, the capital of the state of Zamora. 
 
 The doctors of law and medicine, who have tasted the sweets of 
 Caracas, are as a rule poor and out of a job. They are always polite, 
 
114 
 
 VENEZUELA 
 
 but appear to be lazy and incompetent. Their clothes, bad imitations 
 of European models, are not picturesque. The cattle owners are a 
 relatively small class and appear to huve no ruling characteristics. 
 Some are generous, others are stingy. Some travel well dressed, while 
 
 Boeder Villagers. 
 
 others, just as rich, go barefooted and eat with their fingers. Some 
 are fond of travel and go frequently to Caracas or Valencia, while 
 others appear contented to remain in ignorance of anything but the 
 Llanos and the ranches. The one characteristic that they seem to 
 have in common is their ability to keep busy and to keep others busy. 
 
FROM THE APURE RIVER TO ARAUCA 115 
 
 The Llanero, or cowboy, is rather wild, restless, and shiftless, not 
 caring to work except on horseback. The peons seem to be much 
 more valuable citizens. But it is very difficult to draw any distinct 
 lines and there seem to be few definite types. 
 
 The women of the country are generally out of sight in the kitchen. 
 They work slowly over little fires built between small stones on which 
 rest the pots and pans. It takes them from three to four hours to 
 get a primitive meal cooked. They are frequently dirty and ill- 
 kempt and rarely show themselves. This, of course, does not apply 
 to the town ladies, but only to the lower classes that one sees on the 
 plains. The children are naked or scantily clad and most of them 
 have enlarged spleens and other malarial symptoms. We have seen 
 schools in nearly all the cities and towns through which we passed, 
 but there do not appear to be any in the country. 
 
 Venezuela gives one an impression of rest, as though, wearied of 
 the past, it was "waiting for something to turn up." Most of the 
 intelligent men have told me that the country's greatest needs are 
 immigration and capital, but it is difficult to see how either will come 
 until property is more secure and the courts are above suspicion. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Arauca to Limbo 
 
 February 2'jth. This morning, with the aid of the customs house 
 scales, we weighed our loads carefully so that they would balance 
 exactly and not be so likely to fall off. We discovered that we had 
 tried to overload the oxen, which was the cause of most of our 
 trouble, as an ox is not supposed to carry more than two hundred and 
 twenty-five pounds and we had attempted to load them with about 
 three hundred pounds each. More oxen were brought for our in- 
 spection and we finally bought a fine large white ox for thirty-two 
 dollars. 
 
 It has been my custom to carry five or six gold ounces tied up in a 
 stocking in my coat pocket, while the rest of our working capital was 
 concealed in different parts of the luggage. When I opened my 
 stocking this morning to pay a bill, I got the impression that there 
 were not quite as many gold pieces in it as the last time I had handled 
 it, and at the same moment saw Juan, our guide, peering through 
 the door with a look on his face as though he wondered if I was going 
 to miss anything or not. This put me on my guard, and I deter- 
 mined to balance accounts and see how much had been taken. A 
 thorough examination of our hoard and a Httle bookkeeping demon- 
 strated the fact that we had lost thirty-two dollars and eighty cents, or 
 two gold ounces, in the course of the night. We at once took the mat- 
 ter up with the Prefect, a most obliging official. After the usual poHte 
 remarks, he took me aside and with some apologies said that he 
 supposed he ought to have told me before that our guide was "a 
 noted robber and was in fact facing a six months' term of imprison- 
 ment, as he had recently been caught stealing cattle." This was the 
 reason Juan was so wilUng to go with us for "whatever we chose to 
 pay him." He naturally preferred any kind of service in the open 
 field to six months in jail. His patron, General Perez, was aware of 
 
 ii6 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 117 
 
 this, and it was owing to his efforts that Juan was allowed to have his 
 jail term postponed. As there was no question about his being an 
 excellent guide, and no one else was either able or willing to go the 
 way we had chosen, it was not thought necessary to tell us that he 
 was also a most experienced thief. We finally agreed that it was best 
 to wait until we reached the other end of our journey, and in the 
 meantime to be extremely careful of all our possessions. It wiU be 
 interesting to see what he will try to steal. 
 
 The men from whom we had bought our four oxen agreed to 
 help us pack and lead the oxen well out of town, so that we finally got 
 off about half-past four this afternoon. We had a fine moon and 
 travelled slowly until 11 p. m. when we reached a hospitable ranch 
 where we put up for the night. The moonlight was so bright that we 
 could read and write without difficulty. We saw several prairie 
 fires resembling those seen in Venezuela. 
 
 It seems very strange to see oxen carrying heavy loads, but they 
 do not appear to mind their two hundred and twenty-five pounds, 
 in fact one of them is carrying two hundred and fifty pounds, and 
 they march along at a steady gait of two miles an hour. 
 
 February 28th. Last night we saw lightning to the southwest. 
 The daily breeze came up earlier than usual this morning, and was 
 blowing very freshly by eight o'clock. The plains are sparsely 
 dotted with groves. There do not appear to be any definite lines 
 of trees indicating watercourses. Stock animals are much more 
 plentiful here than in Venezuela. Today we saw more mares and 
 colts than on our entire march from Valencia to Arauca. The 
 savannas seem to swarm with cattle on this side of the border. One 
 cannot help wondering whether the state of the Government has not 
 something to do with it. 
 
 This noon we came to a small river meandering through the plain 
 whose presence was not indicated in any way by shrubbery or trees; 
 a most unusual occurrence and one that we have not seen before. 
 It appears to have cut its channel in the plain so far below high- 
 water mark that it never overflows its banks and consequently does 
 no irrigation. Here we saw a herd of capybaras, or chiguires, as 
 they are called here. They are sometimes spoken of as giant rabbits, 
 as they belong to that family although they are as large as sheep. 
 
ii8 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 There were fifty or sixty of them together on the banks of this stream. 
 They seemed to be quite tame. 
 
 About twelve o'clock we saw a very distinct mirage to the south. 
 The temperature was 93° F. in the shade. During the afternoon 
 we saw a number of showers to the southwest and felt a few drops 
 of rain, but did not get wet until just before reaching Guaratarito 
 ranch, when it began to pour and we had a hard thunder-shower. 
 This is the first rain of the season here and the first we have had in 
 nearly two months. ' " . - . c - -.' 
 
 Cano Guaratarito. 
 
 The venados that we passed this afternoon were very wild and 
 ran away before coming within shooting distance. Apparently these 
 deer are hunted much more than their brethren in Venezuela. Since 
 leaving Barinas we have been able, while on the road, to shoot a deer 
 nearly every day. 
 
 March 1st. Last night our best two oxen broke loose and dis- 
 appeared. The guide went after them this morning. We suspect 
 that he tied them carelessly on purpose, as he has no desire to go 
 through the wilderness with us, his sole idea being to escape from 
 the Arauca jail. 
 
 A small, fairly deep river, the Cano Guaratarito, meanders through 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 
 
 119 
 
 the plain near the ranch without giving much sign of its presence. 
 The current is slow but carries considerable sediment. It looks like 
 the streams we crossed yesterday but not like any seen in Venezuela. 
 It is inhabited by a large number of capybaras and alligators. 
 
 This morning shortly after seven o'clock the cowboys and the 
 owner of Guaratarito began to show 
 signs of excitement, running hither 
 and thither and rapidly saddling their 
 horses; in the meantime casting anxious 
 glances to the southward. At first I 
 could see nothing, but with the glasses 
 made out a small party of savages 
 apparently very shghtly clothed and 
 bearing spears, bows and arrows. 
 They came as far as the bank of the 
 river, about two hundred yards from 
 the house, where they waited until the 
 owner of the ranch mounted his horse 
 and rode out to meet them, accom- 
 panied by two of his men on horseback. 
 Rice and I grabbed our cameras and 
 ran out on foot, much against the 
 wishes of Josh and Richard, who were 
 sure we were about to be eaten alive. 
 The master of the house shook hands 
 with the chief of the party and patted 
 him on the shoulder. The Yaruro did 
 not seem to understand much Spanish, 
 but they conversed by means of signs. 
 There were four men, three women 
 and a baby, and they had hammocks 
 and twine which they desired to exchange for large dogs. I shook 
 hands with the men but they did not look me in the face and turned 
 away quickly. The chief had a pleasant expression and appeared 
 to be friendly, but even he hardly ventured to raise his eyes from the 
 ground. After some encouragement the Yaruros all came up near 
 the ranch and allowed us to take their pictures. The youngest of 
 
 Yaruro Chief. 
 
ISO 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 the men soon became cross with us and started off alone. The woman 
 with the baby was cheerful and fearless, although she covered the 
 child's face with her hands when it cried. The other two women 
 were vixens. As we were coming up from the stream to the ranch, 
 Rice and I walked a little ahead, as the Indians seemed timid and 
 unwilling to proceed. Getting an impression that all was not well I 
 
 turned around 
 quickly and caught 
 one of the women in 
 the act of throwing 
 a double handful of 
 fresh cow-dung at 
 us. She dropped it 
 over her shoulder, 
 as I looked at her, 
 and appeared to 
 think it a great 
 joke. Had she 
 thrown it we would 
 have been placed 
 in an awkward di- 
 lemma. To allow 
 such an incident to 
 pass unnoticed 
 would betoken 
 cowardice and en- 
 courage the Indians 
 to attack us some 
 night in the wilder- 
 ness, while on the 
 other hand to have 
 chastised her on 
 the spot might have led to a brawl and a few broken heads. It was 
 fortunate that I looked around when I did. Had I received the pre- 
 monition a second later I should have looked just in time to receive 
 the mess full in the face. 
 
 The sight of steel-shod arrows, short spears and long bows carried 
 
 A Yaruko Family. 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 
 
 121 
 
 by Indians clad only in breech cloths made us realize what kind of 
 life lies between us and the next ranch, which is about one hundred 
 miles away. 
 
 After purchasing three dogs, the Indians went off, four of them 
 going back with their purchases, while the others went on in the 
 direction of the next ranch. The dogs went quite peaceably at first, 
 but when they found they were being actually carried away from 
 home they put up quite a fight. It was astonishing to see how little 
 the Indians appeared to mind the scratches that they received from 
 
 Yaruros Trading at Guaratarito. 
 
 the struggling dogs. The animals were mongrels, larger than setters 
 but smaller than mastiffs. Most of the dogs we have seen since we 
 left Carabobo, where we bade adieu to Don Carlos and his pack of 
 hounds, have been very much smaller than these. None have had 
 the appearance of belonging to any one breed or of being thorough- 
 breds. 
 
 This morning I spent a long time in the bushes where the capy- 
 baras doze in the daytime. They are quite tame and I frequently 
 got within eight or ten feet of one before it would give a snort and 
 
122 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 run off. At a distance they look like small bears, having high hind 
 quarters and a rolling gait, but near by they are more Kke enormous 
 gophers or prairie dogs. The head is ugly and the snout square. 
 They feed at night on grass and small herbage. In the daytime , 
 they appear to chew their cud, but as they do not belong to the cow 
 family, it must be that they store away the hastily eaten grass in their 
 cheek pouches. After sundown some of them came within fifty feet 
 
 Capybaras at Cano Guaratarito. 
 
 of the ranch houses. Their hair is longer than that of a hog and more 
 reddish, but they are sufficiently like swine so that sometimes they are 
 spoken of as "water hogs." Their feet are webbed and they swim 
 well. They frequently take running dives and swim under water for 
 fifty or sixty feet with apparent ease. The alhgators do not seem to 
 trouble them and I have seen the two sleeping near each other. This 
 httle river fairly swarms with alligators. They are so tame that it is 
 difficult to frighten them even by throwing sticks and stones at them. 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 123 
 
 March 2d. Guaratarito is a bad place in which to be detained. 
 Food is very scarce. For breakfast we are given a thimbleful of 
 coffee at 6 A. M. For lunch, which is "served" about half-past nine, 
 we have the toughest boiled beef that it has ever been my lot to sample 
 and a small allowance of fried green plantains. When we are nearly 
 famished, dinner is announced at about 5.30. This bountiful meal 
 consists of more green plantains and fried gristle. Truly, the worst 
 fare we have met with yet. Were it possible to purchase anything 
 before entering the wilderness, we would draw on our own rations, 
 but as there is no telling how long it will take us to get across the 
 swamps, marshes, and rivers of the Indian country, we hesitate to 
 open our own supplies. 
 
 The people of the ranch are lazy but very peaceable and have 
 surrounded themselves with a number of tame animals. A pretty 
 buck with six prongs to his horns has the run of the place. A pink 
 spoonbill hops about and watches me as I write. His favourite 
 point of vantage is on a pile of mud near by, where he stands for 
 hours on one leg engaged in deep meditation. A small egret makes 
 himself at home on a pile of hides that are stacked up in one end of 
 the open hut where we spend the hot hours of the day. The dogs 
 sleep there at night and a few chickens share the roost in the day- 
 time with the egret. In the old thatch overhead live scores of bats 
 who come forth in the evening to make night hideous. We prefer to 
 sleep under the stars. 
 
 Every morning a small boy arrives on a donkey bringing a bunch 
 of green plantains, sugar-cane and other food from a neighbouring 
 ranch. Most of this is consumed in secret by the owner of this ranch, 
 who, unhke any other ranchman we have met, eats alone and does 
 not allow his cowboys or guests to share his food. Yesterday he 
 killed a calf and an hour later we had our only good meal so far. 
 It consisted of fresh roast veal and cassava, the latter brought out of 
 his private store. We each ate six ribs of the dehcious hot veal, as 
 we knew we should have nothing more that day and very Httle the 
 next. 
 
 The pile of half-cured hides gives forth impossible odours at inter- 
 vals, and from the rafters hang strips of jerked beef in various stages 
 of ripeness. The presence of so many tame animals, if one may 
 
124 COLOMBIA 
 
 include the pets in that category, is not conducive to comfort. The 
 egret just now is rapping the hides with his foot to encourage the 
 worms and beetles to come out and furnish him with a meal. A 
 traveller stopped at the ranch for a short time today and offered to 
 buy the egret, but its owner, the mistress of the house, not desiring 
 to sell, asked two gold ounces, and the egret continues to search the 
 hides for insects. In the evening the roseate spoonbill makes 
 ridiculous, futile efforts to fly up into a small tree where he prefers 
 to sleep. His wings have been clipped slightly so that he has to give 
 up his attempts at flying and, after twenty or thirty vain efforts, 
 resign himself to the disgrace of being obhged to walk up the inclined 
 trunk of the tree, which he might much more easily have done in the 
 first place. 
 
 Juan was away all day yesterday looking for the oxen, but failed 
 to find them. He went off again early this morning accompanied by 
 Josh. It begins to look as though he and a confederate had relieved 
 us of our best oxen. This is the outpost of civilization, the last house 
 before we enter the territory of the "Indios bravos"; a bad place in 
 which to lose one's pack animals. We asked the owner of the ranch 
 this morning what he would advise us to do and were amused by his 
 reply that he had given the matter serious consideration, and was 
 inchned to advise us to leave half of our outfit here and go on with 
 what we were able to carry. This looks as if he might have had a 
 hand in losing our cattle. 
 
 Last evening a famished looking individual who says his name is 
 Angel and that he is a runaway soldier from Venezuela arrived here 
 on foot. He is a baker by trade, was impressed into the army in 
 some seaboard town, and detailed for service in Periquera. He 
 found the service irksome and the food very bad, became insubordi- 
 nate and was put in the guard-house a few days before we arrived. 
 Hearing of our expedition he decided it was his best chance to escape. 
 As it is usually comparatively easy to catch deserters in this country, 
 where food is so hard to obtain, he found no difficulty in escaping 
 from the guard-house. He made a long detour to avoid El Amparo, 
 swam across the Arauca River and did his best to get on our trail. 
 He begs us to take him along with us and offers to work his passage 
 if we will give him food and protection from the Indians. He looks 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 125 
 
 like a rascal, but it will probably do us no harm to have an extra 
 man while going through the wilderness. 
 
 We are addressed here by the title of " Moosieu," which we heard 
 for the first time in Palmarito. It is said to be common in Venezuela, 
 but we were not favoured with it. We have not once heard the term 
 "gringo." 
 
 March 3J. Last evening Josh and Juan arrived with one of the 
 lost oxen and news that the other is near Arauca. They have gone 
 after it today. 
 
 We got so hungry this morning that I shot a capybara. Angel, 
 the Venezuelan deserter, agreed to dress it and cook it, but this 
 shamed our host into killing another calf and having it roasted. 
 The chiguire was not cooked. Our host told us when we arrived 
 that he had sold the ranch and was going to Arauca at once, but 
 apparently this was simply an excuse to avoid the responsibility of 
 entertaining us. He continues to give orders in a manner which 
 shows that he still owns the premises. Last night one of our best 
 halters and a long rope were stolen off one of the mules. We could 
 find no trace of either today. It helps us to realize what kind of 
 people we are among. We are beginning to wonder how long our 
 pleasant sojourn in Guaratarito is going to last. 
 
 Two or three travellers arrived here this afternoon, one of them 
 a lady riding a side saddle. A Venezuelan arrived on a very large 
 ox with his peon on a diminutive donkey. They are on their way 
 from Cravo to Arauca. We were reminded that it was Sunday by 
 the fact that the cook went about with her hair down her back, as a 
 mark of respect to the Sabbath. It seems to be the custom of the 
 country. The hair is not braided but merely tied with a string near 
 the head. 
 
 Water for cooking and drinking is drawn daily from the stream 
 near the house. It is not very palatable as there are on the banks a 
 number of corpses of cattle and horses that did not survive the dry 
 season. This afternoon I ventured to take a bath on the edge of 
 the stream and aroused the curiosity of the aUigators. They fairly 
 swarmed about me, keeping a respectful distance, none of them 
 coming nearer than eight feet. When I finished I counted eighteen 
 within a radius of twenty-five feet. It was difficult to tell whether 
 
1 26 COLOMBIA 
 
 they were waiting for me to fall into the water or merely curious to 
 see what I was doing. The chiguires were not so curious. They 
 have no fear of human beings, but the ranch dogs cause them to 
 stampede at once. We noted several thunder-showers today to the 
 southwest and northeast, but had no rain here. 
 
 March 4th. Last night we were on the alert to prevent anything 
 else being stolen. Hearing strange noises near the animals in the 
 middle of the night, we got up and made the rounds of the mules and 
 oxen. We found nobody, but probably kept more ropes and animals 
 from being taken. This morning two of the cowboys left for Arauca 
 and had to content themselves with their proper business of taking 
 animals to market. They took four horses, driving them in a curi- 
 ous manner. One cowboy led the way, his horse's tail securely 
 fastened by a lasso to the neck of a wild steed, the latter's tail at- 
 tached to the neck of a second, and so on until all four were joined 
 in that ridiculous fashion. The other cowboy rode in the rear to 
 keep the procession moving and prevent the tails from being entirely 
 pulled out. It is a wonder the horses of the country have any 
 posterior appendages left. 
 
 Our mules were shod last in Valencia. We had planned to have 
 them reshod in Arauca, where there are two blacksmiths. But 
 neither of these had any shoes or had ever shod an animal, as 
 it is not customary to do so in the Llanos, where there are no 
 stones. 
 
 This afternoon Josh and Juan arrived with the lost ox, which they 
 found last evening a mile from Arauca. We shall sleep with one 
 eye open to-night and hope to leave early tomorrow morning. 
 
 March e^ih. We left our kind host of Guaratarito at half-past 
 seven this morning and thanked him for his generous hospitahty. 
 He lacked the grace to congratulate us on having recovered our 
 oxen and looked at the departing caravan with an envious eye. 
 
 We had told Josh before we left Arauca to provide food enough 
 for two weeks, and at his suggestion bought forty cakes of arepa at 
 that place. With the carelessness of his race he packed them away 
 while still warm. When we opened the bundle at the ranch this 
 morning, all were spoiled and in a state of decay. Josh said we had 
 beans, rice, and coffee enough for a month, so we took his word for it 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 127 
 
 and pushed on into the wilderness, deciding to rely on our guns for 
 the rest. I have a few pounds of julienne which will keep us from 
 scurvy. 
 
 As soon as we were across the Carlo Guaratarito, the guide at 
 once bore off so far to the left that I feared he was heading for Cravo 
 and avoiding the Indian country. He said the road which we de- 
 sired to take had not been used for several years and he did not wish 
 to go that way. He admitted that he was heading for Cravo. We 
 finally persuaded him to take the direct route across the wilderness 
 to El Limbo. Before long we passed a dried-up swamp where we 
 saw the skeletons of small crabs that look like ordinary sand crabs, 
 with a very fragile shell one inch in diameter. 
 
 At half-past eleven we crossed the Cano de la Bendicion, a heavily 
 wooded stream, the first we have seen since leaving Arauca, and after 
 passing through the woods on the farther bank, found ourselves in a 
 great savanna entirely devoid of cattle. The grass had not been 
 burned recently and in places was very long, almost up to our 
 shoulders as we rode. At half-past one I crossed the river Lipa, 
 after trying in vain for an hour to shoot some very wild deer. In 
 the course of the afternoon I shot a fat doe which had been wounded 
 by a Yaruro arrow that had failed to penetrate the right shoulder 
 blade. The wound had healed nicely and the venison was excel- 
 lent. 
 
 Shortly before reaching the Lipa we saw sixty storks together in a 
 lagoon. They had white breasts, black tails, wings tipped with 
 black, white necks and heads and a reddish spot around the eyes. 
 The beaks were whitish, dark at the tip. The birds stood about 
 three feet high. 
 
 About half-past four we saw three naked Indians a mile away, 
 but they almost immediately disappeared. Half an hour later we 
 reached the banks of the river Ele, one hundred and fifty feet wide 
 and twelve or fifteen feet deep, with a good current, at this season. 
 Its banks are heavily wooded and are at present fifteen to twenty 
 feet above the muddy stream. It will cause us some trouble to cross 
 with our loads unless we succeed in getting a canoe from the Indians. 
 The men declare that we shall be troubled to-night by both Indians 
 and "tigers" (jaguars), who will not attack us but will steal our 
 
1 28 COLOMBIA 
 
 mules. Rice and I have agreed to divide the night's watch between 
 us. 
 
 March 6th. We had an exciting night. It was uncomfortably 
 cold, my three heavy blankets and four thin ones proving none too 
 warm. A very heavy dew fell and our blankets were quite wet this 
 morning. I was on watch from nine until one. About half-past 
 eleven I was sitting in my folding camp-chair in the savanna a hundred 
 feet away from the camp-fire, where I supposed I could not be seen. 
 Just as the moon rose, I heard a large animal coming through the 
 woods towards the camp. As it came closer I was tempted to shoot 
 in the direction of the sound, but waited in hopes it might come a bit 
 more into the open. I feared that it might be an Indian, who if only 
 wounded would make trouble for us on the morrow. Just as the 
 creature was on the point of coming out of the jungle into the open 
 space in front of the camp, the moon came out from behind a cloud 
 and shone brightly on my gun. The noise instantly stopped and a 
 moment later the animal began stealthily to retreat into the jungle, 
 so that I never had the satisfaction of knowing what it was. I think 
 an Indian would have made less noise. The negroes were so fright- 
 ened by the fact that they had seen wild Indians shortly before sun- 
 set that they could not sleep at all, but kept a good fire going until 
 the moon rose. All got up early this morning and confronted the 
 problem of ferrying the stuff across the river. 
 
 In the hopes that the Indians would come with a canoe, I fired 
 three shots from my revolver and ten minutes later heard a faint 
 shout from the northeast. A few minutes afterwards three or 
 four nude figures appeared half a mile away on the horizon. I went 
 out with Juan to meet them. We each had a revolver, but carried 
 no guns in our hands. Waving our arms, beckoning and calling the 
 Indians, we encouraged the foremost to approach and meet us in 
 the middle of the savanna. He was covered by armed Indians in the 
 bushes, as I could see with my glasses, but carried nothing himself. 
 We were covered by our friends in the camp. The Indian was quite 
 timid but finally approached and shook hands. We patted him on 
 the back, and had no difficulty in making him understand that we 
 were "buena gente," peaceable folk who wanted a canoe in which to 
 cross the river. He understood a few words of Spanish. The chief 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 
 
 129 
 
 desired a "camisa" (shirt) and "pantalon" (trousers) in exchange 
 for the use of his canoe. This was agreed upon and in a short time 
 a small dug-out arrived and the work of ferrying the stuff and the 
 animals began. 
 
 These Indians were Yaruros. In a short time several of them 
 came into camp. One of them wore a cheap figured cotton hand- 
 kerchief tied over his head and a cloth mantle over his shoulders, but 
 the rest wore nothing but breech cloths. The first two or three 
 Yaruros who came had to be led into camp by the hand, as they 
 
 
 '^M 
 
 . : Ygjjji 
 
 
 
 ^^9 
 
 ^^^BlVf ' I^^^HBHK..VKri^^HlalB ' HHBHlHr^nK. 
 
 SKS^^ 
 
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 wBtf^^^^^SPM^v^^^S 
 
 mi 
 
 '-^Kff^^ttSB 
 
 ^^^^S^^KSSSSi^^^S^Ss^^^^^^mS^BSBo^ 
 
 
 A ^ jB^HiBS 
 
 Visitors at our Camp on the Ele River. 
 
 were afraid to approach without some exhibition of friendhness. 
 They offered no objections to having their pictures taken. I do not 
 suppose they knew what we were doing. Gradually the camp filled 
 up with Indians, men and women, boys and babies, who filtered 
 silently through the bushes until more than twenty stood around the 
 camp-fire, talking together with their peculiar guttural grunts and 
 watching our every movement. Most of those who came into camp 
 carried no arms, but with the glasses we could see their friends armed 
 and looking out for their safety. All the women had babies slung 
 
130 COLOMBIA 
 
 in tiny hammocks over their shoulders. We tried to trade for one 
 of these hammocks, but without success. One of the men carried 
 a native hammock or chinchora, which Angel secured in trade for 
 an old coat and a bowie-knife. I gave the Indians each a pin which 
 aroused their curiosity and seemed to please them greatly. We all 
 had breakfast together, Josh having lavishly cooked a large quantity 
 of beans, rice, and venison. Half a dozen Indians, afraid to leave 
 the bushes, peered out as best they could, dodging and disappearing 
 noiselessly as soon as one of us looked in their direction. 
 
 The chief was very friendly, put his hand on my shoulder, patted 
 me on the back, took off my pith helmet, put it on himself, ran his 
 fingers through my hair, said "bonito," patted his heart saying, 
 "contento," patted my heart, smiled, and asked for my cartridge belt 
 and then for my gloves. The gauntlets excited the greatest admira- 
 tion, as they had apparently seen nothing of that kind before. By 
 making signs that all these things were part of my uniform as "capi- 
 tan," I managed to keep them without giving any offense. The 
 chief's ears had been pierced, as had those of several of the men. 
 One or two of them bore the marks of spear or arrow wounds. 
 
 The man with the cotton kerchief offered to trade it for my silk 
 one, but this we declined. The old men had dull, stupid faces, but 
 the boys had bright eyes and seemed to be quite intelligent. They 
 partook greedily of our breakfast, and especially favoured the boiled 
 venison. The women wore a rough garment of bark cloth around 
 their waists, and stood together apart by themselves. We gave them 
 food which they barely tasted and carefully wrapped up to take 
 home for their husbands. None of them showed any inclination to 
 finger anything unless it was offered for their examination. Most 
 of them were timid, but even the bolder ones were not rude. 
 
 In the meantime, the men got the stuff across and the Yaruros 
 filtered away into the bushes until I was left alone on the bank with 
 only two Indians. The mysterious disappearance of the others made 
 me a bit nervous although I was well armed. The canoe was very 
 cranky and so narrow that one could not sit down in it. Josh had 
 already capsized it once and been ducked, but I got safely across, 
 guns and all, and wc proceeded to dress up the Yaruro chief with an 
 old tennis shirt and a pair of gray flannel trousers which made him 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 131 
 
 look very festive. He was greatly delighted with his altered appear- 
 ance and soon made his excuses, saying he would meet us farther 
 along and trade, but we never saw him again. 
 
 Humboldt says the Yaruros were formerly a powerful and numer- 
 ous nation on the banks of the Orinoco. Codazzi, in his atlas of 
 Venezuela, also places them on the Ele and the Lipa. 
 
 We left the Ele at half-past eleven, passed the jungle on the right 
 bank and came again to very long grass through which we had great 
 difficulty in forcing our way. We took turns in going ahead and 
 making our mules jump up and down in order to beat a path through 
 it. The country was very wild. We saw few animals; occasionally 
 a heron or an ibis in a lagoon. 
 
 About four o'clock we came to a bad swamp flanking a lagoon 
 in such a way that our only safe path lay through the lagoon for 
 three hundred yards. Juan went ahead on foot and found the water 
 came up to his waist. He cut a path through the rushes, and finally 
 we all got safely across. Richard's mule, tired from his recent excur- 
 sion after the stray oxen, becoming discouraged, lay down in the 
 middle of the lagoon and disappeared entirely from view. Richard, 
 up to his armpits in the swamp, had the presence of mind to hold 
 the mule's nose out of the water and keep him from drowning. After 
 a while we succeeded in getting him out, but unfortunately he had 
 been carrying my saddle bags and their contents were not all intended 
 to be submerged. 
 
 In the meantime we had a call from more Yaruros. One of them 
 wore a brilliant head-dress decorated with scarlet ibis feathers. As 
 he came prancing bravely over the plain with his waving plumes, 
 he presented a striking spectacle. He willingly traded his ornament 
 for a red silk handkerchief. Another Yaruro had an old hammock 
 slung over his back from his forehead, which he traded for a small 
 silver coin. From another I bought for a pin and an inch of red 
 pencil, a small bunch of plantains which served for our supper. 
 With the pencil he proceeded to paint his face and hands. 
 
 It was late by the time we got through the swamp, but we went on 
 until darkness fell and Juan lost his way. After the most exciting 
 twenty-four hours that we have had on our journey so far, we finally 
 camped near a line of woods which marked a partly dry watercourse. 
 
132 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 We saw three deer to-day, but they were very wild. Some of the dried- 
 up swamps which we passed contained shells of snails and crabs. 
 
 March yth. We had a heavy dew again last night and the cold 
 was quite penetrating. By two o'clock today, the temperature had 
 risen to 92° F. in the shade. We have seen few ducks, so that veni- 
 son is our chief diet. The venados have been hunted so much by 
 the Yaruros that they are extremely timid and it requires careful 
 stalking to make sure of one. Ever since leaving Arauca we have 
 had but two meals a day. A stick of "erbswurst" or a piece of 
 
 
 v^Bar/ 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 
 
 i^Bi 
 
 '...^ 
 
 w^mise^^^" 
 
 
 
 »« ■'■ • - I Si- \ 
 
 
 '^■a. 
 
 ' m 
 
 \' ' ' 
 
 ^■f^ !£-.,t; .■ 
 
 .■ } 
 
 ^^ , ■■ ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Between the Ele and the Cravo Rivers. 
 
 chocolate enables one to get through the day's march without feeling 
 faint. The oxen are provokingly slow but they cannot be hurried 
 and are doing their work as well as could be expected. They make 
 about fifteen miles a day. They do not eat maize but depend on 
 what they can pick up at night when tethered and by the side of the 
 trail in the daytime. We have a little maize for the mules, but can- 
 not carry much. 
 
 The Llanos hereabouts differ from those over which we have 
 passed in having a great number of large swamps which make travel 
 very difficult even in the dry season. A detour, sometimes two or 
 three miles in length, often has to be made in order to get around a 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 133 
 
 bad swamp not half a mile in width. It is easy to see from the con- 
 dition of the land that the rainy season makes this country practi- 
 cally impassable, and yet it was through here in the worst of the 
 rainy season that the British Legion and Bolivar's little army marched. 
 One cannot help wondering what the veterans of Waterloo thought 
 as they waded, swam, and floundered across these terrible swamps. 
 
 This morning we passed through a large jungle near a deserted 
 Yaruro village. The guide said it was inhabited only in winter. 
 The shelters, one could scarcely call them huts, were extremely 
 primitive. A cane or pole was tied by vines between two trees that 
 were conveniently near together. Large palm leaves of the kind 
 commonly used for thatching roofs were rested against this pole at 
 an angle of 45 degrees. Near each shelter was the remains of a camp- 
 fire, the partly burned sticks of wood radiating hke a many pointed 
 star from the ashes. There are no stones in the vicinity. In all 
 there were about twenty shelters, the largest being nine feet long and 
 six feet high, while the smallest consisted of but three palm branches 
 and the remains of a fire. There were no broken utensils anywhere 
 about. The occupants of one hut had taken the trouble to build a 
 small frame for a spit by means of two forked sticks. Juan said 
 that the Yaruros came here to eat the dates of that variety of palm 
 which is used all over Venezuela for thatching houses. Monkeys 
 are also very fond of these dates. .: ' . , ;...;". ■: ; ,; ../. ; 
 
 The presence of so many swamps breaks up the horizon, so that 
 one frequently sees small groves in addition to the long fine of jungle 
 that betokens the presence of a stream. Shortly after six this evening, 
 we stopped at one of these smaller groves where we could get dry 
 wood for our fire. Near by, Juan dug a hole in an apparently dry 
 cano, and in a short time we had a small well yielding very good 
 water. 
 
 March 8th. It took us three hours to get breakfast and break 
 camp this morning. The negroes are proving more and more lazy 
 and shiftless. Richard is supposed to have charge of my belongings, 
 but he did not take the trouble yesterday or the day before to dry 
 any of the things that got soaked in the saddle bags when his mule 
 went down in the swamp. This morning I found the hammock in a 
 dreadful state and the tool kit falling to pieces. Josh as cook is so 
 
134 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 careless that the kitchen outfit is disappearing piece by piece. It is 
 very difficult to make them feel that they have any responsibility 
 whatsoever. The deserter Angel is also proving to be of less use 
 every day, but there is some excuse for him as he is the only one 
 that is not mounted. He is only shod with alpargats, the worst excuse 
 for a shoe that I have ever seen. These sandals are made with a hole 
 at the toe so as to admit thorns and insects, very soon fall to pieces 
 and become of little use except to delay the wearer. For a while 
 Angel was willing to drive one of the oxen, but today he preferred 
 to march a mile or two in the rear of the caravan. 
 
 We have occasionally had Indian paths to follow, but this morning 
 we had once more to break our way through the tall prairie grass, 
 the guide getting his bearings by groves of trees across the savanna. 
 The grass was frequently taller than our heads as we rode, and it 
 was hard work beating a path for the oxen. 
 
 This noon we crossed the river Cravo. The banks at the point 
 where we crossed, were covered with the fresh spoor of a jaguar. 
 This is as near as we have gotten to any really dangerous wild animals. 
 In the jungle of the Cravo we encountered several settlements of 
 hornets that . caused a temporary stampede among our animals. 
 After passing the Cravo, the plains, wet enough before, become 
 markedly more swampy. Almost the only fourfooted animals 
 seen in the past three days are a few deer, single or in pairs, and 
 very wild. This noon we had a fresh breeze from the northwest, 
 the first westerly wind that we have experienced, and a sign of the 
 approaching rainy season. 
 
 About sundown we camped near a water hole where the mos- 
 quitoes held high carnival. Rice said they woke him up every half 
 hour, but by putting on my head-net and keeping my hands under 
 the blankets, I managed to sleep. Many of the forest trees are now 
 in bloom, the most conspicuous one, covered with yellow flowers, 
 looking from a distance like a giant chrysanthemum. We have seen 
 a few orchids. 
 
 March gth. The guide says we are now a long day's journey 
 from Limbo. Accordingly, we got an early start this morning. 
 The country continues to have the same appearance, small groves of 
 detached palms and other trees, an occasional oasis, very long grass 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 135 
 
 in the- savannas, frequent depressions containing swamps more or 
 less dry, no hills, rolling plains with slight undulations, and always 
 a line of trees on the horizon. One gets no ocean-lilie expanse in this 
 part of the Llanos. Although it is near the end of the dry season, 
 everything is very green. Wc have seen few birds of any kind for 
 the past four or five days. This morning the plains are like those in 
 Venezuela near Guanare and Tocupido. There are parrots chat- 
 tering and screaming in the trees or flying very fast in pairs. Macaws 
 arc also becoming frequent again, and we passed a tree full of large 
 oriole nests like those in Tocupido. 
 
 While negotiating a wide swamp this morning where it was neces- 
 sary to go three miles in order to advance half a mile, I saw two large 
 horned screamers {Palamedea cornuta) perched on a tree top. Their 
 cry sounds hke a bull-frog's hoarse gulp. I saw one three days ago 
 for the first time. These birds are larger than turkeys, have black 
 bodies and tails, white breasts, black heads with a curious unicorn 
 effect consisting of an erect feather-bone three inches long that curves 
 forward from the middle of the head. 
 
 Although we prepared as well as we knew how against all sorts of 
 venomous snakes, we have so far not seen a single snake of any 
 description. This afternoon we saw a number of snake's eggs on 
 the ground, white and slightly larger than a robin's egg, with a soft 
 slieli. ■ • ■ ■ ■ 
 
 I wounded a buck, but he succeeded in hiding in the long grass 
 and we looked for him in vain for an hour, finally giving up the hunt, 
 the more willingly as I knew we had three legs of roast venison when 
 we left camp this morning. But owing to the carelessness of Josh 
 and Richard, they were lost during the day, so we had no meat for 
 dinner. 
 
 About four o'clock the country grew more swampy and finally 
 came to be almost entirely flooded. Juan looked worried and in a 
 short time we were absolutely unable to proceed. We were only a 
 league from Limbo. The ri^•er Totumito has become so swollen 
 with the showers of the past few days that it is impossible to do anv- 
 thing but wait for it to subside. Accordingly, we went back and 
 camped on the banks of a large lagoon near some snake holes and 
 hoped that we might reach Limbo tomorrow. - __ 
 
136 COLOMBIA 
 
 March 10th. As a precautionary measure against the snakes 
 last evening I lighted a fire in the grass a hundred 3'ards to leeward 
 of us, but it burned so fiercely and worked up to windward so fast 
 that it threatened to burn us into the lagoon. We had to work until 
 late to put it out. 
 
 Juan went oft' on an ox this morning to explore, and returned with 
 the cheering information that the rivers are so swollen that it is 
 impossible to pass them except by swimming. The banks of the 
 streams are under water and there is from four to six feet of water in 
 the jungle, so that the problem of getting our stuff across is a serious 
 one. Between us and Limbo, to the south and west of our camp, 
 is a stretch of two miles of drowned land crossed by three streams 
 varying in depth from four to ten feet. To the north lagoons and 
 swamps stretch away interminably. The only direction in which it 
 seems possible to proceed is eastwards, whence we came. We must 
 wait for the flood to subside before we can ford the streams. Juan 
 offered to take one of the men, swim the stream and walk to Limbo 
 for a canoe. This seemed to be the best plan and Angel was deputed 
 to go with him and return with aid as soon as possible. 
 
 To make matters worse, our provisions have mysteriously given 
 out. Josh bought in Arauca "coffee enough for a month," but it 
 lasted only three da3's. We have trusted him too implicitly, not 
 reahzing how rapidly he was wasting the supplies. Our sugar, rice, 
 and beans are all used up. In fact nearly everything is gone except 
 julienne, salt, and a few packages of dried soup. All the venison 
 was lost yesterday. The floods here and the fires which the guide 
 has been starting from time to time have scared away all the game. 
 There arc a number of ducks flying overhead, but the overflowing of 
 the river seems to have disturbed them so that they have lost track of 
 their feeding grounds and do not light an3'where. After wading in 
 the swamp up to my waist for an hour I succeeded in shooting two 
 ducks, the only ones that had the kindness to come within range. 
 
 Towards noon Richard and I started off to see what could be 
 shot for dinner. After wading about two miles, I finally shot two 
 horned screamers. They were standing in a swamp with a dozen 
 others of their kind. The largest bird measured six feet eight inches 
 from tip to tip of wing and had double spurs on each wing. No one 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 137 
 
 knew whether they were good to eat but we took the risk and found 
 the meat coarse and very strong. It used up nearly all of our salt. 
 This evening we expected Juan to return, but he failed to appear. 
 
 March 11th. This was one of the hardest days we have had yet. 
 Breakfast consisted of warmed-over horned screamers and julienne, 
 neither of which we could eat. About noon Juan and Angel re- 
 turned from Limbo with word that there was no canoe to be had 
 and that the old trail is impassable, but that by working hard they 
 could make a new trail so that we may get to Limbo this afternoon. 
 We sent Josh with them to hurry them up and assist in the labour of 
 cutting a path through the jungle and making a raft to take the loads 
 across the swollen rivers. On the strength of being promised the 
 oranges, milk, and cheese of " Limbo " in the afternoon, we divided 
 our last piece of chocolate between us and rested in our hammocks 
 as patiently as we could. 
 
 The water-fowl, egrets, gray herons, scarlet and white ibis, are 
 extremely wild and fly rapidly in flocks far over our heads. The sun 
 was frightfully hot during the day and there are no shade trees on 
 any of the dry land. The food supply is getting to be a very serious 
 problem, as the horned screamers have not proved digestible and 
 the julienne makes us sick. Our greatest comfort is a breeeze which 
 blows gently and almost continuously from the northeast or north- 
 west and keeps away the little flies and mosquitoes, which would 
 otherwise make life unbearable. 
 
 About four o'clock it began to look as though no one would return, 
 so it became necessary to secure some fresh meat if possible. Not 
 a duck was to be seen; the ibis flew very high overhead; macaws 
 chattered in a grove half a mile away, but I lacked the strength to 
 swim the lagoon and wade the swamps that lay between, so they had 
 to be given up. A large jabiru stood solemnly in a swamp until I 
 got within a hundred yards of him, then flew slowly off. Two 
 chattering lapwings the size of quails {Belonopterus cayennensis) 
 came within gunshot and, although scarcely worth the powder, they 
 provided a couple of mouthfuls for supper. Finally I saw a large 
 gray heron wading in a lagoon, and by crawling painfully along over 
 burned stubble for a hundred yards, succeeded in getting within gun- 
 shot of him. He made a poor dish as the meat was very strong. We 
 
138 COLOMBIA 
 
 used up the last of the sak this evening cooking our three strange 
 birds; filled up on dried white bean soup and went to sleep to dream 
 of having appetizing food set before us. Herons and horned screamers 
 are all very well in their place, and so is juhenne and dried soup, but 
 they do not give one much strength. No one returned from Limbo. 
 We learned afterwards that Josh reached the town soon after noon, 
 and spent the rest of the day eating and sleeping while we were almost 
 starving. 
 
 The river has fallen nearly a foot. 
 
 March i2tli. Last night was cool and I had a slight chill, but 
 fortunately there was some whiskey left. For breakfast we had 
 more bean soup. The salt is all gone. 
 
 It is an effort to walk thirty feet. We were quite played out this 
 morning and too weak to undertake stalking in the swamps for game. 
 It seemed as though all I could do was to doze in the hammock 
 which was hung between two partly dead trees. 
 
 About noon Josh appeared with a boy from Limbo bringing milk, 
 oranges, strips of roasted jerked-beef, and fried plantains. Never did 
 food taste so good, and never was it more welcome. We rested a bit 
 after eating; then Juan returned, the oxen were loaded and we began 
 the worst twelve hours of our entire march. The river had by this 
 time fallen a couple of feet and Juan had succeeded in finding a 
 feasible means of getting us to Limbo. 
 
 Juan, the boy from Limbo, Josh and Richard each took charge 
 of an ox and attempted to follow an imaginary trail over the drowned 
 land. Josh had charge of the Calico ox, carrying the gun case, a 
 brown bag with all my clothes, and the tool bag. Before he had gone 
 a quarter of a mile, the girths sUpped and the load fell into the swamp. 
 Josh called loudly for aid, but Richard was so angry at him for loaf- 
 ing all day yesterday at Limbo and letting us starve, that he refused 
 to help him. Acting as rear guard, I came to his assistance. The 
 load had completely disappeared under the ox, who was standing in 
 two feet of water. Josh righted it with a mighty shove, pushing the 
 ox over on top of me and ducking me in the swamp. My rifle dis- 
 appeared and could not be found for some time. The ox was finally 
 reloaded and went nearly thirty feet before his load fell off again. 
 In the meantime Richard had had to return to our late camp for a 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 139 
 
 forgotten water bottle, and came along just in season to assist with 
 the second reloading. By the time this was accomphshed, Juan and 
 the boy, who knew the trail, had completely disappeared from view. 
 After considerable difficulty we forded a little stream, twenty feet 
 wide and four feet deep, and at length found the guide and the boy 
 standing in two feet of water in the jungle, near the Cano Guata, a 
 rapidly flowing stream forty feet wide and eight feet deep. The 
 animals floundered about, rearing and plunging in the mire, trying 
 in vain to find some safe spot on which to stand. 
 
 At this point in the caiio a tree trunk had been thrown across the 
 stream to serve as a foot bridge. It was now from three to five feet 
 under water. Juan stretched a rawhide lasso across the stream just 
 above the submerged tree trunk and it was his plan to carry the loads 
 across on his head and shoulders, wading on the slippery sunken log, 
 and hanging on to the lasso with one hand. We had hardly arrived 
 when the boy from the ranch, who was testing the bridge, shouted out 
 that he was attacked by an alligator. His cries were pitiful, but he 
 scrambled out on the farther bank, and it was then seen that he had 
 been bitten by a caribe or cannibal fish, which had taken a piece of 
 flesh as big as a dollar from the calf of his leg. The poor boy was 
 much frightened and stood whimpering and shivering on the opposite 
 bank, his leg bleeding profusely. 
 
 To make matters worse the water was extremely muddy, so that 
 we could not see either caribes or alligators, if there were any. But 
 we had read enough of the caribes to know that there was now con- 
 siderable danger in crossing the stream. Humboldt says: "they 
 swim at the bottom of rivers, but if a few drops of blood be shed on 
 the water, they rise by thousands to the surface so that if a person be 
 only slightly bitten it is difficult for him to get out of the water with- 
 out receiving a severer wound." The largest are only five inches 
 long, but have very large retractile mouths and very sharp triangular 
 teeth. No other fish has such a thirst for blood. 
 
 I could not but admire Rice's courage in stripping completely 
 and crossing the stream three or four times until he had carried over 
 the watches, barometers, and compasses. Thus encouraged, the men 
 crossed and recrossed, carrying the small bundles. Six of our pieces 
 were too heavy for this unsafe method, as the force of the stream 
 
140 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 was so great where the tree trunk was four feet under water that one 
 was in great danger of losing his balance and falling into the stream. 
 We then suspended a rope across the stream from the branches of 
 the forest trees and with a crotched stick rigged a rude trolley. On 
 the left bank Juan and Josh, aided by poor Richard, who had not 
 been as well fed as they for the past two days, fastened the heavy 
 loads to our primitive trolley. The embarking stage, if so I ma}- call 
 it, consisted of the almost perpendicular trunks of two small trees. 
 Bracing himself between these trees, Juan tied the bundles one by 
 
 The Photograph Plates Crossing the Cano Guata. 
 
 one to the cross piece, while Josh stood in four feet of water and held 
 the loads on his head until they were made fast to the trolley. On 
 the right bank Rice and I, aided by the boy with the bleeding leg, 
 pulled the loads across and deposited them in the mud. Several 
 were partially submerged in mid-stream, but we managed to avoid 
 wetting the photographic plates. After the loads were safely over, 
 wc proceeded to make the cattle swim the stream. After our biggest 
 ox, "the great white yak," had safely swum across, he decided that 
 he preferred the other bank, turned, and caused a small stampede. 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 141 
 
 We finished this task about dusk; but the stuff still had to be carried 
 a hundred and fifty yards on the men's backs through the miry, 
 flooded jungle to a dry spot where the animals would stand to be 
 loaded. They plunged about in a frightful manner whenever they 
 found themselves sinking in the mud. It was an hour after dark 
 before we got fairly started. 
 
 Hardly had we gone half a mile when we came to the rushing 
 waters of the river Totumito. Fortunately the river was not much 
 more than three feet deep. All got safely across in the darkness 
 except "Cahco," whose load again turned turtle in the middle of the 
 stream. The fresh river water served to wash out the stagnant swamp 
 water which had soaked into the load earlier in the day. After a 
 struggle lasting twenty minutes the load was righted and we went 
 on, Juan frequently losing his way and the wet loads repeatedly 
 slipping and turning. 
 
 Although the distance to El Limbo from the Totumito was less 
 than three miles, it took us nearly six hours. The negroes were 
 helpless; the guide, furiously angry at their incapacity, shivered with 
 cold. The boy from the ranch went home alone to get his leg attended 
 to. Josh and Richard showed up in sad colours. While under our 
 eyes crossing the rivers, they worked fairly well, but in the darkness 
 they gave out completely, refused to budge for an hour at a time, and 
 took a most terrible word thrashing from Rice, who spared no known 
 language to get them to move. 
 
 It was my job to keep the guide from going too far ahead and 
 leaving the caravan stranded for the night on the savanna. If I had 
 not had some whiskey in my saddle flask, it would have taken brute 
 force to prevent poor shivering Juan from disappearing into the 
 darkness and going to Limbo as fast as his legs could carry him. 
 We greatly missed Rafael, our good Venezuelan peon. He was a 
 fine type, faithful, hard-working, and thoroughly capable of carrying 
 out his instructions. We finally reached the hospitable ranch about 
 one o'clock at night and sat down to a magnificent feast of beef, 
 plantains, milk, rice, and coffee. 
 
 It had taken us nearly thirteen hours to make a total distance of 
 three miles and a half. 
 
 March i^th. We have really found a haven of refuge, and yet 
 
142 COLOMBIA 
 
 such is the reputation of this place and so far out of the world is it 
 considered to be that its name of "The Limbo" is supposed to be 
 most appropriate. Everything depends on one's point of view. 
 
 This ranch belonged for twenty }'ears to General Vargas, who hid 
 here in a huge wooden trough when the Go\-ernment soldiers came 
 to arrest him. General Perez bought it a few months ago, and sent 
 his majordomo to get it ready for him. The steward has done a 
 good job and has already gotten together a score of milch cows which 
 arc milked every morning. We were awakened at daylight by the 
 bleating of calves, and a few minutes later great gourds of foaming 
 milk were brought to our hammocks. Breakfast followed shortly 
 after, and we fairly stuffed. 
 
 The majordomo is not strong in the legs, but has an acti\'e mind. 
 He sits all day in his hammock and a good part of the time is on the 
 watch to provide for our needs. He presides over our meals from a 
 respectful distance, and orders the men to keep lilhng up our dishes 
 until we have to cry enough in a thoroughly convincing tone. He 
 directed that our mules should be allowed to roam freely o^'er the 
 ranch in order that they might get well fed and rested. The oxen 
 he would not trust so implicitly, and gave orders that they should be 
 tied each day where there was good fodder. 
 
 We have not had it unpleasantly warm here, and the temperature 
 has varied less than at any other point, being about 75° in the early 
 morning and not going over 86° during the day. 
 
 We unpacked all our stuff today and dried it in the sun. Bundles 
 that were not intended to be opened until we reached Bogota had been 
 completel}' drenched in the swamps and rivers. Everything was as 
 wet as water could make it. A few coloured cravats sufficed to 
 stain a whole bag of clothes. 
 
 The only rations we had left, a few packages of julienne and white 
 bean soup, were presented to the majordomo, who little dreamed how 
 sick we were of the very sight of them. Josh and Richard spent the 
 entire day huddled under blankets in their hammocks, presenting a 
 sorry spectacle. Juan busied himself waiting on us and helping us 
 in every possible manner. Angel has entered the service of the 
 majordomo, and proposes to stay here and fatten up. Rice dressed 
 the wound of the fish-bitten boy, diagnosed a case of pleurisy in a 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 
 
 143 
 
 cowboy and a case of myalitis in the majordomo. We plan to stay 
 here until we regain our strength. Fortunately we seem to be very 
 welcome, and are urged by the majordomo to make ourselves at home 
 and ask for anything wc need that is not provided. 
 
 March 14th. The sky was completely overcast yesterday and 
 again this morning, and the breeze came more from the northwest 
 than the northeast. The wet season is evidently upon us. The 
 majordomo says it has rained twice this month for an hour at a 
 time, but they have had no other rain in the three months they have 
 been here. 
 
 Ranch House at El Limbo. 
 
 The steward is very energetic and has worked wonders during his 
 short stay. Besides keeping his men busy he is training a small boy 
 to look after a flock of goats and drive the pigs, chickens, and ducks 
 out of the house. The apartments in the long ranch house are sepa- 
 rated by open bamboo screens, very rough, but suSicient to keep out 
 animals. It is most fortunate for us in our famished condition that 
 the hospitality of Limbo is not Kke that of Guaratarito, where we 
 were half starved. It is perfectly astonishing how much food we are 
 
144 COLOMBIA 
 
 able to consume. Rice and I ate enough to-day for a family of eight 
 people. When not eating we spend most of the time sleeping. 
 
 There are three sad-looking cowboys here. They are more or 
 less in rags and are the most unhealth}- lot we have yet seen. One 
 of them rode to Tame today and e.xpects to return tomorrow. He 
 has agreed to purchase some supplies for us, as we have decided to 
 turn south from this point. .- 
 
 March isth. A fat pig was killed this morning and we had a 
 wonderful luncheon, consisting of garlic broth, roast pig, fried pig, 
 boiled pigs' feet, boiled plantains, fried plantains, rice, hot milk, and 
 coffee. As usual, we fell asleep immediately after eating and were 
 lost to the world for two or three hours. We are now planning to 
 start tomorrow and hope to reach Bogota in a month. We were due 
 there today. 
 
 About sunset the Llanero returned from Tame, bringing provi- 
 sions for our caravan. He was able to buy for us coffee, rice, cassava, 
 garhanzos (a kind of dried pea) , stale buns and panda (crude sugar) . 
 Although we bought onl}' enough to enable us to pro\-ide for an 
 emergency of a fortnight, our bill was $244. We were reheved, how- 
 ever, to learn that this calculation was made in Colombian paper 
 money, which we haxe so far been unable to obtain. \\:e paid the 
 bill with three dollars in Venezuelan subsidiary silver. The alcalde 
 of Tame sends word that he has received orders from President 
 Reyes to accord us every facility for continuing our journey. W^e 
 have decidecl not to got to Tame, for we are led to believe that the 
 soldiers of the liberating army did not go through that town, but went 
 directly from here to the town of Casanare (Puerto San Salvador). 
 
 One of the pleasant features of our entertainment here is a basket 
 of delicious oranges in the middle of the morning. Altogether we 
 have received more elaborate hospitality than anywhere else on our 
 journey, with the exception of La Calzada and Boca Suripa. It may 
 be merely a coincidence that the former is owned by a Colombian 
 and the latter by a gentleman who lived in Colombia for fourteen 
 years. One is almost tempted to lay down the rule that Colombians 
 are more liberally hospitable than Venezuelans, except for the fact that 
 the owner of Guaratarito is a Colombian and the course of semi- 
 starvation to which he treated us is still fresh in our minds. 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 145 
 
 March 16th. We were awakened this morning by a considerable 
 commotion caused by Josh, who declared that during the night 
 his best pantaloons had been stolen from his clothes bag. It hardly 
 seemed hkely, and both Rice and I thought that he had lost them in 
 some other way, as he is extremely careless. He refused to be com- 
 forted by any such suggestion, and made such a rumpus that the 
 majordomo decided to quiet him by holding an impromptu court of 
 justice. The ranch has but one chair. This and my camp chair 
 were placed in the middle of the ranch yard away from the shelter 
 of the buildings, and Rice and I were requested to sit there and wit- 
 ness the proceedings. A poncho was spread on the ground before 
 us, and all the employees of the ranch were ordered to bring their 
 clothes and whatever worldly goods they possessed and deposit them 
 on the poncho for examination. Angel and Juan were included in 
 this order. 
 
 We tried to laugh the matter off and protest against such an in- 
 quisitorial process, but all to no purpose. The majordomo was 
 positive that the trousers had not been stolen and was anxious to 
 clear his house of any such imputation. I shall not soon forget the 
 scene; the ragged cowboys gathered around the pile of garments on 
 the ground, the negroes watching each roll narrowly as it was opened, 
 and the emaciated deserter Angel, in fear and terror lest somehow 
 the guilt should be fastened on him. Josh had openly accused Angel 
 of the theft, not daring to accuse Juan, who was a strong man and a 
 fighter, and who would probably have knocked him down. 
 
 One by one the rolls of clothing were untied and the few articles 
 of apparel which each possessed were laid out for exhibition. Angel 
 was the most eager to have his opened, but no one was more pleased 
 than Juan when his roll was opened and Josh declared that the 
 trousers were not there. The last bundle to be opened was covered 
 with a white kerchief and belonged to the head cowboy, the husband 
 of the cook. He is the most trusted person on the ranch, next to the 
 majordomo, and was the one who had been to Tame for our provi- 
 sions. Imagine our surprise when this roll was opened and Josh, with 
 an exclamation of delight, seized upon his lost blue serge trousers. No 
 one was more astonished than the innocent cowboy, who most em- 
 phatically denied all knowledge of their being in his possession. He 
 
146 COLOMBIA 
 
 shouted to his wife, who was peering out from the kitchen door, to 
 know how these pantaloons came to be with his clothes, and she 
 replied frankly that Juan had given them to her that morning "to 
 keep for him." It was then remembered that that worthy pilferer 
 had changed the position of his hammock last night and hung it as 
 close as possible to the spot where Josh's clothes bag lay. 
 
 Nothing further was needed to fasten the guilt on to our guide, 
 and we looked to see how he was going to take it, but in the meantime 
 he had left the little circle of the court and was quietly going about 
 his business, attending to the saddling of the oxen as though nothing 
 had happened. As we needed him for several days more, it was 
 deemed best to say nothing more about it, although Josh clamoured 
 for justice. The poor majordomo was greatly disturbed that such a 
 thing could have happened under his roof, but the others were natu- 
 rally much relieved. It was almost pathetic to see Angel jump with 
 joy when the trousers were found and the guilt finally attached to 
 some one else. 
 
 In the course of the morning Rice told me that while we were 
 camping in the swamps, waiting for the Cano Guata to subside, he 
 had discovered a serious loss. We spent one day going through our 
 entire outfit while all the men were away except Richard, and he 
 was asleep. Purely as a matter of form Rice had opened a package 
 that he carried in his breast pocket and which had not been separated 
 from him during the entire journey, as he always slept with his coat 
 hanging within a few inches of his head. In this package he had 
 carried a gold chain, a family heirloom, which had for a charm an 
 American gold eagle. The chain, wrapped in a bit of chamois, was 
 placed in a leather case which closed with a loud snap. The case 
 was wrapped in a covering of oil skin, fastened securely, and the whole 
 thing tied up in a silk handkerchief. There were altogether four or 
 five fastenings and wrappings to be undone. Some night while Rice 
 was sound asleep a thief had taken the bundle to pieces, removed the 
 chain and charm, and tied the whole thing up again exactly as before 
 so that Rice had no idea anything had been stolen until the day we 
 overhauled the luggage. 
 
 Although we felt morally sure that Juan-of-the-clever-fingers was 
 the guilty party, we thought it advisable to wait until we should reach 
 
ARAUCA TO LIMBO 147 
 
 Pore, the end of his line of march, before saying anything about it. 
 It gives one a curious feehng to go to sleep in the company of a man 
 who is apparently able to steal anything he likes in the course of the 
 night without wakening you. It seems to be his principle not to take 
 things that are Kkely to be missed. He could have stolen our gold 
 watches at any time, but has not touched them. 
 
 Note. — The only account that I have been able to find of the trail between 
 Arauca and El Limbo and the Llanos of Casanare is that by Jorge Brisson in a book 
 entitled " Casanare," published in Bogota in 1896. Brisson was a civil engineer in 
 the service of the Colombian Government, and spent six or seven months in this 
 province in 1894. He kept an interesting diar)' of his itinerary and gives the distance 
 from Arauca to El Limbo as 33 J leagues (no miles). He speaks of the depredations 
 of the Indians. These have increased since his day so that the direct route from 
 Arauca to EI Limbo has been practically abandoned for the longer and safer road 
 by way of Cravo. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 El Limbo to Pore 
 
 March i6th (con.). We left El Limbo shortly before one o'clock. 
 The sky was partly overcast and a light breeze was blowing from the 
 northwest. Today we saw twenty deer, more than in any one day 
 during our entire journey. They were extremely wild, and ran when 
 we were more than half a mile away from them and could hardly see 
 them without the glasses. It was impossible to get within rifle shot 
 without taking more trouble than it was worth. 
 
 We soon began to see the foot-hills of the eastern cordillera of 
 Colombia. For nearly six weeks we have been on the plains out of 
 sight of the mountains. It gave one a thrill of pleasure to see a hill, 
 even five hundred feet high, in the distance, and it seemed as though 
 it must be a mirage. 
 
 About three o'clock we crossed the river San Ignacio, which has 
 a good sandy bottom, but such very steep banks that we had some 
 difficulty in getting the loaded animals down and up again. The 
 water was not over four feet deep and the current not strong. Then 
 we entered the most magnificent savanna that we have seen. It was 
 about five miles across, almost perfectly flat, covered with bunch 
 grass and little mounds of earth. From here we got our first ghmpse 
 of the peaks of the Andes over the tops of the foot-hills. As was to 
 be expected, the country here looks very much like that near Barinas, 
 and it bears the same relation to the mountains and the plains. 
 There are more scattered clumps of palms and more evidences of 
 frequent rains. There is certainly much vegetation that cannot be 
 accounted for by the overflowing of the rivers. 
 
 Owing to the "court" this morning we made a late start from El 
 Limbo and did not reach Casanare, or Puerto San Salvador as it is 
 now called, until after dark. Our reception was anything but cor- 
 dial. Juan took us to a building which he said was the posada, but 
 
EL LIMBO TO PORE 149 
 
 the people who hved there declared that they had no room for us nor 
 any food and that none could be obtained anywhere. We repHed 
 that we had had nothing to cat for twelve hours, had been in the saddle 
 for over nine hours, and proposed to spend the night right here. 
 This did not seem to interest them. Finally we had to take matters 
 into our own hands, open the gate, ride into the yard, dismount and 
 proceed to take possession of the house. To this they made no 
 objection and before long most politely served us with beef, plantains, 
 eggs, and coffee. We could not make out the reason for our inhos- 
 pitable reception. It may have been that we carried arms, or because 
 we arrived so long after dark, or because the character of our guide 
 is so well known. Whatever the reason, we were most unwelcome. 
 
 The Llanos of the Casanare. 
 
 March lyth. I went to rest last night more convinced than ever 
 that I must sleep with one eye open, and during the night my pre- 
 caution was rewarded. About 2 a.m. a shght noise among our 
 clothes bags woke me. I got up, as quietly as possible, and struck a 
 light suddenly, which revealed Juan prowHng about. He said he 
 was thirsty and was after a drink of water. Our bags are all locked, 
 but we cannot sleep with the keys in our hands and he is perfectly 
 capable of taking the keys from our coat pockets and returning them 
 without waking us. However, as he now knows that we are on our 
 guard, I hope he will endeavour to restrain his kleptomania. 
 
 The village of Puerto San Salvador is on the left bank of the 
 
15° 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 Casanare River, here about six hundred and fifty feet wide with a 
 deep, rapid current. During the Wars of Emancipation, the Colom- 
 bian patriots found it at times their only refuge. For a considerable 
 period it was the headquarters of General Santander. At present 
 the village has only twenty houses lying on four sides of an open field, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 H 
 
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 *^^^E ^MW^- ^* 
 
 
 
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 HHI 
 
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 mHtK^^K/fKKflf&S^r^V''' i^.;^-'^^ '... -.". 
 
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 Ox THE Plaza of Casanare. 
 
 called by courtesy the Plaza. Most of the houses ha\'e thatched roofs 
 and thatched or spht bamboo sides, but one or two have adobe 
 walls. There is one shop which is now closed. There are a few 
 cocoanut trees. The jungle surrounds the village very closely. 
 
 The chief importance of the port is as a coffee depot. Bags of 
 coffee are brought from Tamara, Ten, and the various plantations 
 on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and shipped in bungoes from 
 here via the Mcta and the Orinoco down to Ciudad Bolivar. The 
 canoes are small and have higher bows and sterns than those on the 
 Arauca and Apure rivers. 
 
 The posada is practically a coffee warehouse, if one may give so 
 dignified a name to a small adobe building with a thatched roof. 
 The construction of the roofs seems to be the same here as in Vene- 
 
EL LIMBO TO PORE 
 
 151 
 
 zuela. The beams are not nailed but tied together with vines which 
 have first been soaked in the river for a few days. Palm branches 
 are laid on the cross pieces as close together as possible, woven 
 together and their ribs tied. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, the people are very anxious to have their 
 pictures taken. To snap the camera at a group gives the greatest 
 pleasure to all concerned. They laugh and crow like children and 
 say to each other that they are now going to New York in the photo- 
 graph. It is sometimes necessary to save plates and films by not 
 exposing them for each group or individual that desires to be taken, 
 but the process of keeping the crowd amused is just as simple whether 
 one exposes the plate or not, provided you go through the motion of 
 taking the picture. 
 
 Puerto San Salvador from across the Casanare River. 
 
 Our goods were ferried across the river in a canoe by a Zambo 
 and his bov who live in a hut on the right bank. He charged us one 
 hundred dollars for carrying the cargoes and passengers and towing 
 the mules across. Our host of the posada only asked one dollar for 
 the entire entertainment of our party, and yet both wanted the same 
 
152 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 amount of money. One was talking in "billetes" and the other was 
 talking in "oro," and both were completely satisfied by a Venezuelan 
 "fuerte." 
 
 After lea\'ing the Casanarc, we passed through a well-watered 
 country containing numerous groves and a few marshy places where 
 we saw numbers of carrion birds called hocas. This wooded region 
 is in great contrast to the open savanna which we crossed yesterday. 
 We passed two trees this afternoon covered with small, rather dry 
 
 Midday Halt on the Llanos of Casanare. 
 
 blossoms having no fragrance and of a very light lilac colour. The 
 trees had no leaves and looked almost ghost-like. They grew about 
 fifteen feet above the ground. I saw a new variety of palm. It had 
 truncated leaves like a wine palm, and bore red berries, that looked 
 like cherries, in a cluster resembling a bunch of grapes. The trunk 
 of the tree was between three and four inches in diameter and the top 
 of the highest frond was not more than fifteen feet above the ground. 
 There were two or three specimens in the grove, but we saw no 
 others. Palmettoes were quite abundant. 
 
 The birds are more hke those near Barinas. The large scoldin^ 
 
EL LIMBO TO PORE 153 
 
 blackbirds, first seen at Carabobo, do not seem to frequent the 
 lower plains, but are again becoming common. Today I saw a 
 tiny humming-bird about the size of a large bumblebee. Cattle are 
 seen in larger numbers from hour to hour, but we saw no deer after 
 crossing the Casanare. Lizards began to appear again today, the 
 first we have seen since leaving Barinas. They do not seem to be 
 common on the lower plains. It looks as though the edge of the 
 Llanos, the region between the hills and the plains, had a flora and 
 fauna of its own. The plains seem to end abruptly at the foot-hills, 
 but in reahty there is a gradual rise from the level Llanos to the edge 
 of the hills. 
 
 The breeze this morning was from the northwest. At noon we 
 saw showers to the southwest. The people say the heavy rains are 
 about to begin. 
 
 This afternoon we observed the first pebbles since leaving Barinas. 
 So long have we been away from stones of any size that they looked 
 like curiosities at first, but we soon began to cross streams with 
 rocky beds hke those near Guanare. We are approaching the hills. 
 
 Today we saw the first travellers that we have met in several 
 weeks. In the hope of shooting a Httle game, either a deer or a 
 macaw, I was riding well ahead of the caravan when I met three men 
 and a boy mounted on mules and horses. They were quite alarmed 
 by the two guns that I was carrying, and stopped behind a clump of 
 trees to arrange their knives and revolvers before venturing to ride 
 by. It made me feel like a brigand. 
 
 About five o'clock the village of Corozal appeared in the distance, 
 and we soon drew up in front of its posada. The innkeeper came 
 out to the gate and refused us admission. He said he had neither 
 room nor food for us, and that there was no food to be had in the 
 village. One or two villagers gathered around and we inquired for 
 the alcalde. They said that there was no alcalde in this viUage, but 
 that he lived a day's journey from here in Chire. (We found out 
 afterwards that we were actually addressing that official at the time, 
 and that he had received orders from the Governor to attend to our 
 entertainment, but for some reason or other desired to shirk his 
 responsibility.) Again arguments seemed to be of no avail and we 
 were obliged to order the innkeeper to take down his bars and pro- 
 
154 COLOMBIA 
 
 vide us with necessities. As was to be expected, we found plenty 
 of good food and an abundance of room, but we could not help 
 wondering what caused a repetition of our unwelcome reception of 
 yesterday. 
 
 There seems to be no shop here. Two Colombian cloth mer- 
 chants are spending a few days at the inn and ha\'c a room where 
 their goods are displayed. They come from the vicinity of Cucuta 
 and have quite a supply of cotton cloth made in eastern Massachu- 
 setts. They carry little besides cloth, needles, and thread. I bought 
 a spool of thread this morning for which the charge was twelve 
 doHars. Having no bills I offered in payment a Colombian nickel 
 coin dated 1897 and having a face value of twenty centavos. Al- 
 though it is an attractive coin and apparently genuine, the merchants 
 refused to receive it and said it was worth nothing. I protested 
 that it was Colombian money, but all to no purpose. They would 
 not even allow that it was worth as much as a paper dollar, which 
 has the value of $.0098 gold. So I paid for my thread with two 
 Venezuelan silver coins worth $.10. They were not familiar with 
 such small Venezuelan currency, but were willing to accept the real 
 as they know that Venezuelan silver is at a par with gold. 
 
 Near the posada is a stone wall enclosing a paddock. It is about 
 four feet high, built with great care, of nicely matched pebbles each 
 about as large as a football, the first that we have seen since leaving 
 Caracas. 
 
 March i8th. The grass is all dried up and the beasts are having 
 a hard time trying to pick up anything to eat. This morning came 
 "the first rain of the season" here, gentle showers from six until 
 nine. We left Corozal about half-past nine. The innkeeper, a tall, 
 thin man with an "adenoid" face and a very prying disposition, 
 asked us four dollars for our entertainment, but accepted two as 
 a compromise. 
 
 I'he plains stretched away to the left as far as the eye could see, 
 and the hills were fairly close on our right. The soil seems to be poor 
 and barren, but the foot-hihs are fairly green. A second range of 
 hills, twice as high as the first, has the same general north and south 
 direction. 
 
 At noon we passed "El Sanjon," a heavily wooded ravine thirty 
 
EL LIMBO TO PORE 
 
 ISS 
 
 feet deep with verj' precipitous sides. The trail enters it by a deep 
 cut four feet wide. We are told that here the patriots and the Span- 
 iards under Barreiro had a bloody skirmish in 1818. A small force 
 could easily prevent a large one from crossing the ravine for some time. 
 A dome-shaped hill, six hundred feet high, rises abruptly from the 
 plain southwest of the ravine. 
 
 SM 
 
 ' 4 
 
 ,^-r, , -f^GAl^^^HlHil 
 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 m.. m 
 
 El Sanjon. 
 
 Passing travellers and houses become more frequent. In fact 
 there is nearly always a ranch in sight as we ride along. The travel- 
 lers are more often on foot than on horseback, and many of them 
 carry burdens on their backs suspended by a strap from their fore- 
 heads in the usual Indian fashion. 
 
 About half-past two we reached Chire, a wretched little village. 
 Had the oxen not been very tired we should have tried to push on. 
 Juan says we can easily reach Moreno tomorrow. There are eight 
 or ten houses on each side of the narrow street of the village where 
 cows are pastured for the night. The dwellings are the most poverty- 
 stricken thatched huts that we have seen. We saw some fine plan- 
 tains hanging up in a house that we passed, and asked the price. 
 
156 COLOMBIA 
 
 " The small ones are six for a dollar and the large ones are one dollar 
 each." We took "five dollars'" worth! 
 
 A little to the east of the main street Hes the plaza, an open field 
 covered with grass and weeds. On its west side is a deserted hut, 
 on its north side a few shrubs, on the east a little grass hut, and on the 
 south a new hut with adobe walls. To this last we were conducted 
 and the larger of its two rooms was put at our disposal. Here the 
 loads were dumped and our hammocks were to have been slung, but 
 the room had a queer odour. We noticed in the room some candle- 
 sticks and what looked like a bier. As there seemed to be no church 
 in the village, we thought this might be a chapel until we were told 
 that there had been a wake here the night before. It seems that the 
 owner died of smallpox, and his daughter is dying with the same 
 disease in the next room. We preferred to sleep out of doors. Five 
 or six deaths have occurred here recently from smallpox. 
 
 Crawhng around the yard is a httle girl two years old with a 
 twisted spine and an infectious disease on the soles of her feet. She 
 is absolutely neglected except so far as punishment is concerned. 
 Soon after our arrival she crawled into the kitchen and was driven 
 out by her unnatural mother with a good-sized leather thong, laid on 
 without mercy. The other children are in rags, but this poor infant 
 is naked and disowned, not desired to live. Our hostess is ill and 
 unable to provide us with food, but fortunately there is a pulperia in 
 the village where a fat, good-natured Indian woman serves us hot 
 potato soup with wooden spoons. 
 
 March igth. A few drops of rain fell last night, but not enough 
 to drive us indoors. In fact it would have taken a fairly hard rain 
 to have made us sleep in the house. Our one desire this morning 
 was to get off as early as possible, but during the night we lost our 
 mules and by seven o'clock only two had been seen and these could 
 not be caught, as all the ropes were broken. It took considerable 
 philosophy to wait patiently until the missing mules could be found 
 and saddled. For a time it looked as though we were destined to 
 stay in the smallpox viUage for several days. The missing mules 
 were found about eleven o'clock. 
 
 Soon after leaving the vihage \ve crossed the river Chire, a rapid 
 stream of fine, clear water, flowing over a rocky bed. About noon I 
 
EL LIMBO TO PORE 
 
 157 
 
 saw a mirage to the east that appeared to give an inverted image, 
 not very distinctly but still sufficiently marked to be noted as differ- 
 ent from any seen before. The usual form of mirage on the plains 
 has been a raising of the trees from the ground so as to make it appear 
 as though there was a pond or lake between the observer and the 
 horizon. 
 
 We saw several bushes of lantana but all of the thornless variety. 
 The plants were quite small, not over two feet high, and widely 
 scattered. Lantana does not flourish here as it does in the Hawaiian 
 Islands. 
 
 Westward from Chire. 
 
 The foot-hills we passed, although rising abruptly from the plain 
 and attaining a height of five to six hundred feet, seemed to be com- 
 posed almost entirely of pebbles and small well-rounded boulders 
 partly covered with a little soil and some grass. One isolated hill lay 
 on the left of the road between us and the plains. They are not dis- 
 sected by erosion to any extent. The angle of the slope is just about 
 as great as round stones will stand, yet there are very few boulders 
 on the plains that appear to have rolled down from the hills. The 
 largest pebble or boulder that we saw was not over three feet in its 
 greatest diameter. So far as we can judge the second range of foot- 
 
158 COLOMBIA 
 
 hills app(;ars to be of entirely different construction and bears marks 
 of being considerably eroded, but we could not see of what it was 
 composed. The banks of the streams which we crossed show pebbles 
 lying in layers under two feet of soil. We saw no ledges or large 
 rocks. 
 
 The road is well travelled. We were passed today by a man 
 and a boy with a string of live mules going to the annual fair at Pore. 
 The mules were of fair size, but not attractive. The owner asked 
 eighty dollars apiece for them, but we thought they were not worth 
 more than forty dollars. We may have to buy them to take our outfit 
 over the mountains. We met several small herds of oxen laden with 
 coffee, each ox carrying two bags covered with a stiff hide to keep ofT 
 the rain. Generally one man was in charge of every three oxen. 
 The people whom we met said "Buenos Dias" with great care in the 
 pronunciation and quite markedly unlike those we met near Arauca 
 who said "Buen Dia." 
 
 This afternoon we reached the river Ariporo, which has cut its 
 way through the middle of a large hill coiiiposed of pebbles. The 
 river has a flood plain a quarter of a mile wide at this point, and 
 embraces many islands. The course of the river is changing rapidly 
 and a new path has recently been cut through the woods on one of 
 the larger islands. One branch of the river is three hundred and 
 fifty feet wide. At present the current is not over three feet deep, 
 but is so rapid, and the bottom is so rocky, the animals were frightened 
 and did not like the ford at all. As we are near the hills it is not 
 surprising that the Ariporo at this point should resemble the 
 Guanare and the Santo Domingo rather than the Casanare or the 
 Bocond. 
 
 Our trail today contained more charming views than any we have 
 seen since leaving Carabobo and the falls of Tinaco. At times the 
 path would unexpectedly plunge down into a densely wooded ravine 
 and wind up again through the trees on the opposite side, to pass 
 over small savannas that slope gently down for a couple of miles to 
 the great plains on the left, and on the right end abruptly at the foot 
 of the well-rounded hills. On the distant plains we occasionally saw 
 a ranch or two. With the horizon clear, our view over the Llanos 
 would have been very extensive, but there seems to be a fine dust in 
 
EL LIMBO TO PORE 159 
 
 the air that prevents the atmosphere from being pellucid. The stars 
 are not very bright, even on cloudless nights. 
 
 Shortly before six the road climbed a shght hill or terrace, and we 
 came upon one of the most magnificent views that I have ever seen. 
 Before us lay the beautiful terraced valley of the upper Ariporo, 
 ranging in colour from dark green to hght blue in the dim distance. 
 The sun was setting at the head of the valley. The high Andes of 
 Cocui were visible above the clouds to the northwest, and with the 
 glasses we could make out three glaciers ghstening in the evening 
 light. Two were on the south side of one peak, and another, the 
 largest, on the south side of another peak. It was a romantic view 
 of the great Andes, the Hke of which we were not likely to see 
 again. 
 
 We picked up here a few large white land shells four inches long, 
 like those found on the battle-lield of Carabobo {Bidimus obloiigus). 
 
 We rode into Moreno about half-past six and were very kindly 
 received. The citizens had heard that we were coming and made 
 us as comfortable as possible at the posada. All the local dignitaries 
 except the alcalde, who has gone to Pore, called on us. The alcalde 
 left orders with a very intelligent person to provide for our necessities 
 in accordance with instructions received from Bogota. There was 
 little for him to do, but our reception was a very pleasant contrast 
 to what we have had during the past three days. 
 
 We learn that Pore is the end of the government telegraph wire 
 and that its annual fair is in progress, so we are anxious to reach it 
 tomorrow. The local dignitaries tried their best to persuade us to 
 stay here for several days, dispose of our oxen and buy mules for our 
 journey across the Andes, telling us that there was nothing to be had 
 at Pore. We hear, however, from Juan, and also from a traveller at 
 the inn, that Pore has more shops than Moreno; which would not be 
 strange, as Moreno has only two. 
 
 March 20th. Moreno was once a place of considerable impor- 
 tance. The ruins of the town do not compare with those of Barinas, 
 Guanare, or San Carlos, but still they are interesting and give one some 
 idea of its former size. Practically all of the principal buildings that 
 once graced the plaza, including the church and the Government 
 buildings, are totally in ruins. Moreno has a cemetery, the first seen 
 
i6o COLOMBIA 
 
 in man}' weeks, enclosed with an adobe wall. The only monuments 
 are wooden crosses of various heights, mostly rather slim and eight 
 or ten feet high. 
 
 The innkeeper was much disappointed this morning that we 
 were unable to pay her in paper. She would not accept gold as she 
 "could not change it" and Venezuelan silver seems to be no longer 
 desirable. 
 
 The posada was actually clean, but we ha^'e slept out of doors so 
 much of late that I had my cot placed in the courtyard, only to be 
 aroused in the middle of the night by a shower. We seem to be 
 follo^^•ing the rain in its career to the southwards, as at each place 
 we are told it is the first rain of the season. This morning we had 
 more showers. 
 
 Leaving Moreno at ten, we reached the village of Brito at noon. 
 It has about twenty houses scattered along both sides of a single 
 street. The clay near here has a reddish tinge and some of the houses 
 have pink adobe walls. On the fences we saw rude crosses. Prac- 
 tically all the inhabitants of Brito had gone to the fair at Pore and 
 the houses and yards were closed. One gate, howe\'er, was open, 
 and our tired oxen suddenly turned in and sought the shade of a 
 grove of plantain trees, greatly frightening the woman and girl who 
 were in the house, the only inhabitants left in the village. After 
 knocking down a few trees with their loads and walking through one 
 end of the hut, the wapvard oxen were brought back on the road 
 and started on the last stretch to Pore. 
 
 On the road we met the alcalde of Moreno witli two of his friends, 
 one of them the Secretary of the Province. The\' were ver}- cordial 
 and gave us a hearty welcome to this part of Colombia. The alcalde 
 told us that he had received orders from the President to do every- 
 thing in his power for us and regretted that he had not been in Moreno 
 on our arrival. 
 
 During the afternoon we met numbers of men and women 
 returning from the fair. We saw in the distance two or three small 
 villages that appeared to lie on the edge of the plains, where the 
 gentle three-mile slope from the foot-hills ends. The hills on our 
 right this afternoon, like those yesterday, are apparently of pebbles 
 or small boulders, and about five hundred feet in heisfht. 
 
EL LIMBO TO PORE i6l 
 
 The heat has been very oppressive for the last two or three days, 
 even more so than on the lower plains. The wind is very hot and con- 
 tinues to blow from the northwest. "' 
 
 We have passed a dead giant ant-eater, but have seen no live ones. 
 For two or three days past we have heard the song of sk3'larks 
 resembHng those heard in the Hawaiian Islands. We have seen 
 no horned screamers since crossing the Totumito River. 
 
 About half-past five we saw the red-tiled roofs of Pore in the dis- 
 tance and a long line of telegraph poles stretching eastward towards 
 the Meta River. Half an hour later we entered the little town and 
 finished the second part of our journey. The first part ended with 
 the cart at El Amparo and the second ends here with the oxen who, 
 born and reared on the plains, are not equal to the task of climbing 
 the hills and crossing the Andes with their loads. Two of the oxen 
 have stood the two hundred miles very well. One is almost played 
 out and the fourth looks as though he might drop dead at any moment. 
 
 We found Pore in the throes of the fair. Fully half the men 
 appeared to be under the genial influence of wine, beer, or hard liquor. 
 Our coming had been announced by travellers who, riding more 
 rapidly than we, had passed us during the day. We received a noisy 
 welcome. The best house in the place, a new adobe structure with 
 a red-tiled roof, had been ostentatiously swept out and was placed at 
 our disposal. A finely built Syrian of almost gigantic proportions, 
 with black hair and beard, wearing heavy boots and well-made 
 clothes, acted as master of ceremonies, and seemed to be the most 
 popular person in the crowd. He came forward at once with a bottle 
 of fiery spirits of which we had to partake on very empty stomachs, 
 as we had had nothing to eat since early morning. A few minutes 
 later the genial Prefect of the Province of Casanare, Don Miguel 
 Gonzalez Alvarez, a fine old patriarch with a long flowing beard, 
 appeared, to welcome us in the name of the Colombian Government. 
 He said he had recently received two telegrams from President Reyes 
 instructing him to do everything for our comfort, and he placed 
 himself entirely at our service. 
 
 Our first duty was to visit the telegraph office where as soon as 
 possible we sent off a cable to New York announcing our safe arrival. 
 The operator was pretty well under the influence of the fair, and the 
 
i62 COLOMBIA 
 
 instruments did not seem to be very lively, but the message was finally 
 sent off. This is the iirst time that we have been in direct telegraphic 
 communication with the rest of the world since we left Curai;ao, 
 nearly four months ago. It seems strange to be more closely in touch 
 with the world off here in eastern Colombia than when we were in 
 Caracas. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Pore 
 
 March ^ist. Pore is crowded with people to its utmost capacity, 
 and we had considerable difficulty in getting any supper last evening. 
 A crazy band, imported for the fair, and several score of drunks made 
 the night hideous, but we were so sleepy that even the bats did not 
 annoy us. It rained in the night and still more during the morning, 
 part of the time quite hard. This is again "the first rain of the sea- 
 son," which we seem to have picked up and carried along southward 
 from place to place. 
 
 Soon after breakfast Rice was called to attend an acute case of 
 appendicitis. The patient had been very drunk last evening and we 
 had seen him riding recklessly about on his mule. We had a hard 
 time nursing him in the room where he was ill, a dark, smelly affair, 
 part drinking room and part sleeping, where a dozen of the visitors 
 to the fair had been accommodated during the night. The crowd 
 was extremely curious but not at all anxious to help in performing 
 the necessary duties for their sick friend. We finally got them all 
 out. The primitive cook house in another part of the establishment 
 was pressed into service for boiling water, but it was with difficulty 
 that we got enough for the doctor's needs. Every one supposed that 
 the man was going to die, but Rice pulled him through without 
 operating. 
 
 The doctor's success in this case gave him such a reputation that 
 he had a continuous run of patients all day long. Skin diseases, 
 smallpox, stricture, stomach disorders, partial bhndness, obesity, 
 partial deafness, badly set fractures, and other troubles, serious and 
 imaginary, have been brought to our room for treatment. The free 
 "dispensary" is so popular that several well-known malingerers have 
 been attracted to it, much to their discomfiture, for Rice ridiculed 
 them unmercifully, much to the joy of the spectators. 
 
 163 
 
i64 COLOMBIA 
 
 In the course of the morning Juan came to say that he desired to 
 go baclv to Arauca and would hke to be paid off. This is as far as 
 he agreed to come. I went to the Prefect and told him the story of 
 our various losses, and he promised to have Juan arrested and 
 searched. Our guide is such a weh-known desperado that at first 
 no one dared to arrest him, but finally four strong men were found 
 who were willing to escort him into a room adjoining the principal 
 store, which was owned by the local alcalde. After some struggles 
 he was searched and in his belt was found Rice's missing heirloom, 
 the gold chain with the American gold eagle. This was all the evi- 
 dence needed to convict him, and he was sent to the stocks in the old 
 Spanish jail here. The two gold ounces which were stolen from me 
 in Arauca were not found, which is not surprising as he had an 
 opportunity to leave them with his family. The Prefect offers to 
 punish him in any way that we desire, but he has been such an excel- 
 lent guide and done his work so well that we are wilhng to forgive 
 him his kleptomania, charge up the gold ounces to his wages, and call 
 it square. In many ways he has won our admiration, for he is cer- 
 tainly one of the cleverest persons in the country. To see him strip 
 and wade into the lagoons on the Llanos in order to find a way for 
 the caravan to cross, having no fear of the small alhgators that infest 
 those waters, was enough to make one realize his courage. The only 
 thing he really fears are the wild Indians, whose nature he knows 
 only too well, as he is of Indian blood himself. He took his arrest 
 very philosophically, although it seemed to annoy him to think that 
 he came so far with us after having secured his booty. 
 
 During the day there have been several cock-fights pulled off near 
 our door, on which some money has been wagered and considerable 
 excitement wasted. A dance hall across the street is doing a big 
 business. There are a great many temporary grog shops and nearly 
 every one is more or less under the influence of liquor. A score of 
 street pedlers are doing a small business with various trinkets and 
 articles of apparel. I tried to buy a red " imitation silk" handkerchief 
 for twenty-five dollars. The pedlers did not care to take Venezuelan 
 silver, so I offered a Colombian gold ounce, but even that was 
 declined, the pedlers not desiring anything but paper money. Finally 
 our friend, the big Syrian contractor, succeeded in changing the gold 
 
PORE 165 
 
 into bills. He tells us every one prefers American gold to any other 
 kind. English gold is next in demand, followed by Spanish or 
 iVEexican. Their own Colombian gold pieces are least valuable of all. 
 The height of the fair is over, and tlie excitement closes this evening 
 with a free circus on the plaza. 
 
 We tried today to sell our oxen and buy some mules, but quite 
 unsuccessfully. It is said that two of our oxen are about to die and 
 no one wants to buy the other two. The mules that passed us the 
 other day on the road are offered for sale now at sixty dollars, but as it 
 will take at least five to carry our stuff over the mountains, we are 
 not anxious to purchase them. 
 
 Although one hears much of the activity of the Germans in South 
 America we have seen no German merchants since leaving Tinaco 
 in northern Venezuela. Many of the merchants in the interior on 
 the rivers Apure and Arauca are S3'rians, but the majority are 
 mestizos, Venezuelans and Colombians. 
 
 March 22c?. Much rain fell during the niglit and it has rained 
 all day more or less. The appendicitis patient is improving slowly, 
 though Rice thought he would surely die last night. 
 
 A hundred years ago Pore was quite an important town, but now 
 the ancient church is in ruins and the two-story houses which formerly 
 surrounded the plaza have all disappeared. We explored the ruins 
 this morning. The church was about one hundred and twenty-five 
 feet long, but very httle of it now remains. Heaps of rubbish and 
 hummocks overgrown with bushes and small trees indicate where 
 houses once stood. 
 
 The old Spanish jail is still standing, having been well built of 
 hewn stone. We visited the cell where Juan spent last night. It has 
 a small door, not quite four feet high, at one end and a barred window 
 at the other. There is no jailer and there are no locks to the doors, 
 so that the only way of confining a prisoner is by the old Spanish 
 stocks. These consist of two pieces of heavy timber twelve feet long, 
 with holes for half a dozen pairs of legs and a device for locking the 
 ends so that the poor wretches could not escape. One can he on the 
 ground in comparative comfort while one's legs are confined in these 
 old stocks, but to stand is impossible, and to sit, not very comfortable. 
 The holes have been worn smooth and pohshed by the ankles of count- 
 
i66 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 less unfortunates who have been detained here during the past cen- 
 tury. The jail has no other furniture. The Prefect decided today 
 to- send Juan back to Arauca in charge of a deputy sheriff. I am glad 
 he did not have to stay long in this old jail, where thousands of bats 
 have been holding high carnival since time immemorial and have 
 made the floor unspeakably disgusting. 
 
 Spanish Stocks in the Jail at Pore. 
 
 On one corner of the deserted j^laza is a forlorn-looking church 
 of recent construction. It is a narrow oblong building with no tower 
 and is already in a dreadful state of decay. Services are held very 
 infrequently. The roof leaks and a great colony of bats is in full 
 possession of the premises. The shrines are neglected and the un- 
 fortunate saints whose images inhabit the solitude appeal strongly 
 to one's sympathy. On another corner is an old building, partly 
 restored to serve as the Government telegraph ofllce. In crcncral. 
 all that remains of Pore is one long street and three cross streets con- 
 taining in all not more than fifty houses, most of them adobe with 
 thatched roofs. From the plaza one gets a fine view of the distant 
 mountains and of the great plains stretching away to the eastward. 
 
PORE 
 
 167 
 
 Last evening, on the plaza in front of the church, we witnessed a 
 primitive circus, consisting of a fiftli-rate clown and a very unskilful 
 acrobat who performed a few evolutions on a shaky trapeze erected 
 for the occasion. Before the entertainment, the clown, whose antics 
 were not particularly reiined, riding the most wretched steed that 
 could be found and accompanied by the extraordinary band that is in 
 attendance on the fair, marched around the town, greatly to every- 
 body's dehght. 
 
 The Plaza of Pore. 
 
 Today nearly everybody has gone. The fair seems to be planned 
 for the end of the dry season and is an annual event looked forward to 
 with much pleasure by the entire country for fifty miles around. 
 
 Jose Antonio Levar, the naturalized Syrian who has taken a fancy 
 to us since our arrival, today took the contract to convey our stuff to 
 the end of the little railway near Bogota. As long as any of his 
 friends remained in Pore, or there was any chance for the local dig- 
 nitaries to sell us their mules, the worthy Syrian insisted that it was 
 impossible for him to do anything at all for us, as all his mules "were 
 required in the business of taking coffee to Puerto San Salvador." 
 When he found that there was no longer any danger of interfering 
 with the business of his Colombian pohtical friends, he agreed to 
 furnish us with five strong pack-mules and a good arriero or muleteer. 
 
1 68 COLOMBIA 
 
 and send them with us by way of the famous, or rather infamous, 
 Paramo of Pisva, the pass by which Bolivar crossed the mountains. 
 The price is two hundred dollars, gold, but he agrees to take our 
 four oxen in part payment at twenty dollars a head, although he 
 declares that two of them are going to die tomorrow. He left this 
 afternoon to get the mules and we hope to start tomorrow. 
 
 In the evening we had a long historical discussion with the Prefect. 
 In 1818, during the Wars of Emancipation, the Spanish army under 
 General Barreiro invaded this region. The patriots had been sub- 
 dued throughout Colombia except in the Llanos of Casanare. When 
 the Spanish army reached Pore, all the inhabitants disappeared, and 
 Barreiro was practically starved out of the plains. These people, 
 as we have seen, li\-e from hand to mouth and apparently never store 
 up any food, so that it must have been comparatively easy to defeat 
 the Spanish general in this manner. It was probably almost impos- 
 sible for him to keep his army provided with food from the plateau of 
 Sogamoso for any length of time. 
 
 March 2^d. More rain in the night and this morning. Rice 
 continues to have large "practice" and is kept busy performing minor 
 operations, chiefly for stricture. Nevertheless Pore is gradually 
 setthng down into that condition of absolute quiet and dullness which 
 it enjoys during the three hundred and sixty days of each year when 
 the fair is not in progress. Our friend the Prefect underwent a 
 minor operation yesterday and is not feehng well today. The appen- 
 dicitis patient is much better. The Syrian contractor failed to put 
 in an appearance with the mules and we have lost another day. 
 
 A former member of the National Congress who has been several 
 times to Bogota gives us the following itinerary: — "From here to 
 Nunchia, one or two days; thence to Labranza Grande, two days of 
 bad road (for "road" read bridle path), rest one day in Labranza 
 Grande; thence to La Salina, one day; to Mongua one day; to Soga- 
 moso half a day; rest there one day; thence to Rio Piedras one day; 
 to Tunja half a day; to Cascada one day; to Choconta one day; to 
 Zipaquira one day; thence by train three hours to Bogotd,. Twelve 
 or thirteen days in all." But this is not the way Bolivar's armv went 
 and our route will probably take longer, how much longer no one 
 seems to know, as nobody in this vicinity has ever passed over the 
 
PORE 169 
 
 dangerous and unfrequented Paramo of Pisva. Considering tlie 
 fact that we planned to be in Bogota in fifty-four days from tlie time 
 we left Carabobo, and it is now the sixty-second day since we left 
 that battle-field, it is annoying to learn that Bogota is twelve days off 
 even for those who travel with less of a cargo than we and who go the 
 customary road via Labranza Grande. 
 
 March 24th. No mules. We are getting tired of Pore. The 
 Prefect feels pretty badly this morning, and asked the doctor to call 
 on him early. He recovered sutliciently, however, to show us a copy 
 of the Diario Oficial of January 28th which contains an executive 
 decree pubhshed over the signature of the Secretary of the Treasury 
 granting to "Doctors Hiram Blingham and Hamilton" the privilege 
 of entering the country with their scientific outfit, duty free. The 
 only condition imposed is that we must not stay in the country longer 
 than is necessary for our mission and must take with us out of the 
 country all our outfit except foodstuffs. It is certainly very kind of 
 the Colombian Government to take so much trouble on our behalf 
 and to do everything to make it easy for us, — even though our new 
 patronymics make identification diflicult. It is not strange that the 
 officials should suppose that Rice followed the Spanish custom of 
 writing his mother's family name after that of his father. 
 
 It rained hard again this afternoon. This daily downpour helps 
 us to realize what we escaped by crossing the Llanos in the dry season. 
 Had we not succeeded in getting over the worst of the rivers and 
 swamps before the rains commenced, it would have been next to 
 impossible to get our outfit across country. Our experiences at the 
 Cano Guata might have been multiplied indefinitely. 
 
 In one of our rooms here is a large case said to contain a piano 
 from Hamburg awaiting shipment to Moreno, where lives the richest 
 man in the country. It is said to have cost him ten thousand dollars, 
 gold, and came by way of the Orinoco and Meta rivers. There are 
 no carts here and we cannot help wondering when it will reach its 
 destination — and who will tune it when it arrives. 
 
 March 2^th. No mules yet. We fear that our contractor has 
 heard of the Prefect's illness and is purposely delaying returning with 
 the mules. He must realize that when they come the doctor will 
 leave and the Prefect will not be pleased. The Prefect is convalescing 
 
I70 COLOMBIA 
 
 but still keeps to his cot and sends for the doctor frequently. He says 
 today that if the Syrian does not return by evening he will "send a 
 special messenger after him and see why under the sun he is delaying 
 us so long." In other words, the Prefect is feeling better. The dis- 
 pensary is not so well attended as it has been, but Rice is not sorry 
 for there are few interesting cases and most of the patients come 
 merely for the fun of being given advice free. 
 
 We have had some rain before, but last night the heavens broke 
 loose and smashed all records with a terrific downpour and a tre- 
 mendous amount of thunder and lightning. I do not remember ever 
 to have seen it rain so hard, except once in the Hawaiian Islands, 
 when I was staying in Hanalei on the Island of Kauai, where it is said 
 that "rain drops are as big as peaches." When we leave here we 
 will have to cross the Pauta River, a wide, rocky stream with a danger- 
 ous current. Many people have been lost in attempting to ford it in 
 the rainy season, and loaded mules are frequently lost in the rapids. 
 Perhaps it is just as well that the mules have not yet arrived, for it 
 may be impossible to cross the river for a day or two after these rains. 
 
 In our journey across the Llanos we have talked with a number of 
 intelhgcnt persons, and all agree that the seasons are about as follows: 
 The dry months are December, January, and February, when no 
 rain falls at all. The rains commence in the latter part of March, 
 increase through April and are very heavy in May, June, and July. 
 There is a let-up in August, so that August, while not drv, is more like 
 April, but in September the rains return in full force and continue so 
 in October, diminishing rapidly in November and stopping entirely 
 about the first of December. 
 
 March 26lh. The Prefect is feeling very much better and sent 
 off a messenger this morning to find the Syrian and his mules. The 
 contractor could not have been very far away, for he appeared in less 
 than four hours after the messenger was sent. 
 
 This afternoon an Italian who owns the house in which we are 
 staying brought his daughter for the doctor to see. She has a crooked 
 finger and Rice offered to straighten it out. She is to decide tomorrow 
 whether she cares to stand the pain and it looks as though we might 
 be detained another day. The town of Pore is growing more and 
 more tiresome, but we changed our boarding place today and here- 
 
PORE 171 
 
 after are to be the guests of the Italian, a nice old man who has lived 
 in the country for over thirty years and looks like a Spaniard. He is 
 quite the richest man in the town and the only one able to change our 
 gold into paper money. 
 
 Whoever would have supposed that we were going to spend a 
 week at Pore! 
 
 March 2'jth. This morning Rice straightened out the lady's 
 finger. Then our luggage, which had been in four loads, was re- 
 arranged for the five mules. It was a slow process and three o'clock 
 came before the mules were loaded. Just as we were ready to start, 
 a terrific thunder-storm burst upon us. Rain fell in torrents and we 
 had all we could do to get the mules and the stuff under cover. The 
 thermometer fell twelve degrees in fifteen minutes, from 84° F. to 
 72° F. 
 
 This evening the sky is clear for the first time since our arrival. 
 The Prefect called with his nephew, Don Sylvestre Arenas, one of the 
 richest and most popular young men in the Province of Casanare. 
 Tall, square-shouldered, straight as a ramrod, with a handsome face 
 and pleasing manner, he is quite a contrast to most of the rather 
 slovenly people we have seen recently. He was a general in the 
 Revolution of three years ago, fighting on the opposite side from his 
 uncle, whom he defeated in battle and took prisoner. Owing to his 
 position he was able to prevent the old man from spending more than 
 three days in the awful old Pore jail. He is a radical or liberal, 
 although he comes of an old family, while his uncle is a conservative 
 or goto. He has heard of Rice's skill as a physician and comes to 
 invite us to visit Desecho, his ranch, on our way to Nunchia. It 
 seems that he has two brothers who are ill and need medical attend- 
 ance. Since Bolivar's time a new road has been built to Nunchia, 
 but the Liberating Army marched by way of Desecho, which is now 
 Don Sylvestre's ranch. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 Pore to Nunchia 
 
 March 28th. We were ready to start soon after breakfast this 
 morning, but Don Sylvestre wished to send word ahead in order that 
 proper preparations might be made for our reception. He said it 
 was impossible for him to go this morning as he had "so many things 
 to attend to." As a matter of fact he spent the morning in agreeable 
 conversation. We finally left Pore about two o'clock. There were 
 many thunder-showers in all directions this afternoon, but we escaped 
 a wetting. Don Sylvestre and his uncle, the Prefect, rode with us. 
 Both were extremely attentive and the latter took particular pleasure 
 in pointing out various medicinal plants in the woods. He rides a 
 large mule that ambles along like a camel and is nearly twice the 
 size of any of ours. It suits his dignity wonderfully well. His 
 servant, a mountain Indian, runs along on foot, carrying on his 
 back the Prefect's travelhng wardrobe. The load must weigh sixty 
 pounds. 
 
 Our cargo mules arc an interesting lot. Three of them are white. 
 One of these carries a load of two hundred and thirty pounds but does 
 not mind it in the least and has a trick of trotting briskly some dis- 
 tance ahead, turning around and looking at his companions as much 
 as to say, "What a slow crowd you are!" Then he proceeds to graze 
 until the next mule reaches him, when he will trot brisklv on again for 
 a couple of hundred yards. Luis, the arriero, runs about behind his 
 mules like a colhe tending sheep, barking and shouting "hoop ato," 
 "otch tucumbol," and the usual muleteer's jargon. The Syrian 
 contractor places great confidence in Luis and assures us he is an 
 excellent muleteer and a trustworthy citizen; "not like Juan." We 
 offered him the use of two American pack saddles that we had brought 
 with us from New York, but he declined with thanks and prefers the 
 simple pad to which the mules are accustomed. It requires great 
 
 172 
 
PORE TO NUNCHIA 173 
 
 experience to fasten heavy loads securely to the pad, and unless the 
 two sides are very evenly matched they continually need righting. 
 When the arriero sees a load listing to one side, he runs alongside 
 the mule, throws his coarse woollen poncho over the beast's head, 
 ties it in a knot under his jaw, and proceeds to adjust the load. As 
 the mule can see nothing and is unable to shake off the poncho he is 
 willing to stand very quietly, even more so than if he were tied. 
 Some of them have a strip of cloth fastened across the forehead in 
 such a manner that it can readily be slipped down over the eyes to 
 serve as a blinder instead of the poncho. All the mules have leading 
 ropes but these are almost never used, and the well-trained beasts are 
 allowed to pick their own path. 
 
 The country south of Pore is sparsely wooded. The hills that one 
 sees to the westward seem to be forested, in distinction from the 
 rather barren hills of pebbles north of Pore and Moreno. The 
 secondary range continues to be very jagged, as though in process 
 of rapid dissection. The streams crossed today are filled with 
 pebbles and boulders and their sides show that the plain is of a like 
 formation. We crossed many small gulches, mostly dry. The land 
 seems to be the "waste" of the Andes. 
 
 Before long we reached the extensive flood plain of the Pauta 
 River, with its gigantic trees and thinly scattered jungle. Suddenly, 
 to our surprise, we heard the mimic roar of the araguatos, or howling 
 monkeys. Since first heard on the banks of the river Portuguesa, 
 this has been a frequent sound whenever we have been near a river 
 jungle in the early morning. This is the first time that we have 
 heard it in the afternoon and so close. We soon found a large dead 
 tree in which were five or six of these interesting howlers. Of a red 
 cinnamon colour, not very large, bearded and having an appearance 
 of being extremely wise, they made no attempt to run away and it 
 would have been quite easy to shoot one. A baby monkey on its 
 mother's back added a touch of family fife to the picture. 
 
 Shortly before six we reached the Pauta, a large stream with many 
 islands and rapids. We crossed it at the same stage in its career as 
 the Guanare and the Ariporo. It has a strong current over a very 
 rocky bed and we had an exciting time at the ford. An Indian who 
 lives in the forest near by came to our assistance and led the Prefect's 
 
174 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 heavily laden servant and the mules across one by one. He says the 
 river was impassable yesterday morning. 
 
 We reached Desecho, three leagues from Pore, at seven o'clock. 
 A wonderful dinner was ready for us and we did it full justice. 
 Although this is a most out-of-the-way spot, we had many delicacies, 
 including a bottle of excellent Medoc. Desecho is by far the best 
 ranch we have seen. The buildings are in good repair and kept 
 clean and tidy. It is the first ranch house we have encountered that 
 
 The Provincial Prefect and his Nephews at Desecho. 
 
 has barred windows and panelled doors and shutters, a well-swept 
 courtyard, good linen, and turkish towels. There is also a con- 
 venient bathing place in a large irrigating ditch near the house. 
 Such luxuries were unheard of in any of the ranches seen in Venezuela. 
 Furthermore, there is a little library which contains forty or fifty 
 volumes, including a dozen Spanish classics, some poetry and history, 
 a volume of Schopenhauer, a few works of travel, and several treatises 
 on the Spanish language. Colombians pride themselves on speaking 
 the best Spanish in South America. 
 
PORE TO NUNCHIA 175 
 
 March 2gth. During the night there was a very high wind, but 
 today is calm and clear. We had a fine bath in the irrigation canal 
 this morning. The ditch was constructed about twenty years ago 
 by the enterprising father of our host. Fed by the Pauta river, it 
 supplies the ranch with an unceasing supply of cool mountain water. 
 A great breakfast awaited our return from the bath, the chief dehcacy 
 being a calf's head that had spent the night cooking slowly in an old- 
 fashioned earthen oven, and was served with caper sauce. 
 
 After Rice had prescribed for the invalid brothers, one of whom 
 is anxious to be married in the near future, we took our departure. 
 Our host repeatedly urged us to remain, and the surroundings were 
 so extremely pleasant it was with the greatest difficulty that we de- 
 clined his invitation. Had we not lost so much time in Pore we might 
 have stayed here a little longer. We left Desecho soon after noon 
 and passed through small savannas, scattered groves and gulches. 
 After crossing several streams we turned westward toward the first 
 range of foot-hills. These well-wooded hills are not of the pebble 
 formation seen north of Pore, but are of disintegrating volcanic lava. 
 Among the trees we noticed a great deal of small bamboo like that 
 near Carabobo, and also several "monkey pod" trees. 
 
 About two o'clock we reached a little thatched hut where an 
 Indian came out to receive us, bringing a gourd full of majule, a kind 
 of beer made from plantains. Rice and I tasted it, but could not 
 swallow the awful stuff, although the others in our party drank 
 gourds full of it with gusto. It smells like poi, the Hawaiian national 
 dish, but is extremely insipid and had the flavour of earth. 
 
 After crossing the Caiio Muato at the point where the Spanish 
 General Barreiro is said to have had a skirmish with the patriots, we 
 began a very steep ascent. The hill was covered with broken waste 
 as is usual with volcanic mountains. The mules had a hard time 
 climbing the shppery path. Rice, riding the little blue mule, was 
 obliged to dismount as his animal refused to carry him. In places 
 the trail was fairly dangerous. A false step or a slip on the muddy 
 path would have caused one to roll down the steep incline several 
 hundred feet. The path wound sharply up the hill to its very highest 
 point in true Spanish fashion, as steeply as it could go. In places 
 the mules had to jump up steps two feet high. It required good 
 
176 COLOMBIA 
 
 saddling and good breeching to give one a moderate sense of security. 
 We reached the summit of the first range of foot-hills about three 
 o'clock. The view was superb, our altitude above the plain being 
 a thousand feet. The Llanos of Casanare stretched away like the 
 ocean as far as the eye could reach. As far as we could see with our 
 glasses to northeast, east, and southeast, we could make out the 
 characteristic features of the Llanos, great grassy plains alternating 
 with forested river courses. To the westward lay the second range 
 of hiUs, a beautiful green valley intervening. Both these ridges run 
 practically north and south. While we were resting on the top of the 
 ridge, the Prefect, who accompanied us from Desecho to Nunchia, 
 recited a romantic poem which he had written some time ago, inspired 
 by this very view. He is a fine old boy. 
 
 The second ridge is not nearly so steep as the first, although several 
 hundred feet higher. Both are clearly volcanic. They are charac- 
 terized by huge irregular blocks of lava more or less weathered. 
 The summits of several of the peaks are formed by the edges of strati- 
 fied lava tipped up at an angle of thirty-five degrees. Erosion is in 
 rapid progress and the disintegrating lava is making good rich soil. 
 
 Two houses at the left of the road near the summit were attrac- 
 tively placed in the midst of thriving Httle plantations. A few speci- 
 mens of night-blooming cereus, with buds about one-quarter size, 
 were growing on a stone wall near the roadside. From the top of the 
 second ridge we saw the Llanos far to the southward. The familiar 
 alternating lines of savanna and forest continued as far as one could 
 see anything. The air was unusually clear. The view of the peaks 
 of the Andes was magnificent. 
 
 The descent on the western side of the second range of hills is 
 extremely steep. A rocky path winds through dense tropical jungles. 
 The path has been deeply eroded by torrential rains so that one's 
 knees are frequently in danger of being crushed against its sides, and 
 the cargo mules had to step very carefully to avoid smashing their 
 loads against the rocks. 
 
 About six o'clock we came to a httle opening, a kind of terrace, 
 from which we got a charming view. In the immediate foreground 
 the hill fell away very rapidly, almost precipitously, although it was 
 not so steep as to prevent the natives from cultivating tiny planta- 
 
PORE TO NUNCHIA 177 
 
 tions on its side. In tlie middle foreground lay the little town of 
 Nunchia, with streets running at right angles, lined with thatched or 
 tiled roofed houses and a galvanized-iron roofed church facing the 
 green plaza. Nunchia lies at the junction of two rivers, the larger 
 of which, the Tocaria, was plainly visible for some distance. To the 
 north the flat top of a ridge showed how much work the river had 
 done by erosion. In the far distance, the Andes rose tier on tier, 
 mingling greens and blues in a way that reminded me repeatedly of 
 the Hawaiian Islands and of Jamaica. Continuing the steep descent, 
 we crossed the river Nunchia. At the ford it is about one hundred 
 feet wide, and from two to three feet deep. Ten minutes later, after 
 passing through httle plantations of sugar-cane, mangoes, and plan- 
 tains, we reached the plaza. 
 
 It was the evening of Good Friday and a crowd of about two 
 hundred persons were crowded in front of the church as we rode up. 
 For the moment their attention was distracted from the approaching 
 celebration, and they gathered closely about us as we dismounted in 
 front of a well-built house that had been placed at our disposal. A 
 few minutes later an extraordinary procession started from the church. 
 First came three or four boys making a weird and continuous rattle, 
 called the death rattle, with clacks. Following them were two boys 
 with large candles and a third carrying a small cross, then four more 
 carrying a large cross and others carrying candles. These were 
 followed by six men carrying a decorated coffin in which lay a wax 
 figure of the crucified Lord, more candle-bearers and men carrying 
 a figure of the Virgin in a shrine; followed by priests, candle-bearers, 
 women, and a large crowd chanting the holy service. The night was 
 dark, and the procession made a profound impression on all as it 
 moved solemnly around the plaza and returned to the church. It 
 was a most reahstic representation. 
 
 March ^oth. Heavy rain during the night. 
 
 The Prefect called for us early this morning and we went with 
 him to bathe in the river Tocaria. The bathing place, much fre- 
 quented by the townspeople, is a third of a mile from the plaza. The 
 water was cool and invigorating. A fine current and a deep swimming 
 hole made the bath most amusing. There is a conveniently arranged 
 thatched bathing pavilion for the ladies of the town at a sufficient 
 
178 COLOMBIA 
 
 distance from the spot where the men bathe. The path from the 
 town to the swimming pools is well worn. 
 
 Bathing is quite fashionable in Colombia. Why it should appear 
 to be so neglected in Venezuela is an interesting question. The first 
 person whom we met in Venezuela who seemed to be fond of daily 
 baths was Don Francisco Parada, the Colombian at La Calzada de 
 Paez, where we rested for a few days six weeks ago. The next bather 
 was Dr. Miguel, a Venezuelan, but born and raised in Colombia. 
 At El Amparo we never saw any one bathing on the Venezuelan side 
 of the river except ourselves, although every morning a score of 
 Colombians came down to bathe on their side of the Arauca. We 
 noticed in Pore that several of our friends took daily baths, and at 
 Desecho the bathing is made much of. We also have noticed that 
 while the upper class in this part of Colombia are more cleanly, better 
 dressed, better educated, and more fond of luxuries than the same 
 class in the similar regions of Venezuela, the lower class appears to 
 be more destitute, ragged, unkempt, and wretched than those of the 
 same social rank across the border. 
 
 The view from our front door is charming. It looks across the 
 grassy plaza and the thatched huts to the steep green slopes of the 
 secondary range of foot-hills and the path over which we came on 
 Friday. The peaks rise thirteen hundred feet above us. 
 
 Nunchia is a town of importance and is the Provincial capital. 
 It has two priests, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a tailor, a shoemaker, a 
 saddle-maker, two telegraph operators, and a court-house, which is 
 more than can be said of any place we have seen for two months. 
 There are almost no ruins here and the town appears to be fairly 
 prosperous. The shops contain httle besides cotton cloth, alcohohc 
 liquors, provisions such as cassava, plantains, buns, and canned 
 salmon, and a few specifics, such as copaiba oil, for snake bites and 
 other troubles. We are told that during the rainy season, bungoes 
 are able to come up the Tocaria river to a place four miles away, 
 from which goods are easily brought to Nunchia. As the river has 
 not been navigable for some months, there is almost no business at 
 present. 
 
 We should have left Nunchia this morning except that the mules 
 must be shod. The blacksmith is ill and his assistant is not only 
 
PORE TO NUNCHIA 
 
 179 
 
 slow but timid. It takes him nearly three hours to get through with 
 one mule and we have nine that need shoeing. 
 
 Rice was kept busy all day making diagnoses and writing pre- 
 scriptions. Soon after breakfast a woman came to have a tooth 
 extracted. She had been suffering great pain for ten days and was 
 completely worn out. Rice gave her morphine. She fainted away 
 and the people who had crowded around , to the number of about a 
 hundred, thought she was dying or dead. We finally laid her out on 
 a rude bench in front of the priests' school next door, where she 
 
 1 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 ■0M 
 
 vX 
 
 
 ^ .-a-i.-^^i.^^ .— 
 
 
 
 ^^mmw 
 
 ■ 
 
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 .-, ilPW* \ 
 
 ■^^^K. j 
 
 ^m' 
 
 P^ 
 
 ^^ms^lgg 
 
 ^ 
 
 The Plaza at Nunchia. 
 
 gradually revived, much to the wonder of the crowd. As was to be 
 expected, other cases of illness followed and a regular dispensary was 
 established before we knew it. 
 
 In the afternoon one of the village priests sent for Rice to come 
 and see his hand. Examination showed a case of gangrenous slough- 
 ing phagadena. His arm was much inflamed and he had a high 
 temperature. The doctor told him that he would lose not only his 
 hand and arm, but also his life, if the disease were not checked by a 
 surgical operation. The other priest offered to pay all our expenses 
 if we would remain long enough to perform the operation and dress 
 the wound until his colleague was out of danger. To this we agreed 
 and the operation is set for tomorrow. 
 
i8o COLOMBIA 
 
 One of our callers was an energetic young Colombian who plans 
 to take orchids to New York. He hears that they sell there for 
 twenty-five dollars apiece, and says if he can sell them for only two 
 dollars he can make money. He has half a dozen men collecting 
 plants in the mountains west of here. 
 
 March t,isL It rained in torrents last night. 
 
 I have had an exciting Easter Sunday aiding Rice operate on the 
 gangrenous hand. To interpret, run the priests' kitchen, boil in- 
 struments and dressings, and give chloroform, kept me fairly busy. 
 The priests have a nice, clean two-story house, with a galvanized iron 
 
 ^_ 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 sstf^^. . ■ 
 
 ■i^WL 
 
 ^Hi^: 
 
 ■'-''■ 
 
 
 ^ %*C- 
 
 Zr^ 
 
 
 vM/i&^m 
 
 
 ■■■.* 
 
 i 
 
 The Foot-hills of the Andes from Ndxchia. 
 
 roof covered with thatch to keep it cool. We took their dining-room 
 for an operating chamber, and found the table served our purpose 
 extremely well. The priest had suffered so much that his nerve was 
 all gone and he made a great fuss about taking the chloroform. 
 During a large part of the operation, he chanted the mass in a rich 
 baritone voice, much to the astonishment of the attendants who had 
 never before seen any one under the influence of an anaesthetic. 
 The operation lasted nearly an hour and we had only half a tea- 
 spoonful of chloroform left when it was over. 
 
 The fame of Rice's skill as a surgeon spread rapidly and in the 
 afternoon our room was again turned into a dispensary where tooth- 
 
PORE TO NUNCHIA i8r 
 
 pulling, heart and lung examinations, and a large crowd of spectators 
 kept us busy. As at Pore, quite a number of people who have 
 nothing at all the matter with them came for the fun of being ex- 
 amined free, much to Rice's annoyance. I acted as interpreter and 
 general assistant. Besides extending my Spanish vocabulary, I am 
 getting quite a smattering of the prevalent local diseases. Most of 
 the troubles. Rice says, are due to the fried food that they all eat. 
 This afternoon we had a case of floating kidney and one of exophthal- 
 mic goitre. As Rice makes no charge, the Prefect took up a subscrip- 
 tion today to pay our board bill for the past three days. The priests 
 are to pay for the remainder of our stay. 
 
 April ist. This dispensary business is getting to be a great nui- 
 sance. Were it not for the fact that the mules are not all shod yet, 
 and that the food is not as bad as some we have had, it would be 
 difficult to keep one's temper. There is no chance to rest, for our 
 door is besieged from morning till night by the lame, the halt, and 
 the blind, people with heart ache, stomach ache, and liver com- 
 plaint. They come from far and near in a steady stream. The 
 priest had a bad night but shows very little fever, and we hope will 
 not detain us many days. 
 
 April 2d. The little blue mule has developed a case of cattle 
 plague and must be abandoned. The " Savanna" mule died a month 
 ago after crossing the Rio Ele. 
 
 One of the telegraph operators, a pleasant young fellow, has a 
 wife who enjoys a tendency towards hypochondria and some nervous 
 indigestion. Rice advised pumping out her stomach, to which she 
 agreed to submit. The operation was almost tragic. She struggled 
 frantically, bit Rice's fingers, screamed as loud as she could, and 
 gave us a circus before it was over. 
 
 This afternoon we had another exciting performance dressing 
 the priest's hand. He lost his nerve completely, insisted on having 
 his face covered by a napkin, screamed, groaned, and howled; rather 
 to the amusement of his fellow priest and of the Holy Father of the 
 district, who came down yesterday from Tamara "to see what the 
 heretics were up to." However, the Padre Santo is very pleasant 
 and this evening invited us to a nice little supper with some wonder- 
 ful Madeira. • ■ 
 
i82 COLOMBIA 
 
 April 2,d. The usual dispensary this morning. After lunch we 
 started to make a call at the telegraph office and were invited to stop 
 at the house of Seiior Jesus Maria, for whose children Rice has pre- 
 scribed. We found quite a little feast prepared for us. As we had 
 just finished a hearty lunch it was not easy to eat anything, but still 
 more difficult to refuse without hurting their feelings. Nevertheless 
 we have been desperately hungry so often we are tempted to stuff 
 whenever we get the chance. 
 
 This evening we were invited out to dinner by Don Carlos Tobian, 
 the richest man in the town, a great friend of Don Sylvestre and the 
 owner of a large ranch near Desecho. His wife is a comely lady of 
 forty odd years, and they have several attractive children. He had 
 invited us to occupy a vacant room at his house soon after our 
 arrival, but as we were comfortably settled in an unoccupied house, 
 it did not seem worth while to move. Don Carlos has a charm- 
 ing establishment kept in excellent order, and provided with many 
 comforts. The dinner was surprisingly good. Of course his wife 
 and daughter were not at the table, but remained in the kitchen 
 to see that the food was properly served. In nearly all the houses 
 where we have spent a night or had meals, the housewife has done 
 the cooking or attended to it, but has never brought it to the table 
 or sat down to eat with her husband. 
 
 April 4th. Heavy rains during the night. This morning we 
 were called before breakfast to see a little girl who was said to be 
 dying. She had been taken with a cataleptic fit during the night 
 and Rice thinks she shows symptoms of exophthalmic goitre. She 
 is about six years old. 
 
 The priest is rapidly recovering and Rice declares him out of 
 danger. We had quite a talk with him this morning. He claims to 
 have suffered much persecution during the revolution of 1900 and 
 1902, when he was driven to seek refuge among the wild Indians nea.r 
 the Meta River. When he returned to Nunchia all he found left of 
 the ecclesiastical establishment was its four walls. Everything else 
 had been stolen or destroyed. Notwithstanding his courage as a 
 missionary he makes a great fuss when his wound is dressed, always 
 has his face covered, and shouts loud enough to be heard a quarter 
 of a mile away. 
 
PORE TO NUNCHIA 183 
 
 As soon as we returned from the priest's house, we gave orders 
 to saddle and load the mules, but before we could start off one of the 
 priests came to beg us to remain a few days longer and see a Sister of 
 Charity who was being brought "from Tamara to be treated by 
 the famous surgeon." She arrived this afternoon accompanied 
 by another Sister and her case was diagnosed. We hope to leave 
 tomorrow. 
 
 Today we had our first news from home, a cable reaching us via 
 Bogota. To be away from home is bad enough, but to be where you 
 cannot possibly reach home inside of a month or six weeks, and 
 receive a message that some one is seriously ill, is so much worse that 
 I hope it will never happen to me again. ' 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 NUNCHIA TO THE PaRAMO OF PiSVA 
 
 April i,th. We finally left Nunchia at noon today, this being 
 our eighth day in a place that we had not even heard of two weeks 
 ago. The httle blue mule had to be left behind. We were unable to 
 hire another or to buy one at a reasonable figure, so we appreciated 
 it all the more when the priests offered to loan us a fine, strong mule 
 that belongs to the church. No one can say that they are not grateful 
 for what Rice has done for their sick brother. Don Carlos Tobian 
 accompanied us out of town for an hour according to the polite 
 Spanish custom. Soon after he left us we began to climb a terribly 
 steep bridle path. It was worse than the steepest, wettest, rockiest 
 mountain trail that I have ever seen even in the mountains of Oahu, 
 and I do not wonder that the people call it a "camino muy feo." It 
 is impossible to give a good idea of it in words. I had to dismount 
 twenty times this afternoon to help my mule up or down the slippery, 
 rocky steps. The path repeatedly descended ravines four hundred 
 feet deep and immediately climbed out again. The poor cargo mules 
 had a hard time sliding down slippery clay banks, picking their way 
 across rushing mountain torrents and clambering up moss-covered 
 stone stairways which it did not seem they could possibly surmount. 
 
 After a long chmb we came to an exposed pass where we could 
 overlook both ranges of foot-hills and see the Llanos. About five 
 o'clock we reached the top of a ridge from which we had a distant 
 view of the httle village of Morcote on a hilltop to the westward, its 
 huge church looking in the distance like a tiny villa. 
 
 The Andes loomed up grandly all about us, but directly in front 
 lay a fearfully steep dechne, the path a series of long flights of rocky 
 stairs winding at a perilous angle six hundred feet to the bottom of a 
 deep gorge. As it had been raining and the mossy stones were very 
 slippery, I did not care to ride down, but it was almost as bad to be 
 
 184 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 
 
 185 
 
 obliged to go ahead and lead the mule, expecting that he would fall 
 any moment. 
 
 As we descended we entered a dense tropical forest with gigantic 
 creepers, tree ferns, and rare plants and orchids. It was the kind of 
 jungle that one reads about in the old books on Brazil. We looked 
 carefully for snakes but saw only one, a small, black snake two feet 
 long which my mule 
 almost stepped on 
 before it escaped into 
 the fern. It seems 
 difficult to believe 
 that this is the first ' 
 snake we have seen 
 since leaving Caracas. 
 
 About half-past 
 six we passed through 
 a small coffee plan- 
 tation, climbed a long 
 steep hill and reached 
 Morcote. We were 
 pleasantly received 
 by the Corregidor, 
 who knew we were 
 coming, and at once 
 took us to the school- 
 house, which he 
 placed entirely at our 
 disposal. It is a 
 small adobe hut with 
 a grass-thatched roof, 
 two tiny windows, a 
 rough wooden door, 
 dirt floor, two tumble-down benches, a rickety table, some farm tools 
 and a small frame with a few old newspapers. As a guest of the 
 Municipality of Morcote it does not become me to offer any further 
 comment on the condition of the schoolhouse. It is, in fact, credit- 
 able that there should be a school building, as there are not more 
 
 The Schoolhouse and Populace of Mokcote. 
 
i86 COLOMBIA 
 
 than a dozen huts in the town. But such is the perversity of human 
 nature we prefer to sleep outside instead of inside of the schoolhouse, 
 although the night was damp and very cool. 
 
 April 6th. The ridge on which Morcote and its great chiurch are 
 situated is quite narrow and there are deep valleys on each side. 
 Altogether it has the most sightly location imaginable. We spent 
 some time exploring the extraordinary church, which is in good repair. 
 It was built of stone by the Spaniards, and is an object of pride to 
 every one in the country. It measures two hundred and three feet 
 
 The Church of Morcote. 
 
 in length and fifty-three feet in width. One cannot help wondering 
 whether it has ever been filled with worshippers. It has an attractive 
 tower, built mostly of brick, and brick is also used for the window 
 frames and the corner of the church. No priest lives here and ser- 
 vices are held but seldom. Like the church at Pore, broken images 
 and bats are in full possession. 
 
 There is a stone twenty inches square in front of the schoolhouse 
 that is a treasured relic and may be connected with the building of 
 the church. It bears the inscription on the opposite page. 
 
 The cargo mules found the traveUing so bad that they "did not 
 arrive until nine o'clock this morning. Luis, the arriero, says he 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 
 
 187 
 
 must rest them for two days. He has never been over this road and 
 is completely disgusted with the undertaking. As it rained steadily 
 all this morning, we were rather glad to have the cargo sheltered under 
 the schoolhouse roof. The wind and rain were from the southwest 
 so that we were able to sit out on the northeast porch of our house 
 and enjoy the magnificent view over the mountains. We can just 
 see the Llanos in the intervals between the showers. This is the first 
 day that has been so cool as to require a sweater all day long. 
 
 VR EhISE ZP L 
 
 
 The Corregidor took pains to attend to all our wants in the most 
 agreeable manner imaginable. At each meal he sat in silence watch- 
 ing us eat and seeing that we were properly served. We could not 
 account for this hospitality in the little hill village, unless some of 
 these people have been attending the free dispensary in Nunchia 
 during the past week. They hardly speak above a whisper in our 
 presence. When they are obliged to address us they use depreciatory 
 diminutives such as we have not heard before: "desayunito" (the 
 poor little breakfast), "cafecito" (a poor little cup of coffee), "casito" 
 (a poor httle dwelling) . Nothing that they possess seems worthy of 
 being referred to unless the diminutive is used. 
 
l88 COLOMBIA 
 
 April jth. The Corregidor of Morcote and most of his people 
 gathered to see us off this morning. The villagers ran along by our 
 mules and accompanied us part way down the steep hill in a spirit of 
 genuine courtesy. The path plunged down into the valley and we 
 entered dense tropical woods. The trail is unspeakably bad but the 
 mules have taken good care of themselves so far and have had no very 
 bad falls. We passed several magnificent trees in the forests, trees 
 whose roots rose from twelve to fifteen feet above ground and occu- 
 pied a space from fifteen to twenty feet in diameter at the base. The 
 branches were full of orchids and tfifev parasites. We passed an 
 orchid gatherers' camp. 
 
 After a long, steep ascent we reached the top of a pass five thou- 
 sand feet high. Here were two wretched little huts, and although 
 it was beginning to rain we preferred to push on down the trail rather 
 than seek such questionable shelter. We had slid down a hundred 
 feet or more when an Indian woman came running after us through 
 the woods beseeching us to return. In her hands she carried a gourd 
 containing six eggs which she offered to cook for us if the doctor 
 would only go back and heal her sick children. Rice> consented to 
 do what he could. As we ahghted in front of her hut a hard thunder- 
 storm broke loose. 
 
 The hut measured only eight feet by ten, but had a loft reached by 
 a primitive ladder made of a notched log. Pieces of decaving jerked 
 beef hung from the Httle rafters, and filled the place with a frightful 
 odour, although it was entirely open on two sides and only protected 
 against the winds on the north and east by walls made of banana 
 leaves. In this wretched abode lived two women and three children, 
 one of them an infant in arms. All had some illness or other, and were 
 examined in turn by the doctor who wrote prescriptions for each. 
 Meanwhile the rain continued to fall in torrents, the Httle clay kettle 
 boiled and the eggs were cooked. Notwithstanding all their poverty, 
 they had three or four pieces of pottery, of a most attractive pattern, 
 made in this vicinity. 
 
 At the end of three quarters of an hour the rain held up and we 
 proceeded to slide down the steep trail through clouds, mist, and rain, 
 crossing and recrossing a brook that rapidly became a torrent and 
 made it constantly more difficult for the poor mules to proceed. No 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 189 
 
 sooner had we reached the bottom of the descent of over a thousand 
 feet than the path began to chmb another mountain. After eight 
 hours of this aUernate chmbing and sHding we reached the valley 
 of the Paya. In front of us to the northwest, as we looked up the 
 valley, the mountains rose tier on tier until lost in the clouds some- 
 where near the Paramo of Pisva. At our feet, on a terrace several 
 hundred feet above the river, lay the little town of Paya, where a small 
 body of Spaniards endeavoured in 1819 to detain the march of the 
 Liberating Army. On our right rose a great ridge over which 
 the soldiers of Santander made the flank movement which enabled the 
 patriots to win the battle, while on the left the valley widened out until 
 it reached the range of mountains that lay between us and Labranza 
 Grande. 
 
 As we approached Paya, we were met by a crowd of citizens on 
 foot and horseback who were expecting our arrival, and had seen us 
 descending the sides of the valley. They escorted us with some 
 ceremony across the little plaza to a house on the corner that had 
 been placed at our disposal. There is no posada in any of these 
 mountain towns. It was Sunday evening and the usual holiday crowd 
 of drunks gathered, eager to satisfy their immoderate curiosity. The 
 house is rented by a citizen of Labranza Grande who is engaged in 
 developing rubber, coffee, and other industries that should succeed 
 in this vicinity. Like the Corregidor of Morcote he invited us to 
 take our meals at the pulperia or village tavern at his expense, and 
 sits in silence watching us eat and supervising the service. 
 
 April 8th. Paya was once larger than it is today, as one can 
 readily see from the ruins. We were told in Morcote that it had 
 thirteen thousand people. Our host here says it actually had two 
 thousand; but its population probably never numbered over five 
 hundred. At present it has less than fifty houses and huts. Most 
 of them are of adobe with stone corners and grass roofs. A couple 
 of two-story houses are still standing and a few of the more important 
 buildings have red-tiled roofs. Our luggage got very wet in the rain 
 yesterday and the mules very tired, so we spent the day resting the 
 mules and drying our clothes. 
 
 This afternoon our host, Don Jeronimo, took us to visit the old 
 Spanish fort near by, where tradition says five hundred Spaniards 
 
190 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 were defeated by Bolivar. As the fort is quite small, a sixteen-sided 
 star, each side measuring twenty-one feet, the fort itself only one 
 hundred and twenty feet in diameter, it seems more hkely that it was 
 defended by one hundred men than by five hundred. In the fort is 
 the remains of a well. The stone wall that surrounds the fort is from 
 four to five feet high on the inside, with a stone platform that enables 
 a man to stand breast high behind it. The httle enclosure is sur- 
 rounded by a moat that is at present ten feet deep and fifteen feet 
 across. It is situated on a hill that commands the town of Paya and 
 
 Looking Northwest from Paya. 
 
 also the road to the Paramo of Pisva, but is in its turn commanded 
 by hills which rise back of it to the north and east. The story goes 
 that Santander took his soldiers along this ridge and lay in ambush 
 in the densely wooded valley on that side of the fort, while Bolivar 
 made a feigned attack in front followed by a hasty retreat, which 
 enticed the Spaniards from their breastworks and gave Santander 
 the opportunity to capture the fort from the rear. 
 
 The view is charming. The valley seems to be extremely fertile, 
 but at present only supports a scattered population that live on little 
 clearings in the forests. The country looks as though it mic^ht be 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 191 
 
 excellent for coffee, cocoa, and rubber. The trails are so bad that 
 even mules use them with difficulty. Horses are of almost no value 
 here. Most of the transportation is done by Indian carriers, as has 
 been the custom since time immemorial. By means of a band across 
 their forehead, these peons carry loads of from sixty to one hundred 
 pounds at a jog-trot up and down the awful paths. 
 
 As we came down from the hill fort, we saw four Indians in a little 
 clearing in which no plowing had been done, although the trees had 
 been recently cut away. Two men were striding over it walking 
 side by side, about eight feet apart, each with a long pole in his right 
 hand which he struck violently into the ground at every step. They 
 walked quite fast and we had no idea what they were doing. About 
 eight feet behind each man walked a woman carrying something in 
 her apron, a few kernels of which she dropped into the holes made by 
 the long poles. This operation looked like some form of incanta- 
 tion, but was really plowing, harrowing, planting, and cultivating 
 maize. 
 
 The mountain Indians are very different from the wild Yaruros 
 of the plains. Even before the Spaniards came they had a kind of 
 civilization, cultivated the soil, and were decently clothed. Their 
 descendants appear to have lost the ancient language, speak bad 
 Spanish, and have learnt to be mistrustful and ignorant. Their 
 ancestors grew maize, tobacco, and potatoes, centuries before ours 
 ever heard of such modern every-day necessities. 
 
 This is the country for soup, three times a day and sometimes 
 twice a meal. It seems to be the only way these poor people have of 
 getting warm. For breakfast they have a very thin broth with a 
 poached egg in it. For lunch, vegetable soup and fried plantains or 
 boiled sweet cassava. For dinner, potato soup, wheat soup, and 
 more cassava. Rice's patients brought presents today in the form 
 of eggs and chickens, so that we fared better than ordinary. 
 
 April gth. Don Jeronimo accompanied us for half an hour on 
 our journey this morning. His last request was that we should tell 
 President Reyes of the great need for better roads in this part of 
 Colombia. 
 
 Our trail today lay for the most part on the northeast side of the 
 beautiful green valley of the Paya river, skirting steep inclines, wind- 
 
192 COLOMBIA 
 
 ing slowly over rocky ridges, and fording mountain torrents. In 
 general the road was not as steep as yesterday. At times we passed 
 solitary huts built of adobe, with stone corners, as seems to be the 
 custom hereabouts. Some of the mountain Indians have primitive 
 wooden rollers for grinding sugar-cane, worked by a hand windlass 
 not unlike a small capstan. Almost the only animals we saw today 
 were a few cows grazing on the sides of the mountains. 
 
 We left Paya a Httle before eleven. Shortly after one o'clock we 
 chmbed up to a great terrace something hke the one on which Paya 
 is situated. The views on all sides were simply glorious and im- 
 possible to describe adequately. The mountains were very green 
 and forested to their tops as far as we could see. The terraces in the 
 valleys were distinctly marked. The valley was deep but not wide 
 and its sides steep, yet we saw no waterfalls, as there are few rocky 
 precipices and the watercourses are heavily wooded. Occasionally 
 we caught a glimpse of the foamy white torrent of the Paya rushing 
 along deep down in the valley. 
 
 About dusk we rode into the little village of Pisva, a collection of 
 thirty or forty adobe huts, with grass roofs, inhabited by mountain 
 Indians who have a somewhat unsavoury reputation. A few indi- 
 viduals were standing in the door of the principal shop, which offered 
 for sale crude chocolate, stale bread, green plantains, raw sugar, and 
 cheap cotton cloth in extremely hmited quantities. 
 
 I asked to be directed to the alcalde, for whom I had a letter from 
 the Prefect. The shopkeeper replied sulkily that he had gone away, 
 but a woman standing near him, and not in the secret, contradicted 
 him, said the alcalde was at home, and told me his house was a httle 
 farther on. For giving this information she was promptly and 
 severely reproved. It was easy to see that the Indians were extremely 
 suspicious of us; several even closed the doors of their huts as we 
 came along. The alcalde's hut was in no way different from the 
 others, but just as dirty and small. The door was open, however, 
 and after some caUing his wife appeared from a smaller hut in the 
 back yard and bade us enter and make ourselves at home. The bare 
 dark, windowless, filthy little hut was soon completely filled with our 
 luggage, hammocks, and cot, and there was barely room for the raw- 
 hides on which Luis and his assistant arriero sleep. Soon after dark 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 
 
 193 
 
 the alcalde appeared. He had presumably been hiding in the bushes 
 until he had an opportunity of sizing us up. His welcome was not 
 cordial, but he pretended to read the official letter and soon provided 
 us with several bowls of soup. 
 
 Api'il icth. Pisva, like Paya, is situated on a terrace about four 
 hundred feet above the bed of the river. There is a thatched church 
 which is in good repair, although no priest lives here. Many of the 
 huts seem to be unoccupied. During the day a number of Indian 
 carriers passed through the village, some of them stopping to buy 
 
 in 
 
 P»3^K ■ '' 
 
 
 ^^im.^^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 H^';" 
 
 
 Pisva, Looking Westward. 
 
 fibre sandals that are manufactured here and sold for fifteen cents, or 
 hats made of the same material, sold for fifty cents. The alcalde 
 has a few hives of bees, and wax-making is one of the local industries. 
 During the night, the church mule, which at some time in its 
 career has had its ears chpped like a fox terrier, and seems to avoid 
 the society of its fellows, left our mules and wandered so far into the 
 forest that it was noon before it was found. How to secure fodder 
 for the mules is becoming quite a problem. The grass here is so 
 rank and poor that when they are tethered out to graze during the 
 
194 COLOMBIA 
 
 night, they fail to get sufficient food and break away from their stakes 
 if they possibly can. We have found it very difficult to buy maize. 
 Luis is terribly discouraged over the fearful roads and refuses to go 
 on unless he can get some Indian carriers to help him. The alcalde 
 promises to furnish aid "tomorrow." It seems impossible to make 
 any kind of progress over such a trail. No wonder that the Spaniards 
 thought Bohvar could never bring an army this way. 
 
 While we were waiting for the mule to be found, the alcalde 
 brought me two specimens of iron pyrites, taken from a hill near 
 here, which he thinks are silver ore. Josh spent last night in the 
 open, as his mule refused to carry him or even to be led. Josh has 
 been so lazy and sulky of late that wc thought he had decided to 
 remain in the country and were somewhat surprised when he 
 appeared about one o'clock with his mule. 
 
 The usual collection of invahds came to Rice this afternoon, 
 bringing eggs, sweet cassava, and crude sugar as offerings. 
 
 April iilh. We took pains last evening to have the mules tied 
 with particular care so as to get an early start, but in the night the 
 church mule again broke his rope and Josh's mule disappeared like- 
 wise. It meant another delay, but both were found before noon, and 
 their riders were able to overtake the caravan that started out about 
 ten o'clock. Luis succeeded in securing the services of four Indians 
 who are to accompany us to the first stopping-place on the other side 
 of the pass. 
 
 The caravan is now led by an old Indian and a boy carrying light 
 loads, followed by a strong, young Indian carrying a heavy load and 
 leading one of the cargo mules which has a particularly fragile cargo 
 including the photographic plates and the theodolite. I try to keep 
 near him so as to aid in case of trouble. Richard is supposed to be 
 not far behind me with the camera, and then come the other four 
 pack mules each in charge of an arriero. Rice brings up the rear, 
 although Josh is hkely to be a mile or two behind him. 
 
 From Pisva the road continues to wind along the eastern side of 
 the valley. An hour after leaving the hamlet the trail divides, the 
 left part going across the valley to Pancotc, a village of a dozen huts, 
 each with its httle patch of cultivated ground. From Pancote a trail 
 goes over the mountain to Labranza Grande. We took the right- 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 195 
 
 hand path and soon entered the hamlet of Jota, with a dozen or four- 
 teen huts, each of them surrounded by a few beehives. I saw one 
 of the inhabitants washing the yellow wax and working it into balls. 
 
 At noon we crossed a very bad mountain torrent, an affluent of 
 the Paya, over which a fragile foot bridge had been thrown for the 
 use of the carriers. The only possible ford for the mules was full 
 of big boulders and dangerous holes. Had we not been through 
 several worse places already, this ford would have seemed impassable. 
 One mule got caught between two of the boulders and his load was 
 under water for a quarter of an hour before he could be extricated. 
 Fortunately, it was the "kitchen load," and the food was all in water- 
 proof bags, which stood the immersion splendidly. It was also 
 fortunate that there had been no rain during the previous twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 The last hamlet, as one goes up the Paya valley, is a place called 
 Tovacar, where we made an hour's halt to enable the mules to rest 
 and the men to get a httle lunch. The Indians here make a specialty 
 of supplying eggs and fowls to the carriers. Luis bought a nicely 
 roasted fowl for "forty dollars." There are a few goats in the vil- 
 lage, but we were surprised not to see more, as there is plenty of 
 good pasturage for them, and this place is only six thousand feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 The huts are very small, only one third as large as those of the 
 poorer classes in the Llanos. A hut eight feet by ten is a good-sized 
 building here. There are no windows to let in the cold. The doors 
 are of rawhide stretched over a wooden frame. 
 
 In one of the eight huts we saw two women spinning cotton in a 
 primitive fashion by means of a top spun between the hands in a 
 piece of broken gourd. The top or bobbin has near its base a small, 
 round piece of wood one and one-half inches in diameter which acts 
 as a balance wheel. The women worked rapidly and with great 
 skill, drawing out the cotton with their fingers, fastening it deftly to 
 the bobbin, twisting it, and spinning the top between the palms of 
 their hands so that it rapidly filled up with coarse cotton thread. 
 From the bobbins it is unwound by hand, rolled into balls of various 
 sizes, and sold in that form. The manufacture of cotton was char- 
 acteristic of this valley even in Spanish times. 
 
196 COLOMBIA 
 
 Beyond Tovacar, the trail, only a foot-path, became much worse, 
 and we had repeatedly to stop and move large rocks or fallen trees in 
 order to enable the loaded mules to pass. It was slow work. The 
 men had no axes but only their short machetes, and no crowbars 
 except the branches of trees. The foHage about here is as much as 
 possible Hke that in the mountains of the Hawaiian Islands: a drip- 
 ping wet tropical forest. The slow condensation of vapour goes on 
 continuously. 
 
 About four o'clock we reached Pueblo Viejo, a collection of three 
 little hovels, the very last habitations on the road to the Paramo of 
 Pisva. One contains primitive sleeping quarters for the three women 
 and the boy who live here. Another is barely large enough for our 
 cargo and the men. The third is a httle pigsty with a thatched roof 
 in very bad repair, but without sides or any shelter against the winds. 
 As the sty is not muddy and seems to have fewer fleas than the other 
 huts, Rice and I have decided to use it ourselves and keep out the 
 pigs. 
 
 At one end of this settlement is an arrangement for extracting the 
 juice from sugar-cane that is as primitive as anything one could well 
 imagine. It consists simply of an upright carved post with a hole 
 in it. Into the hole a stout lever and a stick of cane may be inserted. 
 Pressure is applied to the lever and the juice, forced from the cane, 
 runs down the front of the post, carved to resemble a man's face. 
 From the tip of the beard it trickles into a bowl beneath. I thought 
 I had seen primitive methods before, but this beats them all. 
 
 As there was absolutely no food to be had at Pueblo Viejo, we 
 were obliged, for the first time since leaving El Limbo, to use the 
 provisions which the cowboy bought at Tame. The women here keep 
 very busy, one weaving a hat, another spinning cotton, while the third 
 attends to cooking whatever provisions the travellers bring with them. 
 
 April 12th. For a wonder the mules were all easily found this 
 morning and we left at nine o'clock. The trail plunged at once into 
 the thickest of thick woods. Although it has not rained for several 
 days, the path was a brook and the trees dripping wet. It would be 
 almost impossible to exaggerate the difficulties of the march. We 
 had to dismount frequently and the men worked very hard to get the 
 mules up the rocky, slippery trail. In places it was simply a steep, 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 197 
 
 narrow stairway of moss-covered rocks, with a stream of water flow- 
 ing down and jagged rocks projecting from its dripping sides. Day 
 before yesterday the alcalde of Pisva sent six Indians to repair the 
 worst places. The chief difficulty is that the path is too narrow for 
 the loaded animals and at places is so steep and slippery that the 
 loads have to be taken off the mules and carried up by hand. Even 
 so the bags are getting terribly scratched and torn. 
 
 At an altitude of seventy-five hundred feet we halted to allow the 
 caravan to rest. At the stopping-place was a tree surrounded with 
 little crosses, and each one of our Indians made a little rustic cross 
 while resting, which he deposited as an offering to the genius of the 
 place that had permitted them to come this far in safety. Fortu- 
 nately, we have escaped any serious accidents. 
 
 About noon we left the dense forest behind us at an altitude of 
 ninety-seven hundred feet, and came to the edge of the Paramo. 
 Here we found a ruined shelter four feet square. A small swamp, 
 fairly dry now, offered good grass for the mules. The worst of the 
 ascent was over, but a new difficulty immediately presented itself. 
 The path entered a swampy region where the poor mules narrowly 
 escaped being mired in thick treacherous mud. They became 
 extremely nervous, plunged about in the bogs, and, although wearied 
 by their long chmb, were very hard to handle. About four o'clock we 
 reached a small plateau called Sabaneta, where there is a wretched 
 little shelter, about four feet high and four feet square, built of the 
 trunks of a wild aloe that seems to be peculiar to the Paramo. On a 
 neighbouring hillock we pitched a tent for the first time since leaving 
 Carabobo. 
 
 The Paramo of Pisva is a portion of the cold, damp wilderness 
 that occupies the summit of the Cordillera. Its main characteristics 
 are bleakness, damp chilly fogs, solitary ponds, a scrubby growth of 
 dwarfed and thorny plants, puddles of water, "sloughs of despond," 
 little hillocks covered with coarse grass, and the absence of almost all 
 animal hfe. The little lakes in the clouds would be most attractive 
 were the surroundings not so bleak and dismal. Properly the paramo 
 begins and ends at the tree hne. It is difficult to realize that the hills 
 which rise above the general level of the plateau are in reality peaks 
 of the Andes, twelve and fourteen thousand feet above the sea. 
 
198 COLOMBIA 
 
 Josh's mule refused to carry him today and looks as though it 
 was going to die. Richard's mule has been falling away rapidly and 
 is now but the ghost of its former self. My mule seems to be fairly 
 well and in good spirits and I have great hopes of getting him safely 
 to the end of the journey. In his report to the Government, Bolivar 
 stated that he lost all his animals and many of his men. It looks as 
 though he told the truth. 
 
 April iT,th. Soon after supper last evening a dismal chilling 
 rain set in and kept up for several hours. The cold was intense, 
 damp, and penetrating. We spent a miserable night, the most dis- 
 agreeable of the whole trip. I kept on all my clothes except my boots 
 and put on in addition two heavy sweaters. The three thicknesses 
 of my Jaeger blankets and four thicknesses of an army-blanket could 
 not keep out the cold. It was so penetrating I woke up repeatedly. 
 None of us slept much. After midnight the clouds cleared away 
 and the stars became wonderfully clear and brilliant. At half-past 
 six the thermometer registered 37° F., but a thin skim of ice over the 
 rain water in the cooking utensils showed that it had been lower 
 during the night. Three arrieros slept in the little shelter, while the 
 other Indians went off to a small cave near by. Some of the mules 
 were allowed to go loose in order to find what grass and shelter they 
 could. Two of them stayed by our tent most of the night, nibbling 
 close around it. It was a pathetic farewell performance, for they 
 both collapsed in the course of the day and had to be abandoned in the 
 Paramo. This morning we had great difScuky in getting a fire 
 started, as everything was drenching wet and there was very little 
 wood to be had. 
 
 From the dreary plateau of Sabaneta the trail chmbed steadily 
 higher and higher over slippery paths and treacherous bogs, deeper 
 into the mountain wilderness. All day long we followed a path along 
 the ridges in a northerly direction. By noon we surmounted a ridge 
 and apparently were looking down on the Sogamoso side of the Andes, 
 but the deep, heavily forested valley that lay beneath us to the west- 
 ward was in reahty part of the Orinoco system, although it was almost 
 impossible to realize it. The wind blew the clouds rapidly up the 
 valley and about us. 
 
 Our Indians pointed out one of the lakes we passed as being the 
 
NUNCHIA TO THE PARAMO OF PISVA 199 
 
 place where the Spaniards had deposited much treasure when pur- 
 sued by Bohvar's array, but we did not stop to investigate. At half- 
 past two we passed the cunibre, began the descent, and found ourselves 
 in a rather barren valley where we were sheltered from the cold, damp 
 wind. The path was steep but presented no difficulties equal to 
 those on the other side of the Paramo. Our barometers stopped 
 working at ten thousand five hundred feet, soon after we left 
 Sabaneta this morning, so we were unable to determine the exact 
 height of the head of the pass. It is probably not much over thirteen 
 
 The Paramo of Pisva from Las Quebradas. 
 
 thousand feet. We had no extensive views today, as the clouds 
 surrounded us or passed beneath us most of the time. It was a 
 frightfully cold, dismal ride. 
 
 After a descent of between two and three thousand feet, we reached 
 Las Quebradas at four o'clock and were hospitably received by a 
 family of mountain Indians who moved out of their sleeping hut into 
 the cooking hut, these two shacks constituting the whole of this 
 settlement, in order that Rice and I might have a dry place to rest 
 in. We are at an elevation of about eleven thousand feet and in 
 spite of the fleas are glad enough to crawl into the little six by eight 
 
200 COLOMBIA 
 
 shelter and close the rawhide door to keep out the cold night 
 wind. 
 
 The family shared with us their supper of cracked wheat, gruel, 
 and diminutive boiled potatoes, to which they added a roast fowl 
 which we bought. Rice was not able to eat anything. He had a 
 frightful headache all day long and was very sick this evening. The 
 negroes did not put in an appearance. 
 
 \^"e feel as though we were at last in a position to appreciate the 
 tremendous difficulties which were overcome by the soldiers of Boli- 
 var and Santander. They had to suffer a combination of hardships 
 that has rarely been equalled in mihtary history. The length of their 
 march; the poverty of the country; their inadequate equipment; the 
 loss of all their saddle and pack animals; intense heat and penetrating 
 cold every twenty-four hours; a region infested with malaria; a season 
 of torrential rains on the Llanos and of snow, ice, and hail in the 
 Paramo; a route that led them through dangerous swamps, across 
 flooded rivers, over burning plains, into tropical jungles, and finally 
 over a mountain pass thirteen thousand feet high. Seldom have 
 men been called on to overcome such obstacles. Add to these the 
 fact that they were half-starved, their only food for weeks at a 
 time being freshly killed beef, and that they were approaching an 
 enemy that outnumbered them, and one cannot but marvel at their 
 courage and admire the tenacity of purpose that upheld them. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 From the Paramo of Pisva to Pantano de Vargas 
 
 April 14th. About nine o'clock this morning Josh and Richard 
 came hmping alone down the valley. It had been quite impossible 
 for them to keep up with the procession yesterday. For several 
 hours the Indians had helped them along, but finally gave it up and 
 left them behind. They lost their road and spent a wretched night 
 on the Paramo. They had neither fire, shelter nor food. They had 
 used up their matches on cigarettes and had none left when night 
 fell. Their mules had given out during the day, lying down in their 
 tracks, utterly unable to come a step farther, and had been unsaddled 
 and left in the mountain wilderness. 
 
 We were able today to appreciate some of the joys of Bolivar's 
 soldiers when they descended from the Paramo and came into the 
 beautiful valley of the Sogamoso, with its fertile fields and well-fed 
 inhabitants. It presented a scene of great beauty this morning. 
 Every available square rod seemed to be under cultivation. The 
 labourer's houses are well built, mostly of adobe with red-tiled roofs. 
 Threshing floors are abundant and occasionally we saw a group of 
 men, women, horses, and mules engaged in threshing and treading 
 out wheat or barley. The road was actually wide enough for two 
 loaded animals to pass, notwithstanding the stone or adobe walls on 
 each side. 
 
 So rich is the land and so dense the population compared with 
 anything we have seen yet that a new element came into the view, 
 walls and small enclosures. High up on the sides of the great valley, 
 fences are built of bundles of fagots laid between small poles. They 
 look rather inflammable, but serve to keep out the numerous sheep 
 that roam wherever they can to pick up a hving. 
 
 New flowers, new birds, and new sights were a great relief to the 
 eye, but most pleasant of all were the signs of man's industry. We 
 
202 COLOMBIA 
 
 ha^'e been so many weeks without this that it seemed as though we 
 had come into a new world. The air was very clear, the sun shone 
 brightly, and the charm of the great cultivated valley after the dreari- 
 ness of the Llanos and the Paramo can never be forgotten. How it 
 must have cheered the hearts of the weary soldiers of the Liberating 
 Army ! 
 
 About noon we came to a little wayside tavern or chicheria as it is 
 called here, and bought some delicious bread and cheese, the best 
 bread we have tasted since leaving New York. A crowd of Sunday 
 idlers were drinking and gambling in and about the chicheria, and 
 although they were very curious they gave us a cordial welcome and 
 seemed to know who we were. Rice was besieged all along the road 
 by the lame, the halt and the bhnd who had heard of his wonderful 
 cures in Nunchia. They came running down the sides of the moun- 
 tains to accost him and get one of his wonderful prescriptions. Poor 
 Rice, worn out by his recent illness, would have liked to escape from 
 the unfortunate sufferers, but they knelt on the road in front of his 
 mule and wept until he gave them one of the magic pieces of paper. 
 Some, hearing of his approach, had come ten or fifteen miles to be 
 cured. 
 
 Socota, a pretty little village on the northeastern slope of the great 
 valley, almost enticed us to leave our road and rest there, but we 
 turned south instead and reached Laguna Seca, or Socha Nueva, as 
 it is sometimes called, about four o'clock. The alcalde was pompous 
 and officious, but seemed to be hospitably disposed, and placed his 
 lodgings at our service. His home is in Socha Viejo, where he 
 occupies a house in which it is said Bolivar had his headquarters after 
 coming through the Paramo. 
 
 The Sunday crowd in the plaza was rather drunk but not dis- 
 orderh', although it manifested an inordinate curiosity regarding us 
 that vv'as most annoying. I sat on the door-step of our lodgings to 
 rest in the fresh air. In front of me stood a solid wall of inquisitive 
 citizens whispering and watching. They seemed to think it rude to 
 talk above a whisper, but most amiable to stand and stare. 
 
 A gentleman of leisure who lives on the opposite corner invited 
 us, at the alcalde's request, to take our meals with him while we 
 are here. His dining-room is cold and damp and we were almost 
 
FROM PARAMO OF PISVA TO PANTANO DE VARGAS 203 
 
 persuaded to follow our host's example and keep our hats on 
 during dinner. 
 
 April iK,ih. Laguna Seca seems to be quite prosperous and the 
 houses are in good repair, although there does not appear to be any 
 business done here, and the few little shops have almost nothing for 
 sale besides fresh meat, candles, matches, and tobacco. We had to 
 wait all da}' to give the mules a rest and to allow Luis to go back 
 to the Paramo and rescue the saddles and saddle-bags that the negroes 
 
 A Corner of the Plaza at Laguna Seca. 
 
 left behind them. They were too heavy a load for the negroes to 
 carry, but Luis says they weigh nothing. Josh has heretofore con- 
 sidered himself the most powerful fellow in sight, but his spirit is now 
 quite broken and he is as helpless as a babe. Richard has more 
 nerve and continues to carry my camera and the plate-holders. They 
 both marvel at the endurance of the hitherto despised Indians. 
 
 Rice had a busy day. His patients brought eggs, cassava, and 
 fowls. One woman, who brought two large fowls, came with a poor 
 mother who had walked ten miles with a bhnd baby in her arms. 
 The baby had two great ulcers where the pupils of its eyes ought to 
 
204 COLOMBIA 
 
 have been. Rice told the mother that the blindness might have 
 been cured had the trouble been treated in time, but that there was 
 no hope now. It was a rather harrowing half-hour for all of us, 
 except the two fowls, who made themselves quite at home cackhng 
 and scratching in the dirt floor of our room. 
 
 The alcalde asked if he "might bring the doctor a number of poor 
 people, who were ill enough to be sent to the nearest hospital if they 
 could only get a doctor's certihcate." As there is no physician here, 
 he said it seemed providential that these unfortunates could at 
 last be furnished with the requisite papers. Rice told him to bring 
 them along. Presently four wretches were ushered in. Not till then 
 were we told that they were lepers. Rice examined them and de- 
 clared that they had nothing worse than sundry disgusting skin 
 diseases. But they were not pleasant guests. Towards evening 
 one of the chief citizens of the town was brought in for examination. 
 He, too, was supposed to have leprosy, but his trouble turns out to be 
 only an eruption of the skin. 
 
 April i6th. Another clear, fine day. We rose early, but it was 
 nearly four hours before the caravan was ready to start. No one who 
 has not been through it can understand how it can possibly take so 
 long to catch, saddle, and load a few mules. Such deliberation exists 
 in no other part of the world, I am sure. Even Polynesians when 
 they have something on hand to be done move with comparatively 
 hghtning-hke rapidity. Truly the main requisite for travelling here 
 is patience. 
 
 The road from New Socha to Old Socha is a fairly wide trail, 
 rocky and steep in places, quite impassable for any kind of wheeled 
 vehicles, but so much wider than anything we had seen for a long 
 time that it seemed like a king's highway. We m.et many people on 
 the way, most of them in rags and tatters. 
 
 The view to the west across the great valley of the Sogamoso was 
 magnificent. There were \-ery few trees to be seen except poplars and 
 an occasional eucalyptus. We saw several old-fashioned ploughs in 
 use, the same pointed sticks that have served since time immemorial. 
 With one hand on the plough and the other goading his yoke of oxen, 
 the farmer scratches the surface of the ground sufficiently to plant 
 his crops. We passed on the road several water-power gristmills. 
 
FROM PARAMO OF PISVA TO PANTANO DE VARGAS 205 
 
 Two wretched women ran all the way to Old Socha in front of us 
 this morning, by order of the alcalde, to be examined for leprosy. 
 They had no trace of the dread disease, but one looked hke a witch 
 and the other had a syphilitic nose. They were outcasts but not 
 lepers. The people hereabouts seem to be quite carried away with 
 the idea that every one who has a bad skin disease is a leper. We 
 saw no actual leprosy in this valley. 
 
 The alcalde rode with us to his house in Old Socha, where he 
 gave us some hot chocolate and buns, and explained that we were in 
 the very house where Bolivar wrote his dispatches. He then kindly 
 accompanied us for a short distance out of the village before announ- 
 cing his intention of returning. We halted to say good-by, when he 
 gave us to understand that we owed him some money; namely, fifty 
 cents for our arriero because he had slept on the floor of the hall with 
 our luggage, and one dollar for our own board. He explained that 
 our own room was free and also corn for our mules, in return for 
 Rice's free dispensary and the diagnosis of numerous "leprosy" 
 cases. As a matter of fact even the inns make no charge for a room, 
 but only for food. It is the custom of the country to give shelter 
 whenever it is requested. Furthermore we had been entertained as 
 guests at a private house. The alcalde had craftily waited until he 
 had got all the medical advice free and could not possibly get any 
 more before he said a word about these ridiculous little charges; 
 petty graft, annoying, but not serious. 
 
 In the middle of the afternoon we came in sight of the town of 
 Tasco. At a distance it seemed to be most attractive with its white 
 walls, red roofs, and white church towers. On the hillside above was 
 a cemetery enclosed with a circular adobe wall. As was to be ex- 
 pected, however, Tasco's attraction vanished on closer acquaintance 
 and we did not stop. For weeks every town that we have seen has 
 meant a stay of one or two nights, sometimes more, so we quite 
 enjoyed the novel sensation of hurrying through the village without 
 even alighting for a meal. We knew it was still some distance to 
 Corrales, but as the road was so much better than anything we have 
 had since leaving the plains, we determined to risk going as far as 
 possible before dark. 
 
 We saw many evidences of the religious feelings of the people. 
 
2o6 COLOMBIA 
 
 Roadside crosses, sometimes made of palm branches and flowers, 
 probabl)' erected on the last Holy Day, were common. On the walls 
 of houses, the words "Viva Maria" or "Viva Jesus" occasionally 
 appeared. 
 
 Imposing roadside gateways are becoming a conspicuous feature 
 of the landscape. There is Httle individuahty in their design, the 
 only difference between the gates being in the care with which they 
 are made, the present state of repair, and their size. In general, the 
 posts and hntel are of adobe, the gate itself of vertical bars of roughly 
 hewn wood. Sometimes there is a gate when there is no fence, but 
 in this country of many sheep, fences and walls are very frequent. 
 Most of the gates have rude crosses attached to them. 
 
 About five o'clock we came to a fine, large hacienda or farmhouse, 
 surrounded by rich fields of maize where scores of labourers were 
 finishing the day's work. Luis thought we had better stop here for 
 the night, but we were refused shelter in truly civilized fashion. It 
 is the first time that such a thing has happened, and it made us realize 
 that we are at last out of the wilds. Hoping to find a roadside tavern 
 we went on as rapidly as possible. The road wound along the side 
 of the great treeless Sogamoso valley, continually traversing lateral 
 ridges, chmbing and descending, until finally it descended rapidly to 
 the level of the river in a gorge of great natural beauty. We crossed 
 the stream on a high, narrow bridge with no railing on either side. 
 The roaring torrent, confined between precipitous hills, was 
 very impressive in the moonlight. Beyond the gorge we came out on a 
 little meadow where the river was lined with a few stately poplars. 
 Altogether it was a romantic scene. 
 
 We reached Corrales between se\'en and eight o'clock and found 
 one of our two arrieros at a wretched chkheria frequented by the 
 lowest class of travellers. The odours were too much for us, and we 
 asked to be taken to the alcalde's. As it was after dark, he was sus- 
 picious and not inclined to do more for us than to direct that our 
 mules should be sent to his pasture, for he is the local stableman, and 
 that we should go back to the dirty, filthy little tavern. Luis arrived 
 an hour later. It was then discovered that each arriero thout^ht the 
 other had three mules while he had only two, and in the darkness 
 the best white mule with the most precious part of the luggage had 
 
FROM PARAMO OF PISVA TO PANTANO DE VARGAS 207 
 
 gone astra}'. As the lost mule carried our trunks that contained all 
 of Rice's surgical instruments and photographic films, besides my 
 journal, maps, and three hundred dollars in gold, Luis at once started 
 back to search for him. 
 
 April ijth. Corralcs is a compact Httle town lying near the 
 Sogamoso river on its left bank. Above it on the hillside is its ceme- 
 tery surrounded by an adobe wall. This style of graveyard seems 
 to be quite common in the valley. 
 
 CoRRALEs Across the Sogamoso Valley. 
 
 This plateau is nine thousand feet above sea level, so that the 
 nights are quite cool. We slept out of doors in the inn yard amid 
 horrid smells and noises. Our eagerness to pass Tasco yesterday 
 cost us a day of aggravating delay, as we have had to wait here in 
 Corrales for the lost mule to be found and brought back. The delay 
 enabled me to visit a hilltop to get a better idea of the valley and of 
 the skirmishes of Gameza and Las Molinas.^ 
 
 The alcalde brought a friend this morning to have him examined 
 
 ' See Appendix A. 
 
2o8 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 The Valley Below Corrales. 
 
 for some disease or other, "leprosy" perhaps, but Rice was so dis- 
 gusted with our surroundings, the way the last alcalde had robbed us, 
 and the extremely inhospitable reception by this one last evening, 
 that he declined to make any examination for less than "ten dollars 
 gold, paid in advance." That ended his career as a travelling 
 physician, and we had no more patients. The travelling free dis- 
 pensary business had become a great nuisance, but at last it is over. 
 
 April iSth. The alcalde, in brown woollen poncho, high-crowned 
 panama hat, dark blue striped trousers and fibre sandals, attended our 
 departure with dignity this morning, but did not offer to escort us out 
 of the town. He came in fact solely in his character as livery stable- 
 keeper, to furnish us with two horses for the negroes to ride from here 
 to Boyaca and to collect the charges for the pasture of our mules. 
 
 We met many pack trains today, mostly of mules laden with 
 salt from the government mines at Zipaquira. We passed many 
 sheep, sometimes tied or hobbled, sometimes shepherded bv diminu- 
 tive boys and girls or haggard old women. The word shepherdess has 
 a romantic flavour and is not at all appropriate to the horrible old hags 
 that tend sheep here. Rice and I agreed that we had never in our 
 
FROM PARAMO OF PISVA TO PANTANO DE VARGAS 209 
 
 lives seen so many ugly women as we have today. ]Most of them are 
 in wretched rags. All seemed to be hard at work. Some women 
 were helping the labourers in the fields, while others were spinning 
 wool by hand in the manner seen in the valley of Paya, where the 
 women spin cotton. Between eleven and twelve we saw women 
 bringing black pots of caldo, a kind of vegetable soup or potpourri, 
 to their husbands who were at work in the fields, and to the school 
 children at recess. With each pot they brought a wooden spoon and 
 a shallow bowl of native pottery picturesquely marked with green 
 and blue enamel. 
 
 Portreros or paddocks are very frequent, and every inch of 
 ground between the rocky, barren hills and the swamps in the centre 
 of the valley seems to be utilized for agriculture or pasturage. Judg- 
 ing from the extreme flatness of the valley and the abrupt way in 
 which the hills rise from its edge, it looks very much as though it 
 must once have been a great lake, in fact in the rainy sea.son much 
 of it becomes a lake. 
 
 The Plaza at Nobsa. 
 
 The chief features of the landscape are the tall poplars and adobe 
 fences. The mountains are bare of trees. At times the view reminds 
 one of Southern France, particularly on account of the long lines of 
 poplars. Shortly before reaching Nobsa, a dilapidated old town, once 
 
210 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 important but now quite decayed, we saw a barbed wire fence. It 
 looked entirely out of place; the adobe walls seem to be so much 
 more appropriate. 
 
 FromNobsa the view of the city of Sogamoso on the east side of the 
 valley is quite attractive. The glistening white towers of its churches 
 rise above the green trees that shade the streets. We should like to 
 visit it, but as we are endeavouring to follow the principal route of 
 the army, we must pass it by and likewise Santa Rosa, the capital of 
 the Province of Tundama, which hes on the hills northwest of us. 
 
 The ^'ALLEY OF THE SOGAMOSO, BeLOW NoBSA. 
 
 Passing through Nobsa we came before long to a cart road which 
 President Reyes is building from Sogamoso to Duitama. We had 
 heard great tales of it. To our intense surprise we found it to be a 
 really fine macadamized road, twenty feet wide, well constructed and 
 laid out with considerable engineering skill. The section nearest 
 Sogamoso was not completed, but for several miles we rode in admira- 
 tion over a highway that would have been a credit even to France. 
 Few country roads in the United States can compare with it. Trees 
 had been planted on the hillsides above it to prevent landslips. It 
 was well drained and the grade was very easy. Work is still proc^ress- 
 ing and it gives an earnest of better days for Colombia. 
 
FROM PARAMO OF PISVA TO PANTANO DE VARGAS 211 
 
 We reached Duitama shortly before fi\'e. It is the largest town 
 we have seen yet and has three hotels. It is famous for its fruit. 
 As we entered the town, we passed through orchards where peaches 
 and apples were growing side by side with oranges. The citizens 
 have a smart appearance. Some of the young men are almost too 
 smart. This afternoon we were passed by a number of these dandies 
 riding pacing horses at a rapid gait. Their costume is a high-crowned 
 straw hat that looks something like a Panama, a woollen poncho of 
 various colours, shorter and not so heavy as the gorgeous red and 
 blue ponchos of the Llaneros, and wonderful baggy overalls made of 
 cloth or the skins of animals cured with the hair on. Nearly all 
 carried a yellow-handled whip like the arrieros. They were inclined 
 to regard us with suspicion and to show off the paces of their horses. 
 One of them turned out to be the local doctor, who boards at our 
 hotel. He eats with his hat on, looking neither to the right nor to 
 the left. After supper he doffed his conventional riding clothes and 
 appeared in all the glory of a Derby hat and a black cutaway coat. 
 It almost made us homesick for the simplicity of the Llanos. 
 
 April igth. The weather is constantly cool and damp. We are 
 lodged in a musty old room, but it looks out on a pleasant court, 
 bright with many flowers and enlivened by half a dozen song birds 
 v/hose wicker cages hang in the cloisters. We have been unable to 
 get any coffee of late and the crude native chocolate that everybody 
 drinks has made me ill. 
 
 I'he most intelligent person here is the civil engineer who is in 
 charge of the road building in this part of the country. This after- 
 noon he took us on an excursion to a near-by hill top from which 
 we had a fine view of the upper Sogamoso valle}'. It gave us an 
 excellent idea of the campaign preceding the battle of Pantano de 
 Vargas. We received calls from the local dignitaries, two of whom 
 are maternal uncles of the President. Another caller was a 
 Colombian who spent twenty-five years exploring rubber fields in 
 the Amazon valley and has twice been to New York. He speaks 
 English quite well. I was told afterwards that he had been obhged 
 to flee from the country for political or other reasons. He went 
 south through Ecuador and reached Peru alone and on foot; thence 
 he crossed the mountains to the Amazon and joined the Reyes 
 
212 COLOMBIA 
 
 brothers in their explorations. He is said to have made a fortune 
 by his discoveries in the Amazon region. He was recently permitted 
 to return to Colombia and is once more enjoying the beauties of his 
 fertile native valley. We are to visit his estate tomorrow. 
 
 April 2otJi. Accompanied by four or five gentlemen of Duitama, 
 including the road engineer and one of the President's uncles, we 
 visited today the vale of Bonza and the battle-field of Pantano de 
 Vargas. 
 
 A new road has been built along the edge of swamps, while the 
 old one, still used by horsemen, goes over a hill. From its top we 
 got a fine view of the valley. At the foot of the hill lies the Casa de 
 Bonza. Here we entered an enclosure where a number of fine-look- 
 ing cows were being milked and where we were met by a few gentle- 
 men who had gathered for the purpose of showing us the points of 
 historic interest in the neighbourhood. The house, which is being 
 repaired and restored to its original splendour by our friend the 
 Amazonian explorer, is that very Casa de Bonza where Bolivar had 
 his headquarters during the days preceding the battle of Pantano de 
 Vargas. It is of two stories, built around three sides of a court, the 
 fourth side left open to allow all the rooms to take advantage of the 
 beautiful view across the valley to the south. It was once the home 
 of a Spanish marquis who espoused the cause of Independence. 
 
 After some light refreshments, including huge glasses of fresh, 
 warm milk and ponies of "three star Hennessey," we started off on 
 our "historical picnic." Among those who had joined us at the villa 
 were three worthies from the town of Paipa. One of them, a stout 
 old gentleman with an imperial, was the perfect counterpart of many 
 a southern planter, while another, a huge, broad-shouldered, almost 
 deformed giant, was the wit of the party and the centre of consider- 
 able raillery. With a large head set close to tremendous shoulders, 
 thick lips protruding from under a heavy moustache, and a straggly, 
 wiry beard, he looked like Vulcan. He rode a splendid white hor.se 
 hke the general of a great army. 
 
 Thus escorted we went first to the, spot called Corral de Bonza, 
 where the Spaniards had an outpost from which they were driven 
 some days before the more important battle of Pantano de Vargas. 
 Crossing a bridge over the Sogamoso, now quite small and known as 
 
FROM PARAMO OF PISVA TO PANTANO DE VARGAS 213 
 
 the Rio Grande, we were told that at the time of the battle it was much 
 swollen and Bolivar required over forty rafts to ferry his soldiers 
 across. 
 
 It was not a long ride from here to a httle adobe house said to 
 have been Bolivar's headquarters during the battle of Pantano de 
 Vargas. The house is occupied by a modest gentleman of moderate 
 means, whose resources were somewhat strained by the invasion of a 
 dozen historical enthusiasts, but he did nobly, and although the 
 assignment of scrambled egg was about one teaspoonful to each 
 
 The Picnic Party at Corral de Boxza. 
 
 person, we all had plenty to eat, especially as the humorous giant 
 of the party opened his saddle-bags and brought out cold potatoes, 
 sardines, and hunks of boiled beef. We were shown spots on the 
 floor said to have been made by the blood of wounded soldiers, and a 
 large wooden settee on which gallant Colonel Rook of the British 
 Legion was laid when he had his arm amputated after the battle, 
 and on which he died. 
 
 More interesting than these relics was a manuscript which had 
 been brought by one of the gentlemen from Paipa. His father, Don 
 Elias Prieto Villate, lately deceased, made his life's work the collect- 
 ing of evidence for an authentic history of the two battles of Pantano 
 
214 COLOMBIA 
 
 de Vargas and Boyaca. His admirers claim tliat the manuscript 
 was begun tlie day after the battle and finished shortly before the old 
 gentleman died, a year ago, at the age of eighty-five. He was born 
 a couple of years after the events took place and says in his preface 
 that he began collecting data about the battles "at an early age." 
 The manuscript is full of interesting particulars and minute details, 
 and as the old antiquary took pains to record the sources from which 
 he derived his information, it seems to be more reliable than any 
 other account. 
 
 The Battle-field of Pantaxo de Vargas. 
 
 After lunch "Vulcan" put on his spectacles and read aloud to us 
 page after page of the precious manuscript. The reading threatened 
 to take up the entire afternoon, so we had to interru])t in order to 
 spend some time on the battle-field and see things for ourselves. 
 
 The road from Duitama to Tunja via Toca is at this point ex- 
 tremely narrow by reason of a steep hill on the east and a wide swamp, 
 the Pantano de \'argas, on the west. The Spaniards took up a very 
 strong position, but the British Legion attacked so fiercely that the 
 result was a drawn battle. In the darkness, however, the Spanish 
 General Barreiro decided to withdraw to Paipa. Bolivar was thus 
 left free to march to Tunja and thus get between Barreiro and Bogota. 
 
FROM PARAMO OF PISVA TO PANTANO DE VARGAS 215 
 
 In many ways Pantano de Vargas was a more important victory than 
 the battle of Boyaca. It was not definitive and is not so well known. 
 Nevertheless it seems clear to me that it put the Spaniards on the 
 defensive and gave Bohvar the upper hand. Boyaca saw the end 
 of the Spanish army in Colombia, but Pantano de Vargas was the 
 decisive victory. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 From Pantano de Vargas to Bovaca 
 
 The battle-field of Pantano de Vargas offers none of the difficulties 
 that we encountered at Carabobo. The country is open and rather 
 barren. The field of action was quite limited and there does not 
 seem to be much chance for a variety of opinion. We completed our 
 study of the battle-field late in the afternoon and went to Paipa over 
 the same road that Barreiro followed in his retreat. It passes over 
 the barren hills west of the field of action, descends a hill where 
 erosion has laid bare beds of wonderfully variegated clays, and 
 traverses a valley, celebrated for its hot springs, before it reaches the 
 outskirts of Paipa. Our kind friends from Duitama and Casa de 
 Bonza returned from the battle-field by the way they came. The three 
 from Paipa escorted us over the route of Barreiro's retreat. 
 
 In the valley we passed a magnificent country seat or hacienda, 
 built in the Spanish style in the middle of a treeless plain. The estab- 
 lishment was complete from stable to chapel. The various build- 
 ings were most picturesquely grouped and joined by covered 
 passages. It was a marvellous combination of courts and cloisters, 
 pillared balconies and graceful arches; the whole covered with rich 
 red tiles that harmonized wonderfully with the man3'-co]oured clays 
 in the surrounding hills. The sky fine was perfectly fascinating. 
 
 A mile beyond this hacienda are the hot springs of Paipa. They 
 are heavily charged with sulphate of sodium. Rice tried to take the 
 temperature of the water, forgetting that his thermometer did not 
 read above 115° F. The result was a broken bulb. It seems curious 
 that there is no thermal establishment here. In a cold, damp climate 
 like this, one would think that hot baths would be well patronized. 
 A small plant which once did a good business providing sodium sul- 
 phate for the factories that make beer bottles for the brewery in Bo<TOta 
 came to grief in the last revolution and is still in ruins as the soldiers 
 
 216 
 
FROM PANTANO DE VARGAS TO BOYACA 217 
 
 left it. It is rather significant that the first sign of modern business 
 enterprise which we have seen in this country should be the ruins of a 
 factory destroyed in the course of a revolution. Is there any better 
 answer to the question why these countries are still far behind in the 
 race of civihzation ? Until capitalists can be sure that revolutions 
 are a thing of the past, few will have the temerity to erect factories 
 or import machinery hkely to be the sport of soldiers. President 
 Reyes has a hard problem on his hands, but seems to be solving it 
 admirably, so far as one can judge by the new roads and the general 
 evidences of quiet and prosperity. 
 
 Our Paipa friends piloted us to a very good hotel, a two-story 
 affair where we have made ourselves as comfortable as possible, con- 
 sidering the fact that our baggage animals are miles away and we shall 
 have to use the bedding provided by the hotel. In other words, it will 
 be scratch, scratch, scratch all night long. Luis, Josh, and the pack 
 mules left Duitama this morning, taking the main road to Tunja. 
 We expect to overtake them tomorrow. 
 
 This evening we met a German who says he originated and 
 managed the sulphate of sodium plant at the hot springs. He seems 
 much discouraged although he talks of renewing business soon. 
 He is the second German we have seen since leaving northern Vene- 
 zuela, the other being a commercial traveller at Nunchia. 
 
 The soup habit continues in full force; the custom of the better 
 class of inns hereabouts being to have one soup for breakfast, two 
 soups for lunch, and three soups or stews for dinner. The latter meal 
 generally consists of five courses. 
 
 April 2ist. As we left Paipa this morning the country people 
 were thronging into town for early mass. Most of them were on 
 foot; a very few were riding. One fine lady was on the most gaily 
 appointed side saddle or sofa saddle that I have ever seen. It was 
 shaped like a small settee and was upholstered and bedecked with 
 many tassels. 
 
 Occasionally we passed an attractive hacienda. The road is for 
 the most part quite level and rather monotonous. The hills on each 
 side are bare of trees and serve mostly as pasturage for large flocks 
 of sheep. Birds are infrequent. The general aspect of the region 
 is not one of wildness. The plateau plainly bears the marks of an 
 
2l8 COLOMBIA 
 
 ancient civilization that for centuries has cultivated the available 
 lands. We are now on the main highway of the plateau. It is 
 passable for carts from Bogota, north to the frontier at Cucuta, so 
 we are told. Although a large part of it is macadamized, it is used 
 chiefly by pack trains and we met only one cart today. Just before 
 reaching Tunja we passed a "treasure lake'' that is being exploited 
 and dredged by American capital. It is said to have been here that 
 the ancient Indian kings of Tunja took their annual gold baths and 
 threw objects of gold into the lake. 
 
 We reached Tunja about five o'clock. From a distance it is 
 picturesque, as it lies on the slope of a hill facing the north. Its many 
 church towers are very conspicuous and it looks like a fine city, but 
 on closer acquaintance there is too much dirt and filth, too many bad 
 smells and unpleasant sights. 
 
 The German we met yesterday directed us to a "clean little 
 boarding-house kept by two worthy old maids." He said the hotels 
 here were proverbially bad and the little boarding-house was much 
 the best place to stay. We had some difficulty in finding it and by 
 the time M'e reached its portals were followed by a crowd of fifty or 
 sixty half-tipsy Sunday loafers. Accordingly it was not strange 
 that the proprietress, who stood like a dragon by the door, refused to 
 have any parley with us or admit us to shelter. We were then directed 
 to the Hotel Boyaca, but the yard was filthy and its looks were against 
 it, so we went in search of another inn. A small hotel was pointed 
 out to us on the plaza and we tried to get accommodations there, but 
 were refused. It was not surprising. We had neither of us been 
 in a barber's hands since the first of January, and our curls, though 
 long and picturesque, vvere not civihzed. Furthermore, four months 
 of roughing it had not improved the appearance of our riding togs. 
 We did look rather like brigands, although we long ago packed awav 
 our guns. There had been almost nothing to shoot since we left 
 Pore. 
 
 In addition to our disreputable appearance the rapidlv increasing 
 crowd of Sunday drunks at our heels was enough to make any respect- 
 able hotel proprietor chary of us. Suddenly, as if in protest against 
 our treatment. Rice's mule, the one with the clipped ears, lay 
 down like a camel in front of the inn, greatlv to the amusement of 
 
FROM PANTANO DE VARGAS TO BOYACA 219 
 
 the crowd. We finally returned to the Hotel Boyaca, having made up 
 our minds to put up with its dirt. As was to be expected we were 
 promptly told that the hotel was full, and there was no room for us. 
 We thought this was carrying the joke a little too far and accordingly 
 had a wordy session with the innkeeper. After he read our letters 
 of introduction he relented sufficiently to assign us a musty room on 
 the ground floor. 
 
 Tunja was once the seat of a powerful native government and 
 still has the air of departed greatness. As the capital of the province 
 of Boyaca it has a number of pubhc buildings, but. they are badly 
 in need of repair. There are scores of little shops on the principal 
 streets, but none that could be called attractive. 
 
 April 22d. Luis, Josh, and the pack mules passed through Tunja 
 yesterday and we started early this morning in pursuit of them. 
 The road south of Tunja was one of the first in Colombia to be 
 macadamized. The work was well done and it is still in fairly good 
 condition, although somewhat eroded. Hills rise on each side from 
 one to two thousand feet above it. It is difficult to realize that these 
 are really mountains whose tops are eleven or twelve thousand feet 
 above the sea. As there are no forests here the fuel consists of dried 
 bushes and shrubs. It reminds one of old fairy tales to see women 
 and children collecting and carrying into town great bundles of these 
 fagots. 
 
 There seems to have been very little rain here recently and the 
 grass is rather yellow. Brilhantly streaked clays exposed on the hill- 
 sides by erosion add many striking colours to the landscape. Ever 
 since leaving Laguna Seca we have been slowly ascending the valley 
 of the Sogamoso, and this morning we reached its head. The road 
 now leaves the basin of the Magdalena, of which the Sogamoso is a 
 branch, and re-enters that of the Orinoco. Just before chmbing 
 over the divide, we came up with our caravan installed in a road- 
 side tavern. Josh had had an accident. Yesterday his steed, one 
 of those hired of the alcalde of Corrales, had become frisky; the 
 buckle of the reins had parted. Josh lost his head, and instead of try- 
 ing to reach for the flying reins had attempted to dismount while 
 the horse was running at full gallop. As a result he had a bad fall 
 and cracked the bone of his right heel. While Rice attended to the 
 
220 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 sufferer and put his heel into a splint, a heavy shower came up and 
 delayed us for a couple of hours, making the road very slippery. 
 
 w 
 
 a 
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 o 
 o 
 1-1 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 PI 
 
 w 
 a 
 h 
 
 When we were ready to start, Josh took Richard's quiet little nag, 
 while Richard with my camera mounted the other beast, who soon 
 began to slide, plunge, and rear on the muddy road. The performance 
 
FROM PANTANO DE VARGAS TO BOYACA 221 
 
 ended by horse, rider, and camera falling with a crash into the gutter. 
 It looked like a bad accident, but luckily no one was hurt, not even 
 the camera. 
 
 We reached an excellent inn near the famous bridge of Boyaca 
 in the middle of the afternoon. It is just sixteen kilometres from 
 Tunja. 
 
 April 2^d. There are three roads from Paipa to Bogota and the 
 south. One, the best, goes through Tunja. Another passes west of 
 Tunja and is separated from it by a high ridge. .A.s BoHvar by 
 occupying Tunja had control of the first of these, Barreiro endeavoured 
 to reach the capital by the next best. The two roads meet at the 
 bridge over the Boyaca river. The abutments of the old bridge are 
 still to be seen, but a fine new bridge has been built a hundred feet up- 
 stream. The stream is not large and is easily forded at this season 
 of the year. Its banks are partly covered with tall ferns and thick 
 bushes. It is a most romantic spot. 
 
 Hills covered with ferns and dense foliage rise steeply on both 
 sides of the httle stream of the Boyaca above and below the bridge. 
 It must have been almost impossible to chmb the hills on either side 
 in the face of any kind of fire. Barreiro reached the bridge first and 
 stopped for lunch. As a result he had hardly got his army across 
 before they were attacked by the patriot troops. Patriot horsemen 
 found a ford lower down the stream and attacked the Spaniards on 
 flank and rear as they were attempting to defend the passage of the 
 bridge from the heights on the south side of the stream. The British 
 Legion then made a bold attack on the centre and caused a com- 
 plete rout. Barreiro, his officers and a large number of his soldiers 
 were taken prisoners and the Colombian War of Independence w&s 
 practically over. According to the old antiquary of Paipa, Bolivar 
 was at breakfast in Tunja during the battle, and arrived here barely 
 in time to receive Barreiro's surrender. 
 
 The fight was short, sharp, and bloody. Had Barreiro defended 
 the lower ford and entrenched himself on the hills he might have 
 held the position long enough to make good his retreat to Bogota. 
 He did have some light artillery on one of the hills and it required no 
 little bravery on the part of the British Legion to make the frontal 
 attack. However, the Spaniards had been badly demoralized by the 
 
222 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 g 
 
 3 
 o 
 o 
 
 o 
 m 
 
 
FROM PANTANO DE VARGAS TO BOYACA 223 
 
 arrival of the Liberating Army over the Paramo of Pisva in the rainy 
 season. After Pantano de Vargas, which was really a drawn battle, 
 their courage failed them and they were attempting to retreat as fast 
 as they knew how when they were crushed at this bridge. 
 
 The difficulties of Bolivar's campaign of 1819 and the courage 
 and endurance displayed by the Liberating Army have not been 
 exaggerated. In fact it is not easy to portray them so graphically 
 that they can be appreciated by those who have not experienced the 
 trials of a similar undertaking. It is not surprising that South 
 Americans are fond of comparing Bolivar's feat to that of Hannibal 
 or Napoleon crossing the Alps. 
 
 It was an undertaking that has few equals in military history. 
 The long tedious march over the Llanos in the wet season when 
 torrential rains turn the plains into vast lakes and interminable 
 swamps; the absence of any food except newly killed beef; the 
 prevalance of malaria; the necessity of enduring terrible heat in the 
 middle of the day and penetrating cold at night, of wading treacher- 
 ous swamps and swimming flooded rivers, their clothes rotten and 
 torn to shreds; the terrors of the Paramo; the weak and enfeebled 
 condition of the men; the loss of their animals; and all in the face of 
 an enemy that outnumbered them. It is no wonder that the royahst 
 army was demoralized by such an exhibition of courage. The moral 
 effect of the march can hardly be overestimated. The battles of 
 Pantano de Vargas and Boyaca were fought without any exhibition 
 of strategy. They were won by men who first disma^'ed their adver- 
 saries by accomplishing an unheard-of feat and then fought with 
 tenacious courage. 
 
 Finally it should never be forgotten that a large proportion, more 
 than one half, of the men who marched from the banks of the Apure 
 to Boyaca were Bolivar's faithful allies, the soldiers of the British 
 Legion. Colombia has acknowledged the debt she owes that brave 
 regiment by placing its name in a prominent position on the monu- 
 ment that has been erected near the Bridge of Boyaca. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 From the BraoGE of Boyaca to Bogota 
 
 April 2yl (con.). We left the posada after lunch, crossed the 
 new bridge and climbed out of the valley. The road is good, but the 
 hilltops have much of the characteristic aspect of a paramo, stunted 
 vegetation, no trees, and a chilling bleakness. Our cargo mules 
 seemed to have recovered entirely from their mountain climbing and 
 reeled off five kilometres an hour on the macadamized cart road with 
 little diihculty. After passing this little paramo, we went down into 
 another valley, still in the Orinoco system, and came to a beautiful 
 region dotted with numerous farms and giving every sign of being a 
 prosperous agricultural district. Far ahead we could see a rather 
 forbidding mountain pass. Two thousand feet below it in a valley 
 nestled Turmeque, a medium-sized town, but the road crept along 
 the edge of the valley and did not descend to the town. 
 
 We stopped at an excellent inn called La Cascada. The ordinary 
 traveller from Tunja to Bogota spends his first night here, unless 
 he has to travel slowly with pack mules. The people of the inn 
 were unusually obliging although we reached there some time after 
 dark. 
 
 April 24th. La Cascada is a one-story affair built around a 
 pretty court in which are blossoming violets, poppies, various kinds 
 of geraniums, pansies, roses, daisies, lilies, verbenas, iris, and carna- 
 tions; altogether quite a gay and festive sight. 
 
 The popular drinks in this region are Hennessey's one star brandy, 
 lager beer brewed by Germans in Bogota, and guarapo or chiclia, 
 a filthy native barley beer drunk in immense quantities by the lower 
 classes. 
 
 Soon after leaving the inn we climbed the cold paramo to an alti- 
 tude of nine thousand six hundred and fifty feet. There were few 
 trees to be seen, but sheep were abundant and nearly all the women 
 
 224 
 
FROM THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA TO BOGOTA 225 
 
 we met were spinning wool by hand in the ancient manner. Black 
 sheep are in demand, as the natives prefer black wool for their 
 ponchos. Nearly two thirds of every flock are black. 
 
 We passed an extraordinary number of beggars, in fact the road 
 seemed to be lined with them. Their httle thatched shelters appeared 
 at almost every turn. Some had loathsome diseases, while others 
 appeared to have nothing wrong with them. Their whining requests 
 followed us for miles. Another cultivated valley, another stream, 
 more barren hills or rather treeless mountain tops, another paramo 
 at a height of ninety-six hundred feet, and we left the basin of the 
 Orinoco and descended gradually into a still more fertile valley, part 
 of the plateau of Bogota. 
 
 Two wandering musicians with guitars, whom we overtook, kept 
 up a weird instrumental duet as they walked along mile after mile. 
 At first it was rather pleasant but it soon became very monotonous. 
 Tlie mules would not walk fast enough to get ahead of the noise, and 
 it did not seem to be worth while to wait and let the noise get ahead 
 of us. Fortunately, the energetic musicians stopped at a tavern 
 when they reached the wretched village of Hato Viejo, while we 
 pushed on to Choconta. 
 
 Our appearance makes the proprietors of respectable hotels shy 
 of us. The cross old woman in charge of the inn at Choconta said 
 all the rooms were taken. We insisted on having quarters, however, 
 and at last she assigned us a cell that had neither light nor venlilation. 
 This we refused point-blank, and were given a very good room and 
 good food. The crowd that gathered in front of the inn to watch us 
 unload was rather insolent and allowed their curiosity to get the 
 better of their manners. We are not getting very favourable impres- 
 sions of these interior cities. 
 
 April 2^th. We have repeatedly noticed the absence of games 
 since leaving northern Venezuela, where bowling was very popular. 
 But here at Choconta we saw both men and boys playing the old- 
 fashioned ball and cup game. 
 
 The plaza has a public fountain where water-carriers go to fill 
 their casks by means of bamboos with which they guide the water 
 from the upper part of the fountain into the cask. Near the fountain 
 sit the pedlers of green fodder. They have to keep a watchful eye 
 
226 COLOMBIA 
 
 on the water-carriers' hungry donkeys who stand near by waiting for 
 their casks to be tilled. 
 
 The people we see are roughly divided into two classes: hard- 
 working peons, generally polite and obliging, who toil all day in the 
 fields or carry heavy loads on the roads, stopping only for their 
 "soup" from eleh'en to eleven-thirty; and the townies or "smarties" 
 who feel quite superior to their hard-working countrymen. They 
 are very rude, seem to have nothing to do except to laugh at one 
 another's witticisms, never offer to help an arriero who is in trouble 
 with his loads, and are altogether the most disagreeable persons we 
 have met on our journey. 
 
 The arrieros are not attractive in appearance, but they work hard. 
 Their costume is nearly always the same, a coarse woollen poncho 
 reaching below the elbows, cheap cotton pantaloons rolled up above 
 the knees out of the mud in the highway, sandals to keep the soles of 
 their feet from getting cut and bruised, and high-crowned "panama" 
 hats. Each carries a whip made of six feet of rawhide with a yellow 
 wooden handle nearly a )-ard long. , . • 
 
 As we were leaving Choconta this morning, we saw a man carry- 
 ing an umbrella, the first seen in several months. Somehow it looked 
 strangely out of place. When it rains, the poncho which every one 
 wears here to keep off heat and cold, dust and showers, protects 
 everything but the hat. Those who can afford to do so have little 
 oil-silk slips with which they cover their hats as soon as the first drops 
 begin to fall. 
 
 We left Josh and Richard at Boyaca to wait for horses which we 
 engaged for them in that vicinity. They have not caught up with 
 us yet, but it is quite a relief to be free from hearing their hourly 
 complaints. They are not enjoying Colombia. On the Llanos 
 negroes are rare and we saw none in the tillages east of the mountains. 
 Although our men attracted considerable notice it was of a pleasant 
 sort, quite in accordance with the friendly disposition of the inhabi- 
 tants. But here on the plateau many people are really rude, and the 
 poor blacks are frequently hooted at in the streets of the cities. In 
 Corrales a crowd of bo}-s followed Josh wherever he went and de- 
 lighted in annoying him. In Duitama and in Nobsa a howling mob 
 followed him about all the time. In Venezuela he was very proud 
 
FROM THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA TO BOGOTA 227 
 
 and haughty, even provokingly so, but he has been much humbled 
 in the last few days. Since we left Limbo six weeks ago he has been 
 absolutely useless as a servant, but had to be taken along as a pas- 
 senger since we could not discharge him. We shall be very glad 
 when we can get rid of him. There have been times when he was 
 indispensable, as at Cano Guato; but most of the time he has been 
 entirely without nerve, initiative, or courage. 
 
 The scenery continually reminds one of the south of France. 
 The poplars, the lazy streams, the smoothness of the hills and the 
 small area of the fields, give it a markedly European aspect. Bright 
 rose-hued hlies are now in bloom and add a touch of gorgeous colour 
 to the barren hillsides. 
 
 We frequently meet pack trains loaded with large blocks of rock 
 salt from the Zipaquira mines. It is unrefined and when crushed 
 for the table looks like gray sand. Most of the pack animals are 
 mules and horses. Pack oxen one rarely sees and burros are not 
 very common. They are slower than the mules and cannot carry 
 as much, while their fodder costs about the same. The number of 
 pack trains is large enough to support many posadas and portreros. 
 Some of the portreros or enclosed pastures have adobe walls, built in 
 sections very much like concrete, each section representing the size 
 of the portable mould in which the soft clay is packed down by the 
 feet of the workmen and their wooden pestles. Other portreros are 
 surrounded by moats of a curious pattern. Two lines of holes two 
 feet deep are dug side by side. Barely enough earth is left between 
 each hole to keep the sides from caving in. The narrow walls be- 
 tween the holes make the ditches easier to dig, and keep animals from 
 crossing. Mules could easily descend and cross a ditch made with- 
 out these partitions; and a good horse could jump it. But a tired 
 pack animal rarely cares to attempt to cross the chain of pitfalls. 
 A few of the portreros are surrounded by stone walls. Gates like 
 those seen in the Sogamoso valley continue to be common, although 
 occasionally the pattern changes slightly. The country is densely 
 populated. I counted fifty farms on a single hillside. This after- 
 noon we saw a big harvesting machine of Enghsh make being pulled 
 along the road by ten yoke of oxen. 
 
 As we entered the great plain of Bogota, the road grew worse and 
 
2 28 COLOMBIA 
 
 at times the mud was up to the mules' bellies. Before long we 
 turned sharply off to the right, leaving the main cart road, in order 
 to reach the Northern Railroad which has recently been extended 
 beyond Zipaquira. It was quite exciting to be so near a railroad 
 and we almost jumped from our saddles when we heard the shrill 
 screech of a steam whistle not far off. It turned out to be a steam 
 threshing machine, much to our disappointment. 
 
 During the afternoon we had heavy showers, the roads grew worse, 
 and one of the pack mules threatened to give out. Rice and I went 
 ahead with the other four and left Luis to coax the tired animal along 
 as best he could. 
 
 After climbing over a steep ridge, we entered Nemocon. It has 
 three or four "hotels," but we were directed by some wag to a very 
 humble posada kept by two old ladies. They were most obliging, 
 however, and made no pretence that their establishment was "ocu- 
 pado." Hardly had we reached the inn when a smart young horse- 
 man rode up to Rice and in a few words of broken English told him 
 "our man had hurt himself," laughed immoderately and rode off. 
 He was gone before we could question him. As Luis did not arrive 
 we were forced to the conclusion that he had probably been kicked 
 by the tired mule and taken refuge in some roadside tavern. 
 
 The railroad station and yard is not yet completed here, but a 
 work train leaves every morning at six o'clock for Zipaquira, whence 
 there is a daily train to Bogota. This we might expect to catch 
 tomorrow were Luis here with the other load. As it is we are within 
 hearing of the train and yet seem destined to remain for an indefinite 
 period. Josh and Richard have not appeared but they have money 
 enough to reach Bogota alone. 
 
 April 26th. There are many evidences of prosperity in Nemocon. 
 The barroom of the httle posada is crowded every night. Large 
 quantities of chicha are brewed daily in the back yard. All the local 
 peons are hard at work under Colombian overseers building the rail- 
 road station and the yards. Considerable other building is going 
 on. Two new hotels have just been completed. A new transpor- 
 tation company has opened offices here and advertises to take 
 goods into the interior. A photographer, the first we have seen 
 since leaving Valencia, has opened an establishment next to the 
 
FROM THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA TO BOGOTA 229 
 
 church on the plaza. There is actually an atmosphere of business 
 in the place. 
 
 We waited some time this morning for Luis to appear, hoping 
 that he had not been badly hurt. At noon, as we could get no word 
 of him from persons who came over the road. Rice took his kit of 
 surgical instruments and went back to see if he could find him. Two 
 hours later Luis turned up from the other direction. It seems he 
 was not hurt at all, had been only half an hour behind us yesterday 
 and had passed right by the wretched little posada in which we were 
 stopping. The mischievous populace told him we had gone on to 
 Zipaquira and he tried his best to overtake us, only to discover even- 
 tually that he had passed us. Hardly had Luis finished his tale 
 when Rice returned from his fruitless search and with him the two 
 negroes. We found that the work train would carry passengers but 
 not luggage, so we left the negroes to spend the night at the inn and 
 rode on to Zipaquira with Luis and the pack mules. 
 
 We left Nemocon about half-past four and reached Zipaquira at 
 eight o'clock. The road was very bad but quite level. It runs 
 through a pretty country. Large eucalyptus trees are the most 
 noticeable feature of the landscape. 
 
 It gave me a queer feeling to dismount in front of the hotel at 
 Zipaquira and realize that the long ride was at last over. I felt loath 
 to part with my mule, "Blackie," who had carried me faithfully 
 through treacherous swamps and over slippery mountain trails, 
 never stumbhng and always willing to go. Of the five mules bought 
 in Valencia, she was the only one able to perform the whole journey. 
 At the end she was perfectly sound and had neither back nor girth 
 sore. She cost eighty-eight dollars in Valencia, but we thought our- 
 selves fortunate to sell her to-day for thirty dollars. Had it been 
 feasible I should have liked to take her home with me. 
 
 The hotel at Zipaquira deserves its reputation of being the clean- 
 est and most attractive in Colombia. The guests were numerous 
 but extremely polite and courteous towards the two ragged, long- 
 haired foreigners. 
 
 April 2']th. Luis, our faithful Colombian arriero, brought the 
 loads down to the station, where we bade him good-by. He was 
 thoroughly reliable from first to last, always cheerful and courteous 
 
230 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 to us, although heartily despising the poor negroes, whose inability 
 to do anything well was not lost on him. They joined us at the sta- 
 tion, coming down on the work train from Nemocon. 
 
 The distance from Zipaquira to Bogota is about thirty miles by 
 
 train, but the first- 
 class fare is only 
 seventy cents. I tried 
 to buy tickets with 
 gold coin, but the 
 gold ounces were re- 
 fused by the clerk. 
 Surely it is a strange 
 custom that makes 
 gold and silver to be 
 looked at askance. 
 While wondering 
 what I was to do, I 
 overheard some one 
 addressing a well- 
 dressed gentleman in 
 the crowd by a name 
 that sounded ex- 
 tremely familiar. It 
 turned out that he 
 was formerly a na- 
 tive of Arauca for 
 whom I carried a let- 
 ter of introduction 
 from the Colombian 
 Minister at Washing- 
 ton. He proved to 
 be a friend in need, for he at once helped us out of the difficuhv and 
 persuaded the station master to accept our gold. 
 
 The excess charges on our luggage were very small, less than a 
 couple of dollars; rather different from our last experience, on the 
 German Railway at Caracas. ]\Iany of the passengers had ridden 
 down to the Zipaquira station and sent their horses, saddled and 
 
 Blackie and her Master on the Last Day's 
 March. 
 
FROM THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA TO BOGOTA 231 
 
 bridled, into the baggage car. As we stopped at various stations, 
 tlie owners would lead their horses off the train, mount and gallop 
 rapidly off before the train got under way again. They all wore the 
 wonderful baggy leggings that are the fashion here. 
 
 The railroad journey lasted a little over two hours, but did not 
 seem so long to the unsophisticated wanderers. 
 
 The cars were very old and almost worn out. The conductor of 
 our train, an English-speaking Colombian, had served on the Panama 
 railroad and also as supercargo on one of the New York steamers. 
 To add to our pleasure a newsboy came through the train and we 
 were once more able to see a morning paper. When one has not 
 seen a printed cable dispatch for five months, it is quite exciting to 
 be able to read the morning news of the world. 
 
 The Northern Railroad passes over a fairly level plain. The 
 mountains are too far off to be imposing until just as one reaches 
 Bogota. For the last half-hour of the journey, the train passed 
 through the suburbs of the capital, built between the mountains on 
 the east and a swampy plain on the west. We saw a few pretty villas 
 and just before reaching the city passed the country club with its polo 
 field. 
 
 Bogota is not impressive as one approaches by train, although 
 the mountains rise abruptly back of it and the little white-walled 
 monasteries on their summits add a look of romance to the place. 
 The city itself is too flat to admit of one getting any view without 
 climbing the hills on the other side of the city from the railroad 
 station. 
 
 There was the usual excitement at the station, porters and carters 
 struggling for patronage and passengers trying to get away as soon as 
 possible. After engaging a cart and seeing it safely loaded with our 
 luggage, we drove to the Hotel Frese on the Plaza Bohvar in a one- 
 horse victoria, a poor imitation of those used in Caracas. The hotel 
 clerk, as might have been foreseen, received us most coldly. He said 
 all the rooms were occupied and did not seem inclined to bother about 
 us. One could hardly blame him. We scarcely realized how travel- 
 stained and unkempt we were. The next best hotel to the Frese is 
 the Metropohtano, but there we had no better luck. Not desiring 
 to drive all over the city we requested the clerk to telephone to some 
 
232 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 of the other hotels and find out whether they had room for us. We 
 thought that in this way we might secure a room before they had seen 
 what we looked hke. These must have been warned by something 
 in the clerk's voice, however, for all with one accord declared their 
 inability to receive us. It was long past lunch time. We had had 
 a very early breakfast and it may be imagined were somewhat tired 
 and rather hungry, but it struck us as a huge joke, this arriving at the 
 end of our journey only to be told that there was no room for us any- 
 
 The American Legation, Bogota. 
 
 where in a city of 150,000 inhabitants. Fortunately, Major Heimke, 
 the American Charge d'Affaires, most hospitably came to the rescue, 
 opened the legation to us and gave his two undesirable fellow-citizens 
 a room. After lunch at a neighbouring cafe, we spent the rest of the 
 day reading the letters that had been accumulating since December. 
 April 28th. After four months of dirt and fihh, it is very com- 
 fortable to be in a carefully dusted house, free from insects. No 
 house ever seemed so clean as the legation, nor has civilized food 
 ever tasted so good. It appears that Bogota is really full of visitors, 
 as the National Assembly or Congress is now in session. The hotels 
 
FROM THE BRIDGE OF BOYACA TO BOGOTA 233 
 
 are very small, even the Frese has only eight or nine rooms. Bogota 
 is not accustomed to taking care of many travellers at one time. 
 
 April 2gth. We paid off the negroes today, and sent them home. 
 None of us seemed particularly sorry at the parting. 
 
 While at Valencia we spent seven hundred dollars for mules and 
 supplies. This does not include what we paid for the larger part of 
 our outfit, which was bought in the States, nor for our transportation 
 to Valencia. Since leaving Valencia we have paid out nine hundred 
 dollars, gold. The largest items of expense were wages, oxen, and 
 mules. In Venezuela my account book shows very few items ending 
 in $.05. In eastern Colombia such items increase rapidly. After 
 we crossed the mountains and reached the valley of Sogamoso, items 
 ending in $.02 and $.03 are fairly common. The charge for pastur- 
 ing an animal over night was often only three or four cents. The 
 average charge for meals along the road was twenty-five cents, 
 twenty cents at the smaller posadas and thirty at the larger ones. 
 
 Our journey took one hundred and fifteen days, instead of sixty 
 days as we had estimated when we left Caracas. How httle those 
 who have always hved within the bounds of civilization know of the 
 vexful delays and incredible obstacles of the wilderness. One of 
 my letters reached the very kernel of our needs when it closed with 
 the words: "Patience and courage be with you from day to day." 
 The unforeseen difficulties of the way, the prevalence of disease and 
 the interminable delays, required all we had of both quahties. 
 
 Our estimates had been based on the experience of travellers 
 who had gone from Caracas to Bogota by the regular overland 
 route. This passes through Valencia to San Carlos, leaves the 
 Llanos near San Carlos, enters the Andes near Barquisimeto, and 
 follows the plateau between the Eastern and the Central Cordillera 
 via Merida, Cucuta, Santa Rosa, and Tunja. This route from 
 Caracas to Bogota is described by Colonel Duane in his "Visit to 
 Colombia"; by the anonymous author of "Letters written from 
 Colombia" who passed over it in 1822 and 1823, and by others. So 
 far as I am able to discover we are the first travellers who have 
 attempted to go from Caracas to Bogota by way of Barinas, Arauca, 
 and the Paramo of Pisva. 
 
 Naturally some parts of the route have been described by previous 
 
234 COLOMBIA 
 
 writers. The section between Caracas and San Carlos may be 
 found depicted in Duane and many other books. A bare itinerary 
 of the road from San Carlos to Barinas is given as an appendix to 
 Col. Francis Hall's "Colombia"; but I can find no other account of 
 this part of our road. Codazzi and other authors of geographies 
 have described the general aspect of the country and given statements 
 in regard to the cities, but the journey itself does not seem to have 
 been delineated. Nor can I find any account of the road from 
 Barinas to the Apure River and Arauca. Baron von Humboldt 
 crossed the central Llanos from Cura to San Fernando de Apure, but 
 did not penetrate the western Llanos. Our route from Arauca to 
 El Limbo, as I have already said, is described by Brisson in his 
 "Casanare." He also depicts the larger part of the road from El 
 Limbo to Pore. But he did not attempt the Paramo of Pisva, and I 
 can find no description of our route from Pore to Pisva, the Paramo, 
 Laguna Seca, and Duitama. 
 
 The road from Duitama to Bogota is well known and is described 
 by Mollien, Duane, and others. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 Bogota 
 
 May "jth. We take most of our meals at a smart little cafe that 
 has a gay clientele of young doctors of law and medicine. The 
 waiters are ragged and barefooted, and have some customs which 
 it is just as well to overlook. Coffee and tea are served in the same 
 kind of pots, both look pretty black, so how is the waiter to know 
 which is which without sticking his nose into the top of each pot 
 whenever he is about to pour out your beverage? 
 
 The food seemed excellent at first, but after a while grew monoto- 
 nous. I imagine the pots are not cleaned with hot water and soap! 
 An orchestra of five pieces plays twice a day and an Italian vender 
 of coloured souvenir post cards frequents the place in the evening. 
 He has a large collection of reproductions of paintings and drawings 
 from Europe, but no pictures of Bogota. 
 
 May loth. Bogota has a charm of its own. One of the most 
 entertaining features is the mixture of European and Colombian cos- 
 tumes which one sees in the streets. The peons or manual labour- 
 ers all wear high-crowned "Panama" hats, coarse woollen ponchos 
 of variegated designs, nondescript pantaloons and sandals. The 
 student class, the young doctors of law and medicine, and generally 
 the young men about town, wear Derby hats and tailor-made suits 
 with cutaway coats. Derbies are also worn by the business men, 
 but grave gentlemen carrying umbrellas and wearing high silk hats 
 and frock coats, as in London, are almost always in sight. Fu- 
 nerals, weddings, feast days, "occasions" of every sort, call for this 
 formal dress. The contrast between the silk hats and the high- 
 crowned Panamas, the frock coats and the coarse ponchos, one so 
 conventional that it would be unnoticed on Piccadilly, the other so 
 strange and outlandish as to gather a crowd even at Coney Island, 
 
 235 
 
236 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 is very striking. It reminds one of Japan, where the men are inclined 
 to abandon their picturesque dress for conventional European attire. 
 One sees the same difference in the ladies' dress, although women 
 do not appear often on the streets. Conservative ladies and those of 
 the poorer classes wear the old-fashioned simple black gowns, cover- 
 ing their heads with black shawls or black lace mantillas. In marked 
 
 Bogota, Looking North on one of the Princi.'AL Streets. 
 
 contrast to these are the followers of more modern fashions, whose 
 smart Parisian costumes, surmounted by gay picture hats, strike one 
 as curiously bold and out of place. It is so long since we have seen 
 ladies attired in anything but black that it seems almost immodest, 
 this display of colours and gaudy raiment. Some of the well-dressed 
 daughters of the smart set spend hours leaning out of second-story 
 windows staring at the passers-by. We are told that it is a mark of 
 consideration and respect to stare and make remarks, but to an Anglo- 
 Saxon it is a disagreeable custom. 
 
 The temperature here is colder than we had been led to expect. 
 
BOGOTA 237 
 
 It is generally below 60° F. There is almost no time in the day 
 when the thermometer in the shade goes as high as 65° F. Although 
 it does not go much below 50° F. at night, the air is so damp that the 
 cold is very penetrating. As the houses are not heated and it is not 
 comfortable to sit long in a temperature of fifty-eight, it is the custom 
 to walk a great deal in the streets in order to get warm. There are 
 few carriages and the sidewalks are very narrow, so the streets are 
 often filled with pedestrians. The corners of the principal thorough- 
 fares are the favourite loafing places. There one can stand in the 
 middle of the street as long as one pleases, chatting with friends and 
 observing the passing throng. The practice of carrying walking 
 sticks is not as prevalent in Bogota as in Caracas, where one almost 
 never sees a man without one. The streets are well policed. At 
 night the officers carry rifles and signal to each other with sad-toned 
 whistles. It is an excellent device for avoiding trouble. No burglar 
 need come within a quarter of a mile of a pohceman if he keeps his 
 ears open to their mournful signals. 
 
 One sees no coin whatever in circulation. There are several little 
 shops here that buy gold and silver. American gold is at a premium ; 
 other foreign and Colombian gold at a discount. A gold ounce, 
 Mexican or Spanish, worth in Venezuela $16.40, does not fetch more 
 than $13.00 here. American Express checks on New York readily 
 sell at a two per cent premium, both here and in Caracas. I have 
 not seen a silver coin in Bogota. An American told me that as a 
 joke he offered a newsboy a five-dollar gold piece in exchange for 
 a paper worth five cents, but the boy thought it worthless and 
 refused it. 
 
 A curious thing is the lack of large bills. We have not seen any 
 of a denomination larger than one hundred dollars. As these are 
 really worth only ninety-eight cents in gold, one sometimes sees gen- 
 tlemen coming out of the banks with their arms full of bank notes. 
 Apparently the people enjoy the sensation of talking in the inflated 
 terms of paper currency. One hears them express great astonish- 
 ment or admiration that a mule cost "ten thousand dollars." It is 
 not half so interesting to say that it cost a hundred dollars or that its 
 real value in gold at present is only ninety-eight dollars. Whether 
 or not this depreciated state of the currency has anything to do with 
 
238 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 it, one sees many more wretchedly poor people clothed in rags in 
 Colombia than in Venezuela. 
 
 The market place in Bogota is much larger than that in Caracas 
 and has a wonderful variety of edibles. Fruits and vegetables of 
 every variety and description are here exhibited in enormous quanti- 
 ties. Fresh laid eggs are piled up by the thousand in great heaps. 
 Attractive native earthenware carelessly arranged in pyramids 
 appeals strongly to a lover of picturesque pottery. The crowds in 
 
 The Capitol, Bogota. 
 
 the markets were so busy bargaining that my presence there was 
 almost overlooked, although I found that I was the tallest person in 
 Bogota and attracted an unpleasant amount of attention on the 
 streets. In Caracas whenever I visited the market I was sure to be 
 followed through it by a crowd of loafers and boys. There do not 
 seem to be nearly so many unemployed here and life is not quite so 
 easy as in the Venezuelan capital. 
 
 The shops are remarkable for their number and small size. In 
 the region of the hat stores one can count in a single block twenty 
 establishments all devoted exclusively to sombreros, vet not one of 
 
BOGOTA 239 
 
 them large enough to do much business. The same thing is true of 
 other trades. On one street there are scores of jewellers, but their 
 shops are very small and unattractive. Furthermore, the shop- 
 keepers rarely make any effective display of their stock. A counter 
 frequently runs directly across the shop just inside the door and pre- 
 vents one from handling the goods offered for sale. It is quite tan- 
 talizing to be entirely at the mercy of the clerks, who alone have 
 access to the merchandise. It may be that it is an old custom fol- 
 lowed without rime or reason. The citizens of Bogota have not the 
 reputation of being pilferers; but it may be they are so incurably 
 curious that they need to be forcibly restrained from fingering the 
 stock in trade. Otherwise it is difficult to explain the cause of such 
 an inhospitable attitude in the shopkeepers. As an offset to this 
 disadvantage in the way of trade, many of the shops have adopted 
 a blackboard system and hang up on their door-posts daily bulletins 
 of goods "recently received." 
 
 There is httle red tape at the banks, but the post-office tells 
 another story. One day I went to the old monastery that serves as the 
 post-office to get a postal money order to send to the Syrian contractor 
 whose mules brought us from Pore. I soon found myself simply 
 engulfed in a maze of bureaucracy. After the usual formal applica- 
 tion had been written out and signed, and the clerk had figured how 
 much I had to pay, he sent me off to buy two kinds of stamps. The 
 window for postage stamps is in one place and that for revenue stamps 
 is far away across a courtyard in the extreme corner. I needed sixty 
 cents' worth of the revenue stamps but the clerks did not have so large 
 an amount at that office, so I was directed to walk a quarter of a mile 
 through the corridors and across two large patios to the other end of 
 the post-office establishment to another revenue stamp office where 
 they had a som.ewhat larger supply. The various kinds of stamps 
 being now bought according to directions, I returned by devious 
 winding passages to the money order office, where the stamps were 
 cancelled and I was given a receipt, duly grateful that it was not 
 necessary to send money orders frequently. 
 
 The heart of Bogota is the Plaza BoHvar, a large stone-paved 
 square with a small garden in the centre containing a fine statue of 
 Bolivar. The Cathedral, the Capitol, the leading hotels and the 
 
240 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 The Cathedral on the Plaza Bolivar 
 
 oiBces of the national lottery are to be found here as one would 
 expect. Next to the Cathedral is a chapel used chiefly for marriages 
 and funerals. It is remarkable for the number of fine old paintings 
 that it contains. Some of them appear to have been done in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Spanish and Italian masters. 
 A mile north of the Plaza Bohvar is the Parque Santander, 
 formerly the Plaza San Francisco. It is attractively laid out and 
 contains a tine statue of General Santander. Wonderfully restful 
 and satisfying, the figure has a noble head with a distinguished pro- 
 file. In front of the gardens are two churches where fashionable 
 weddings and funerals are held. These holy sacraments are cele- 
 brated almost daily in one or both of the fine old edifices. During 
 the funeral services crowds of well-dressed men in silk hats and 
 frock coats svvarm about the entrance to the church and exchange 
 the news of the day in low tones. As an evidence of respect for the 
 deceased, if the friends of the family are well to do, a long hne of 
 carriages containing nothing but funeral wreaths precedes the hearse. 
 
BOGOTA 
 
 241 
 
 AXD THE Capitol, Bogota. 
 
 It is the custom here, much more than in Caracas, to placard the 
 deaths of such people as have friends that can afford the luxury, on 
 the bill-boards. A poster two feet by three feet announces in large 
 letters the name of the deceased and the hour and place of the 
 funeral. Funerals are not long postponed, and as it is most essential 
 to send flowers and attend the funeral of one's acquaintances, it is 
 well to scan the bill-boards twice a day. 
 
 On the northern outskirts of the city is the Parque del Centenario, 
 as large as two city blocks, planted with magnificent eucalyptus trees. 
 It is reached by the tram car, now pulled by mules but soon to be 
 electrified. The streets are Hghted by electricity and so are many 
 of the houses. Curiously enough, the light is always turned off 
 between 5 and 6 p.m., so that one is obliged to sit and rest "in the 
 gloaming" whether one feels so inclined or not. 
 
 A fine view of the city may be had from the mountains east of it. 
 As one walks eastward and climbs the hill the houses become poorer 
 and poorer until one reaches the slums, where adobe walls, thatched 
 
242 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 roofs, filth and smells are the rule. The condition of the streets in 
 this part of the city is simply shocking. It is difi&cult to see what 
 averts a pestilence, as the filth is washed by the rains down through 
 the city. 
 
 Chmbing past this, one comes out on a fine driveway wide enough 
 
 Parque Saniander, Bogota. 
 
 to enable one to escape the proximity of the hovels that line its side. 
 This road winds into the picturesque gorge between the two moun- 
 tains back of Bogota. At the entrance to the gorge the road passes 
 a spring to which the city water-carriers come daily with their red 
 earthenware jars to get drinking water. The sparkling stream that 
 
BOGOTA 
 
 243 
 
 flows through the gorge into the city is fouled b}' the washing of 
 clothes, which is done by scores of women on its banks. Just beyond 
 the spring is a gristmill, while a thousand feet above, on the tops of 
 the mountains, the white walls of two monasteries glisten in the sun- 
 light. 
 
 At the base of one of the mountains is a primitive coal mine. 
 The miners put the coal 
 in sacks, sew up the 
 sacks, carry them on their 
 backs to the surface of 
 the ground, place them 
 on an exceedingly primi- 
 tive little car that will 
 hold five or six bags, and 
 push the car painfully 
 over a diminuti\'e rail- 
 way, with wooden rails, 
 until it reaches the end 
 of the hne, sixty feet from 
 the mouth of the mine. 
 Here the car is unloaded, 
 the bags are carefully 
 opened and their sooty 
 contents dumped over a 
 primitive separator 
 which divides the coal 
 into three sizes. Thence 
 it is shovelled into mule 
 carts and taken down the hill to be sold in the city. 
 
 During the past few days I have been reading Mr. Petre's new 
 book on Colombia. His descriptions of what he saw here are 
 admirable. He does not seem to have gone very far from the main 
 travelled route and some of the information about Colombia which 
 he gives at second hand is not reliable, but the fault is not entirely the 
 author's, for almost no one here is trained to see things in a scientific 
 manner. It is not that they intend to deceive you when they reply 
 erroneously to }'our question, but that they have not been taught 
 
 The Bogota Laundry. 
 
244 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 to observe accurately. Consequently whatever one records as hear- 
 say must be received with much caution. 
 
 I have had great difficuhy getting boxes in which to ship books 
 purchased here. Packing cases represent almost the total supply of 
 imported lumber, and as all kinds of lumber are scarce, the boxes 
 are eagerly bought by carpenters and cabinet-makers, so that an 
 
 ordinary small pack- 
 ing case is worth 
 "one hundred dol- 
 lars," Colombian. 
 
 We ha^'e only 
 had one day of sun- 
 shine since our ar- 
 ri\'al. Heavy skies 
 and a daily drizzle 
 seem to be the order 
 of things. 
 
 May nth. This 
 afternoon we had an 
 appointment with 
 President Reyes. 
 The executive man- 
 sion is very simple 
 and unpretentious. 
 Seen from the street 
 one would hardly 
 take it to be more 
 than a moderately 
 interesting private 
 residence, except for 
 the fact that there 
 are a few soldiers on guard at the entrance and at the corner of the 
 street. Attended by our kind host, Major Heimke, we entered with- 
 out being challenged by the sentries and went to the office of the 
 Secretary General. A few minutes later we were ushered into the 
 large executive reception room, where the President received us very 
 cordially and unceremoniously. General Reyes is a tall, handsome 
 
 The Executive ilAxsiON, Bogota. 
 
BOGOTA 245 
 
 man of soldierly bearing, with a fine head firmly set on broad shoulders. 
 He has been a great explorer and a successful soldier; has travelled 
 extensively in Europe and the United States, and speaks Enghsh 
 fluently. He asked us many questions about our trip and was 
 much interested in Rice's proposed exploration of the Vaupes. 
 
 The President spoke freely of the needs of his country, particu- 
 larly emphasizing the desirability of good roads and a firm Gov- 
 ernment. He is a great admirer of President Diaz of Mexico, and 
 if his hfe is spared will undoubtedly endeavour to do for Colombia 
 what the latter has done for Mexico. Not long ago he had a very 
 narrow escape from an attack by three assassins who fired on him 
 while he was taking his daily drive. Most fortunately he escaped 
 unhurt and the conspirators were caught, tried, and shot. It was a 
 wholesome example to set and since then there has been no trouble. 
 As we withdrew the President gave us several packages of "Pildo- 
 ras Andinas," in which medicine he is a firm believer. All the sol- 
 diers of the Colombian army take it daily when they are quartered 
 in unhealthy regions. 
 
 A few days ago we attended a memorial celebration held in honour 
 of two brothers of President Reyes who lost their lives while explor- 
 ing with him in the great basin of the Amazon some years ago. The 
 first ceremony was the formal placing of magnificent wreaths on 
 the monuments that have been erected to their memory in the Cathe- 
 dral. The Archbishop conducted the exercises, and the wreaths,, 
 brought in by soldiers, were put in place by a committee of the 
 National Geographical Society. The legislature, the diplomatic 
 corps, and many of the principal citizens were present. In the after- 
 noon there was a meeting in the foyer of the fine Teatro Colon, where 
 we listened to the reading of papers describing the work of the Re3'es 
 brothers. They covered many thousands of miles in canoes, going 
 up and down the great rivers of the Amazon valley. Their prin- 
 cipal discoveries were made on the Caqueta and the Putumayo. 
 One brother died of fever and the other is supposed to have been 
 eaten by cannibals. The meeting was largely attended, every seat 
 being taken. 
 
 In the evening a grand concert was given in the theatre, as 
 a final tribute to the memory of the unfortunate explorers. We 
 
246 COLOMBIA 
 
 received special permission from the Master of Ceremonies to appear 
 in the only decent garments we had. Everybody else was in full 
 evening dress. The audience presented a gay spectacle. In the 
 principal box were the President's daughters and son-in-law. Ladies 
 are not allowed to sit in the orchestra here any more than they are in 
 Caracas, but seats had been placed in the enclosure where the mu- 
 sicians usually sit, and as these were not technically "orchestra 
 stalls," ladies were permitted to occupy them. The music itself was 
 far superior to that which we had heard at the concert in Caracas 
 and the audience was much more fashionably dressed. The sym- 
 phony orchestra played well and the soloists were enthusiastically 
 received and deluged with magnificent floral offerings. The piano 
 was really a fine concert grand, while the one we heard in Caracas 
 was like a tin pan. 
 
 - May 12th. We are making many pleasant acquaintances. The 
 people whom we meet seem to have plenty of time in which to enjoy 
 life and all practice the art of good conversation. Although it is 
 the common boast of people in Bogota that in their city one hears 
 the purest CastiUian spoken on this side of the Atlantic, I am dis- 
 appointed in not being able to use my Spanish more often. A 
 majority of the people we have met speak English and enjoy prac- 
 tising it on us. It is quite remarkable to find that these residents 
 of so isolated a capital speak English more fluently than the residents 
 of Caracas. Yet there are not more than a dozen Enghsh and Ameri- 
 cans in the city. 
 
 The Papal delegate, a delightful prelate, lives with his efficient 
 secretary in a splendid palace that was given him by the Govern- 
 ment two years ago. It appears to be the finest private residence 
 in Bogota. At breakfast there we met the members of the diplo- 
 matic corps and their friends. It was a very jolly occasion. Span- 
 ish, French, English, and Itahan seemed to be used indiscriminately. 
 Needless to say the breakfast was remarkably good and we appre- 
 ciated it thoroughly. 
 
 We have greatly enjoyed the society of the British Minister, a 
 charming gentleman who has lived much in Rome . Through his 
 kindness I learned today of the existence of a large part of the cor- 
 respondence of Santander. The papers are in the possession of a 
 
BOGOTA 
 
 247 
 
 committee of the Liberal Party and I hope to see them tomorrow. 
 We have learned to admire Santander exceedingly. His career is lit- 
 tle known outside of Colombia, but he deserves the greatest possible 
 praise for his faithful service to his country. It was largely due to 
 his efforts and his courage that Bohvar undertook his march across 
 the Llanos and the Andes. 
 
 May iT)th. Seventeen days is a short time in which to try to 
 secure correct ideas in re- 
 gard to a city of one hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand 
 inhabitants. It is easy 
 enough to see the exterior 
 life but somewhat difficult 
 to appreciate the interior. 
 Nevertheless I have been 
 asked here several times 
 how Bogota compares with 
 Caracas. It is a natural 
 question but hard to 
 answer. 
 
 In the first place Bogota 
 is larger, colder, consider- 
 ably higher, and much more 
 isolated from the world. 
 Caracas has more sunshine, 
 a more genial climate, and 
 a more attractive location. 
 The mountains near Bogota 
 are bleak, barren, and for- 
 bidding, while the beautiful 
 mountains that surround _ - - 
 
 Caracas are green to their tops and have a warm colouring. Caracas 
 seems to be embraced by her beautiful mountains, while Bogota has 
 the appearance of having climbed up out of the swampy plateau to 
 take refuge on the side of inhospitable hills. Notwithstanding its 
 many earthquakes, Caracas has more attractive public buildings 
 than Bogota. Its parks are considerably superior. It must not be 
 
 Looking Eastward from the Centre of 
 - -- ------; ■ Bogota. ■ . 
 
248 COLOMBIA 
 
 forgotten, however, that at an elevation of three thousand feet in the 
 tropics it is possible to raise many more flowers and trees than at an 
 elevation of nine thousand feet, so that it is not surprising that Bo- 
 gota is unable to compete with Caracas for attractiveness. Bogota 
 has its weekly lottery drawing, but the tickets are not so everlastingly 
 thrust in one's face as in Caracas. 
 
 Caracas is more like Paris, while Bogota resembles Madrid. In 
 the same way Caracas is a far more important part of Venezuela 
 than Bogota is of Colombia. Bogota is of necessity more provincial. 
 So little happens, so few strangers reach this secluded capital, that 
 its inhabitants naturally have more curiosity. The people of Caracas 
 appeared to us to be more frivolous, better dressed, and more pros- 
 perous on the whole, and their houses more comfortable. In Bogota 
 the custom prevails of allowing shops to occupy the ground floor 
 front, while the most fashionable people live "up stairs" in the 
 busiest streets. In Caracas society seems to prefer to live in quiet 
 residential quarters rather than in the heart of the shopping district. 
 
 In Venezuela everybody that is anybody has been to Paris and 
 speaks French, while here one hears very httle about Paris, although 
 it is evident that the ladies patronize Parisian dressmakers. Their 
 dresses coming by parcels-post arc somewhat creased in the mail, 
 but it is the fashion to allow the creases to remain as silent witnesses 
 of the foreign origin of the garments. It is whispered that the local 
 dressmakers have the habit of mussing their new creations so as to 
 make them appear Parisian. 
 
 The cultured people of Bogota speak more languages and speak 
 them better than their friends in Caracas. If they are less travelled 
 than those of Caracas, they are better read and better educated. 
 Furthermore, they take genuine pleasure in acquiring various accom- 
 phshments, writing sonnets, and exchanging witticisms and epigrams. 
 Not infrequently one meets a gentleman who is something of a poet, 
 musician, historian, soldier, politician, and wit, all combined. Such 
 a man is Don Jorge Pombo, an interesting Colombian who has for 
 years collected books relating to the history of Colombia. He is a 
 genuine book-lover and his books are in remarkably fine condition. 
 Unfortunately for him he is under the necessity of disposing of a large 
 part of them, and I hope to take a good many home with me. 
 
BOGOTA 249 
 
 This afternoon I expected to see the precious Santander manu- 
 scripts, but was unsuccessful as the committee who have them in 
 charge were not able to meet and the President of the bank where 
 they are deposited was not to be found. The mail left this morning, 
 but by starting early tomorrow and making haste I hope to over- 
 take it and catch the mail steamer. 
 
 Rice has decided to stay here and organize an expedition to dis- 
 cover the source of the Vaupes River and trace it to the Rio Negro 
 and the Amazon. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 Bogota to Cartagena 
 
 May 14th. The Magdalena River is the great natural highway 
 of Colombia. It is navigable for over eight hundred miles, although 
 the sand bar at its mouth prevents its being entered by ocean steamers. 
 Six hundred miles from the Caribbean are the rapids of Honda 
 which do not allow the river steamers of the lower river to pass this 
 point, although the upper river is navigable for over two hundred 
 miles. As Honda is only eighty miles from Bogota it has long been 
 the port of the capital. The road between Bogota and Honda is 
 so bad, however, passing over such high mountains and through 
 such deep valleys, that a new road has been constructed to Girardot, 
 a port on the Magdalena one hundred miles above Honda, near the 
 confluence of the Bogota River with the Magdalena. It is hoped 
 in time to complete a railroad from Bogota to the Magdalena by way 
 of this valley. This route is described in Mr. Petre's book. The 
 other and older route is by rail to Facatativa on the western edge 
 of the plateau of Bogota and thence by mule to Villeta, Guaduas, and 
 Honda. The mail still uses this route as it is more direct and less 
 uncertain. The steamers on the upper Magdalena from Girardot 
 to Honda do not always make schedule time, so I hear. Every one 
 advised me to go by way of Girardot, saying that the direct road 
 was simply impassable in places. Its terrors are very real to those 
 who are unaccustomed to rough mountain trails, but I hope its 
 difficulties will not prove any more insurmountable than those of 
 the Paramo of Pisva. At all ex'ents I have chosen to go by the older 
 road, as every one agrees it is the more picturesque and the one used 
 by Bolivar, at least that part of it which begins at Facatativa, the 
 terminus of the little railway. 
 
 The climate of Bogota has not appealed to me. The sun has 
 shone but little during the eighteen days that I have been here and 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 
 
 251 
 
 I cannot say I grew fond of the damp, chilly gloom of this famous 
 old city. To tell the truth I was very glad when the train got under 
 way at eight o'clock this morning. The road passes over a flat and 
 uninteresting country, making frequent stops. The towns along the 
 road are not large or attractive. 
 
 At nearly every station horses saddled and bridled were led out 
 of the baggage car as on the Northern Railroad, while their masters 
 ahghted from the coaches, mounted and rode off. The costumes of 
 
 En Route to Facatativa. 
 
 the riders always interested me. No matter what European finery 
 a man may wear in Bogota, he puts on the national costume before 
 he mounts his horse in the country. The Panama hat, woollen 
 poncho, and great flapping overalls give him a most picturesque 
 appearance and good protection against sun and wind, rain and mud. 
 It is a two-hour run to Facatativa, the end of the line. A crowd 
 of peons offering mules and transportation to Honda on the Magda- 
 lena besieged the alighting passengers. A friend in Bogota had 
 kindly telegraphed ahead so that I was met by a reliable man who 
 provided excellent animals and a good arriero. 
 
252 COLOMBIA 
 
 Soon after breakfasting we started off on our journey over the 
 mountains and valleys that lie between the plateau of Bogota and 
 the great river. The road is less than eighty miles long, but the 
 grades are so bad that the mail takes four days from Bogota to 
 Honda. Travellers usually allow three days and calculate to spend 
 seven hours in the saddle each day. The road goes northwest from 
 Facatativa for a short distance along the plateau, climbs over the 
 hills and then suddenly descends with many sharp turns. Its char- 
 acter varies according to the location. On the plateau the road is 
 wide and passable for carts, but when it descends into the valleys it 
 is very rocky and much too steep and narrow for wheeled vehicles. 
 In places the view is magnificent. On one's right after leaving the 
 plateau is a "table mountain" which serves as an excellent land- 
 mark for a distance of thirty miles. As the road descends, the fohage 
 becomes more and more tropical until one reaches coft'ee planta- 
 tions and finally fields of sugar-cane. 
 
 My new arriero is the fastest walker I have seen in Colombia 
 and keeps the two pack mules jogging along ahead of him at a good 
 pace. In the course of the afternoon we passed the mail which 
 left Bogota yesterday. The mail arrieros do not waste much time, 
 however, and before long they passed us, everybody on the run. 
 They soon met a long pack train bringing goods up to the capital. 
 The road was narrow at that point and one of the mail-carrying 
 mules got pushed off the road by a cargo mule loaded with huge 
 crates and rolled down hill twenty or thirty feet before the trees and 
 vines stopped him. He rolled over and over on the letter bags, but 
 the arrieros did not seem to regard it as an unusual occurrence. It 
 is easy to see why dresses coming from Paris by mail get well crushed 
 before they reach Bogota. 
 
 The size of some of the cases of merchandise is extraordinary. 
 No mule is supposed to carry more than two hundred and fifty pounds, 
 so that a single case ought not to weigh over one hundred and twenty- 
 five pounds. Yet it seemed as though some of the loads must wei^h 
 more. It is difficult to realize that all the pianos, heavy machinery, 
 parts of locomotives, in fact everything in Bogota that is imported, 
 has had to be carried over these mountain trails on the backs of 
 men and mules. 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 
 
 253 
 
 After a long winding descent into a beautiful deep valley we 
 reached the little town of Villeta about six o'clock, after eight hours 
 of very rapid travelling. We descended six thousand feet since 
 morning. 
 
 This is the first day that I have ridden a horse in Colombia and 
 the sensation was not pleasant compared with a mule. A horse 
 is not at all suited to these rocky mountain trails. More highly 
 strung, less willing to jog along at a steady pace hour after hour, 
 
 
 .•;■ .■■■■' 
 
 
 ^^^^^HE^HuS&ilSBtt^Bkr^^Tr^ Jtm^^^^^^J-'^- ...•»- - ^^^^''VR ''4«i9Nfc<-"^ JBSSMpB^B 
 
 Importing Goods for Bogota. 
 
 more ready to stop and walk and then dash on nervously, horses 
 are to be avoided on these trails. Furthermore, they are not nearly 
 so sure-footed. Some one has called the mountain mules the " camels 
 of the Andes." It would be a sad day for a camel that tried to 
 follow in their footsteps. 
 
 May i^th. My arriero distinguished himself this morning by the 
 speed with which he got his animals loaded. We left Villeta shortly 
 before seven and made good time in the cool of the morning. The 
 road leading out of the valley was frightfully steep, in places literally 
 a rocky stairway. It is astonishing to think how many thousands 
 
254 COLOAIBIA 
 
 of tons of merchandise have been brought to Bogota over such a 
 road. After a long chmb we crossed a high ridge and stopped for 
 luncheon at an excellent httle inn called Berjel. In the valley below- 
 lay the town of Guaduas. Beyond it rose another forest-clad ridge 
 which has still to be crossed before one actually reaches the valley 
 of the Magdalena. 
 
 My companions at lunch were an active cat that had an eye for 
 every crumb that fell from the table, a melancholy pointer who dared 
 not call his hfe his own, a downy little chick contentedly peeping 
 and picking up crumbs, and a one-eyed hen who watched the pro- 
 
 VlEW FROM THE ROAD 10 ViLLETA. 
 
 ceedings until the cat and the chick both attempted to pick up the 
 same crumb, when she flew into a rage and drove not only the cat 
 but also the poor old pointer out of the room so that her lone chick 
 was left in full possession of the crumbs. 
 
 On the road to Guaduas we passed a brown snake eighteen inches 
 long that had recently been killed. This is the first dead snake I 
 have seen in Colombia. 
 
 A religious fiesta was in progress as we passed through Guaduas. 
 Rockets were bursting in mid-air and a picturesque religious pro- 
 cession wound its way from the church around the plaza. Travellers 
 spend the second night here if they get a late start from Villeta, but 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 255 
 
 the roads were in good condition, although I had been told that they 
 were "simply impassable," and we pushed on across the last ridge. 
 
 The view of the Magdalena valley from the pass beggars descrip- 
 tion. The range is very steep on its west side and rises abruptly 
 two thousand feet above the floor of the valley. As it was a very 
 clear day we could see for fifty or sixty miles up and down the wide 
 valley and follow the course of the Magdalena in many of its wind- 
 ings. Soon after leaving the summit my mule narrowly escaped 
 stepping on a small corral snake, eight inches long, that was sunning 
 itself in the roadway. It was a wonderfully attractive httle reptile 
 with alternating red, black, and white bands. It seems incredible 
 that this is only the second li\'e snake I have seen in four months 
 and a half. Judging by my own experiences New England appears 
 to have far more than Venezuela and Colombia! About five o'clock 
 we reached the Hotel El Gabineto, a comfortable caravanserai, one 
 day's journey from Honda. 
 
 May itth. The road this morning was very bad, as we had 
 had heavy rains during the night. The holes between the boulders 
 were filled with water and dangerous bogs were covered with inno- 
 cent httle ponds so that the mules picked their way along with great 
 care. It was anything but easy travelling, still the road was so 
 much wider and less dangerous than the path over the Paramo of 
 Pisva that it is difficult to reahze how bad it must seem to one who 
 has never seen a mountain trail in the equatorial rain belt. We 
 passed several companies of soldiers at work on the road. This 
 idea of President Reyes of keeping the soldiers busy, and improving 
 the roads at the same time, is an excellent one. It must tend to 
 discourage revolutionary plotting. 
 
 After a long tortuous descent we reached the floor of the valley. 
 The road passes through a tropical forest, but is so much used that 
 it retains a fairly good width and the jungle is not allowed to over- 
 grow the trail. Ever since leaving Facatativa we have met and passed 
 scores of pack mules, there being sometimes sixty or seventy mules 
 in one train. It is surprising what very large loads some of the mules 
 are able to carry. Yet they do get very tired and when allowed to 
 rest he down in the road flat on their sides as though ready to die. 
 
 At half-past nine we reached the Rio Seco, a small stream that 
 
256 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 had been so swollen by last night's rains as to be dangerous. Here 
 we found the mail, which passed us again last evening, and a score 
 of travellers waiting for the river to subside and the ford to become 
 passable. It is extraordinary that there is no bridge here nor any 
 
 The Business Centre of Honda 
 
 canoes. It does not take a very heax'y shower to interrupt entirely 
 the traffic on the busiest road in Colombia. About one o'clock the 
 river was pronounced fordable. That is to say, the pack mules could 
 safely wade across without wetting more than a third of their loads. 
 It is just as important to have the under side of a bundle made water- ' 
 proof as the upper side. 
 
 Two hours after fording the Rio Seco we reached the banks of 
 the Magdalena and saw the southern end of Honda and the docks 
 for the Girardot and Upper River steamers. The road runs parallel 
 to the river for a short distance until it reaches a steel bridge which 
 has recently been built, greatly facilitating the traffic. Directly 
 opposite the town are the dangerous rapids which interrupt river 
 transportation. It is possible for boats on the lower river to come 
 within three quarters of a mile of deep water on the upper river in 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 
 
 257 
 
 the rainy season when there is plenty of water, but the taslc is not 
 an easy one. Most of the boats come no farther than La Dorada, 
 five miles down the river at the end of the rapids. 
 
 Honda has a very busy air. The streets are filled with pack 
 trains loading for Bogota. There are many warehouses here and 
 several large commercial estabhshments that give the town an ap- 
 pearance of prosperity. As in Bogota the largest firms are German 
 and Colombian. The hotel accommodations are good, but the heat 
 is considerable. 
 
 May iSth. I left Honda by the mail train soon after breakfast 
 this morning. The run to La Dorada, the usual stopping-place for 
 the Lower River steamers, is not long and the train passes through 
 a dense tropical jungle. At one place we saw through the trees a 
 freight steamer painfully making her way up the rapids to Honda. 
 
 A Gliiipse of the River below Honda. 
 
 In this way railroad freight charges are saved, but the process is 
 tedious and rather dangerous, so that the regular passenger boats 
 do not attempt it. 
 
 La Dorada is a dirty little village, but has good wharves. At 
 one of these lay the mail steamer, the Lopez Penha, one of the largest 
 
2 58 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 and finest boats on the river. There are thirty or forty boats used 
 in the passenger and freight traffic on the lower Magdalena. They 
 are all "stern wheelers" of nearly the same type as those used on 
 the Ohio and the upper Mississippi. The larger ones are of three 
 hundred and fifty tons register. As there are many dangerous 
 shoals in the river, the boats draw but little water. All the machinery, 
 fuel, and freight have to be on the lower deck. The upper deck is 
 reserved for passengers. In a long hall down the centre are the 
 dining tables, while the staterooms, practically bare of furniture, 
 are on either side. The least said about the food and the service 
 the better. It is passable but not attractive, and unless one carries 
 
 The Lopez Penh a. 
 
 ones own provisions the pleasure of the table will not be among 
 the agreeable memories of the journey. At the first meal certain 
 formahties are observed. It is the custom for all to wait for the 
 capitan to invite them to the table. He then pohtely requests his 
 "guests" to be seated and gives orders for the meal to be served. 
 My fellow passengers are ah Colombians with one exception, a 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 
 
 259 
 
 Syrian railroad contractor. He speaks no English, but carries an 
 American passport and is pleased to consider himself an American 
 citizen. 
 
 At first we had a view of the mountains, but the river gradually 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 l^^f 
 
 . 1 
 
 
 ► r'Vsl^;^ 
 
 W 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 ";F!C~"-«. , 
 
 
 A Wood Statiox near La Dorada. 
 
 left them and the great valley became too wide and flat to furnish 
 much scenery. The river scenery is somewhat monotonous, although 
 now and then huge trees rise above the everlasting jungle and com- 
 mand one's admiration. Occasionally a Httle village of thatched 
 huts breaks the monotony. Most of the villages are very much 
 alike. 
 
 There is no coal to be had and the steamers all burn wood. This 
 necessitates frequent stops at wood -yards along the bank. The 
 native wood-cutters who own these yards pile their product in sec- 
 tions of standard size close to a landing-place, so that it does not 
 take long for the captain to buy his fuel and have his sailors bring 
 it aboard, stacking it up on the lower deck near the boilers. 
 
 We left La Dorada at eleven o'clock and reached Puerto Berrio, 
 where we tied up for the night, about five. This is an uninteresting 
 village, but is the terminus of a httle railroad that will some day 
 reach Medelhn, one of the most important cities in Colombia. The 
 
26o 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 railroad shops are in a sad state of repair and look as though they 
 •would be of little use by the time the road is completed. At present 
 I am told the train goes as far as Providencia, about half-way to 
 Medellin. It brings down quantities of coffee and hides, the two 
 chief articles of export. 
 
 May i8th. We spent all day at Puerto Berrio loading cargo, 
 chiefly coffee. There is another steamer here loading hides in two 
 large barges which she tows one on each side like wings. There are 
 a few shops here, well stocked with both domestic and imported 
 goods. The only unusual things are little horn drinking cups, three 
 inches in diameter and an inch and a quarter deep. They are made 
 near MedeUin and are very attractive both in shape and colour. 
 
 May igth. We left Puerto Berrio early this morning. There is 
 a kind of shower bath at one end of the upper deck. I enjoyed its 
 
 A AIagdalena River Steamer. 
 
 refreshing qualities this morning just before we passed the carcase 
 of a donkey on which three buzzards were riding. The drinking 
 water as well as that of the bath is unfiltered river water. There 
 were heavy rains in the night. Owing to these rains the river is rising 
 rapidly and some of the villages are partly under water, while others 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 
 
 261 
 
 more fortunate, are built on a slight rise of ground. Wherever we stop 
 the crew carry on a lively trade in cigars which are made somewhere 
 up the river above Honda and which the sailors sell to the people 
 along the route for eighty cents a hundred. We stopped several 
 times for wood. At Chusa the flood made it rather diilicult for the 
 sailors to bring the wood on board. With the aid of a rope they 
 
 Loading Fuel at Chusa. 
 
 manage to carry a good-sized load of large billets piled up on their 
 shoulder and over their head. They complained this noon that the 
 wood-piles were infested with snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and 
 tarantulas that had taken refuge there as the river rose. But they 
 were very watchful and no one was bitten seriously. 
 
 At three o'clock we reached Puerto Wilches, where engineers 
 have again commenced the construction of a railroad to Bucara^ 
 manga, an important interior city. Albert Milhcan, the orchid 
 hunter, who came here about i8go, says in his "Travels and Ad- 
 ventures" that he found here "in this forest-wilderness several 
 railway waggons and about a thousand steel rails, all in a pitiful 
 state of wreck and dilapidation." The original railway project 
 
262 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 started by Gen. Solan Wilches was abandoned years ago, but is now 
 being rejuvenated under a new concession. 
 
 May 20th. We did not find it necessary to tie up to the bank 
 last night, as there is so much water in the river that navigation is 
 fairly easy. This morning at half-past seven we reached La Gloria, 
 a typical river village. The river is rising but we got ahead of the 
 flood during the night and it has not reached La Gloria yet. Adobe 
 huts with thatched roofs, cocoanut trees and a few canoes are the 
 chief characteristics of this and every other village in this part of 
 the river. Occasionally we saw rafts, partly thatched over, on which 
 a family were making a cheap excursion down stream. 
 
 The river is continually growing wider and more sluggish. At 
 times it looks like a large lake. Its banks are e\-er}-where heavily 
 
 La Gloria, on the Magdalena. 
 
 wooded and the country is very flat. Once in a while one sees a low 
 hill 
 
 At noon we reached Banco, a busy little town, with an attractive 
 church perched on a blufl: thirty feet high. A crowd came down 
 to the landing bringing pottery, large jars and small pots, jaguar 
 and snake skins and sleeping mats. Hammocks are not common 
 here. A piece of native grass-matting serves the poorer classes for 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 
 
 263 
 
 a bed. Dark faces grow more common as one descends the river 
 and evidences of negro blood increase. 
 
 The country is so fiat here that tlie river becomes a networlc of 
 branches and canals. On one of these is the ancient city of Mompox. 
 As the captain was in a hurry we took a short cut through one of the 
 narrower channels and did not see the old city. 
 
 Banco, Looking Northward. 
 
 About four o'clock we reached the confluence of the Cauca with 
 the Magdalena. For miles the air was filled with an immense swarm 
 of locusts. Milhons upon milhons of these large brown grasshoppers 
 were flying up-stream at a rapid pace. Their number was without 
 end. The captain says they have been in the vicinity for four months, 
 although they have not been seen before for many years. We saw 
 the remains of several plantations which the locusts had stripped. 
 Evidently the country has much to suffer from them yet. 
 
 We tied up to the bank for half an hour this afternoon, while 
 the sailors tried to help a ranchman catch a steer that the captain 
 wanted to buy for meat. The butcher shop is on the lower deck 
 and needs replenishing, but the steer was too wary and did not come 
 aboard. : : 
 
264 COLOMBIA 
 
 May 21st. We steamed ahead all through the night and made 
 good time, reaching Calamar soon after six this morning. Several 
 passengers left us here to take the train that runs to Cartagena. 
 Calamar is the cleanest looking town on the river and shows the 
 effects of an increased prosperity brought about by the new railroad. 
 The promoters of this railroad hope to deflect a large proportion 
 of the freight that is now landed at Puerto Colombia and brought 
 by rail to the Magdalena at Barranquilla. Ocean steamers can 
 land their freight at Cartagena directly on board the company's 
 cars, but the haul from Cartagena to Calamar is much longer than 
 from Puerto Colombia to Barranquilla. If the silt from the Magda- 
 lena should ever succeed in spoiling the harbour of Puerto Colombia 
 as it did that of Savanilla, this Cartagena-Calamar railroad would 
 have a tremendous increase in business. 
 
 Barranquilla Harbour. 
 
 At half-past ten we reached Remolino, an ancient town on the 
 right bank of the river, half-way from Calamar to Barranquilla. 
 The current in the river is hardly perceptible and one sees many 
 floating water plants that give the river the appearance of being a 
 stagnant lake. I have read much of the number of alhgators in the 
 Magdalena, but have not seen one. The captain says it is on ac- 
 count of the floods, and yet I should have supposed that we would 
 have seen them swimming in the river. 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 265 
 
 We reached Barranquilla at half-past two, having made excellent 
 time from Honda, which we left four days ago. The harbour is a 
 canal which runs parallel to the river. The wind was blowing quite 
 hard and we had considerable difficulty in avoiding the many steamers 
 that lined its banks. There are several "hotels" here, but it is 
 advisable to make a definite bargain in regard to the price of room 
 
 A Street in Cartagena. 
 
 and board. English-speaking travellers are very likely to be over- 
 charged. 
 
 Barranquilla has the appearance of being a busy, prosperous 
 city, but the streets are sandy and the heat is excessive. I am not sorry 
 to learn that a mail steamer leaves tomorrow. There are several 
 large German and EngHsh firms and the warehouses appear to be 
 well stocked. 
 
 In the Custom House I found a case of photographic supplies 
 that had been addressed to me at Bogota. It was plainly marked 
 "care of the American Legation, Bogota," but has been lying here 
 for four months! The agent of the R. M. S. P. Co., by which the 
 goods were shipped from New York, was unwilling to aid me in 
 any way, and, unHke most of their agents, was exceedingly rude. 
 
266 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 Incivility is so rare in these countries that its occasional occurrence 
 is all the more marked. Thanks to the kind intervention of Mr. 
 P. P. Demers, the American Consul, I was able to rescue my plates 
 without too much difficulty. In answer to my inquiries I was told 
 that all goods destined for the interior must be sent in care of some 
 one at the port of entry, to whom should be mailed the invoices with 
 directions to go to the Custom House and look out for the parcels 
 when they arrive. Otherwise they will stay in the Custom House 
 until claimed by the owner. No notifications of arrival are ever 
 
 ; The Walls of Cartagena. 
 
 sent out. It seems extraordinary that no provision is made to ac- 
 quaint consignees of the arrival of their goods, but such is the case. 
 
 May 22d. A swarm of locusts descended on Barranquilla this 
 morning. While not as numerous as the countless millions I saw 
 up the river they seemed to portend disaster and to be the forerunners 
 of the great host. This is their first appearance here. 
 
 I left Barranquilla at noon by train. A ten-mile ride on the little 
 railroad brought me to Puerto Colombia, where an English company 
 has built a fine pier a mile and a quarter long, at the end of which 
 ocean steamers are able to dock. 
 
BOGOTA TO CARTAGENA 267 
 
 The first thing that struck my attention as I went aboard the 
 "Prinz Joachin" of the Atlas Line was the extraordinary cleanh- 
 ness of everything. It seemed as though I had never seen such 
 spotlessness. 
 
 May 2T,d. We reached Cartagena this morning and there I 
 had my last glimpse of Colombia. The fine old historic city has 
 few marks of modern life. It is far more interesting than Barran- 
 quilla. The latter is much more modern and businesslike. Here 
 everything has the flavour of antiquity. The great walls built at tre- 
 mendous expense by order of Philip II in the sixteenth century are 
 still intact. Their strength and width are marvellous. The streets 
 are narrow and picturesque. The houses look as though most of 
 them went back to the time of "Westward Ho." Altogether it is 
 a fitting hnk between Old Spain and her quondam colonies. 
 
 Postscript 
 
 June ^th. This morning we passed through quarantine and 
 entered New York Harbour. As we went slowly up the bay we met 
 six American battle-ships, steaming out in all the glory of their fresh 
 paint and shining metal. They appeared to typify the country to 
 which we had come. Powerful, aggressive, with machinery well oiled 
 and bunkers full of coal, everything about them was spick and span 
 and ship-shape, sacrificing little to beauty or courtesy, businesslike in 
 every particular; the veritable embodiment of the North American 
 spirit. 
 
 It is hard for the North American to understand the Venezuelan 
 or Colombian, to reahze the difficulties under which he labours, to 
 estimate justly the enervating effect upon successive generations of 
 damp tropical heat. Nevertheless a six months' acquaintance with 
 the actual conditions of life in northern South America has given 
 me, as it must any one who travels in those regions, a keener sense 
 of the abihty and courage displayed by Bohvar, Santander, and the 
 heroes of the Wars of Emancipation, and a better appreciation of the 
 achievements of their successors. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 Historical Sketch 
 
 The War of Independence in Venezuela and Colombia began in 
 1810. At first the patriot cause was successful and the Spanish 
 officials were driven out of the larger part of Venezuela and Colombia. 
 By the aid of the Llaneros or cowboys of the plains, who were 
 staunchly loyal, the Spanish generals gradually recovered the lost 
 territory until there was little left for the patriots. A mistaken 
 policy, however, turned the Llaneros against the crown. In 181 5 
 a number of almost inaccessible regions on the Llanos were the 
 only places where the Independent cause still prevailed. By 1818 
 the patriots under Bolivar had recovered the larger part of the Ori- 
 noco valley, but the Spaniards still held the principal cities, the 
 highlands and the higher plains of Venezuela and Colombia. 
 
 A number of companies raised in Great Britain, consisting largely 
 of veterans of the Napoleonic wars, had by this time arrived. They 
 composed what is generally spoken of as the British Legion. They 
 joined the army of Bolivar, which hardly deserved the name, and 
 which was making such shift as it could in the vicinity of Achaguas 
 and Mantecal in the very heart of the Llanos. 
 
 In the winter of 1818-19 General Santander, the ablest of the 
 Colombian patriots, undertook a perilous journey across the plains 
 from Casanare to the Orinoco to beseech the Venezuelan Congress, 
 then sitting at Angostura, to send an army to the aid of the Colom- 
 bian patriots. Santander's plan was briefly this: The Spanish 
 army was divided into three grand divisions. The first division held 
 the seacoast of Venezuela and the principal cities, including Caracas 
 and Valencia. The second division held the Venezuelan Andes, 
 with headquarters at Merida. The third division held the plateau 
 of Colombia and guarded Bogota, the capital of the Vice-Royalty. 
 The Spaniards had been unable to hold the Llanos of Casanare, 
 
 269 
 
270 ■ APPENDIX A 
 
 that lie immediately east of the Andes near Tunja and Sogamoso, 
 and there Santander had a force of upwards of a thousand men. 
 A number of passes lead from this plain to the plateau and it would 
 be easy, said Santander, to throw an army unexpectedly on to the 
 plateau of Sogamoso through one of the unfrequented passes. The 
 people of the country would be friendly to the Liberating Army and 
 it would not be a difficult matter to drive the Spaniards entirely 
 from the plateau of Colombia and out of the Magdalena valley. 
 The greatest difficulty in the way of the scheme was to get an army 
 across the inundated plains in the wet season and across the Andes 
 in the time of snows. This very fact would make the Spaniards 
 less suspicious of an attack and would favour the success of the enter- 
 prise, if the soldiers could stand its hardships. This plan was 
 adopted. 
 
 Santander returned to Casanare to organize his Colombians, 
 and Bolivar undertook the difficult task of bringing an army of two 
 thousand men through a country that had practically no provisions 
 except cattle on the hoof, no roads, no bridges, swollen rivers and 
 swampy plains. 
 
 On May 25, 1819, Bohvar left the vicinity of Achaguas and 
 Mantecal, marching along the right bank of the Apure as far as 
 Guasduahto. Here he met General Paez, gave him orders to skir- 
 mish in the vicinity of Merida and hold the attention of the royahst 
 General La Torre who, with some three thousand men, commanded 
 the second division of the Spanish army. Paez was not given enough 
 men to make a battle advisable, but only sufficient to prevent La 
 Torre from going to the aid of General Barreiro, who commanded 
 the third division of the Spanish army, about thirty-eight hundred 
 men, near Tunja and Sogamoso in Colombia. 
 
 From Guasdualito Bohvar went ahead of his army to Tame, and 
 they followed as best they could across the frightful swamps of the 
 Llanos of Casanare. They finally joined forces on the nth of June, 
 1819, with the army of General Santander, who had twelve hundred 
 men in the vicinity of Puerto San Salvador. A council of war took 
 place on the fourteenth and it was decided to approach the plateau 
 of Sogamoso by way of the Paramo of Pisva, which was excessively 
 cold and barren and not likely to be well guarded by the Spaniards. 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 271 
 
 On the 2 2d of June the combined armies, now numbering twenty- 
 two hundred and seventy-five men, began the march to the Paramo 
 by way of Pore and Paya. The difficulties of crossing the moun- 
 tains appealed so strongly to some of the Llaneros that three hun- 
 dred of them requested permission to go back and join Paez. Their 
 fears were well founded. On June 27 the vanguard under Santander 
 
 Portrait of Bolivar. 
 
 In the possession of General Ybarra at Caracas. 
 
 marched to Paya, where an outpost reported as numbering five hun- 
 dred Spaniards was defeated. In crossing the Paramo of Pisva more 
 than sixty soldiers died on account of cold and hunger. All the 
 saddle and pack animals died on the way. 
 
 After passing the Paramo the Liberating Army went to Socha, 
 where it was welcomed by the inhabitants of the lower Sogamoso 
 valley and was able to procure a few horses and sufficient food. 
 
 The royalists had for two years had their headquarters in the 
 
272 APPENDIX A 
 
 city of Sogamoso under the command of General Barreiro. When 
 they heard that Bohvar and his army had accomphshed the appar- 
 ently impossible task of crossing the Llanos and the mountains in 
 the winter, they proceeded to make some feeble efforts to dispute 
 their further advance. Bolivar and his army soon recovered from 
 the effects of their march and moved south from Socha through Tasco 
 towards Sogamoso. Barreiro hearing of this advance sent out eight 
 hundred troops on the nth of July to hold the heights that command 
 a bridge by which the road crossed the river Gameza. Bolivar 
 succeeded in throwing a few men across the bridge, but found 
 the Spaniards so firmly entrenched on the rocky heights above that 
 he gave up the attempt on Sogamoso. Taking a road to the west- 
 ward he passed through the towns of Corrales and Nobsa (or Santa 
 Rosa), and reached Duitama, leaving Sogamoso in possession of 
 the Spaniards to the east of him, but threatening to cut them off 
 from Tunja and Bogota. On July i8 the Spaniards abandoned 
 Sogamoso and marched up the valley to Paipa where they took a 
 position between Bohvar and Tunja. On the twentieth, Bohvar left 
 Duitama and estabhshed his headquarters at Corral de Bonsa near 
 the upper Sogamoso River. 
 
 Bohvar decided to out-flank the Spanish army on the night of 
 the twenty-second and sent a battahon under Santander along the 
 road toward Paipa for this purpose. Shortly after they started a 
 heavy rain fell and in the darkness they lost their way. The failure 
 of this attempt determined Bohvar to send the out-flanking force 
 by way of Pantano de Vargas. 
 
 Between the Liberating Army and the swamp of Vargas was 
 the upper Sogamoso River, sometimes called Rio Grande or the 
 Chicamocha. It was swollen by recent rains, but rafts and barges 
 were hastily constructed, and at four o'clock on Sunday morning, 
 July 25, 1819, the army began to cross and took the road to Vargas. 
 Barreiro, seeing this movement of the patriots, probably supposed 
 that Bohvar was attempting to go to Tunja by an unfrequented 
 road via Toca. Accordingly he sent his entire force, thirty-eight 
 hundred strong, into the hills and the valley south of the swamp of 
 Vargas. The cavalry were placed on the plain, and the infantry 
 on the heights that command the road which is forced to pass very 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 273 
 
 close to the foot of the hills by the extensive swamp called the Pan- 
 tano de Vargas. 
 
 Bolivar's cavalry was composed of two hundred and fifty Llaneros, 
 most of them without saddles. When they lost their horses in the 
 Paramo of Pisva they naturally left the saddles behind. A few had 
 saddles without stirrups; some had no bridles but simply halters. 
 The royalist cavalry numbered six hundred and was well eqiiipped 
 with all the necessary accoutrements. They were armed with pistols, 
 carbines, and sabres, while the Llaneros had only lances. 
 
 Bolivar ordered the attack to be made both along the highway 
 which was between the mountains and the marsh and also on the 
 hills. When the first companies reached the top of the hill they were 
 repulsed with great loss. The attack along the road was also driven 
 back. Other attacks were made and repulsed until Santander, 
 reinforced by the British Legion, again fought his way to the top of 
 the hills and with a bayonet charge attempted to dislodge the Span- 
 iards. The latter, however, were reinforced at this moment by the 
 arrival of five hundred reserves, and for a third time the patriots 
 were driven down hill. BoHvar was unable to gain a foot. Barreiro 
 then ordered a general charge of his cavalry. The story goes that 
 fifteen Llaneros who had been waiting near Bolivar for orders 
 attacked at a gallop the front of the Spanish cavalry who, marching 
 six abreast, occupied the whole road. The httle band fell upon the 
 royalist columns with such force and bravery that they threw the 
 first few ranks into confusion, while the others, coming on from 
 behind, increased the disorder. The horsemen, hemmed in by adobe 
 walls, had the greatest difficulty in extricating themselves from the 
 disordered mass into which they had been thrown by the fierce attack 
 of the handful of patriots. Bolivar, seeing that the critical moment 
 had arrived, ordered another general attack on the Spanish lines, 
 with the result that the royalists fell back in disorder. As the Span- 
 iards began to lose ground a heavy rain came up and prevented either 
 side from seeing the manoeuvres of the other. Darkness fell and 
 covered the Spanish retreat so that there were no prisoners taken. 
 Bolivar, not knowing what disposition Barreiro was making of his 
 forces, and being unable to get news of him in the darkness and the 
 rain, spent the night reorganizing his army and preparing for an 
 
274 APPENDIX A 
 
 attack. Barreiro had returned to Paipa. The patriots apparently 
 lost as heavily as the royalists. It is claimed that twelve hundred 
 were killed on both sides. 
 
 On the twenty-seventh Bolivar returned to his camp at Bonsa. 
 His army now numbered but eighteen hundred men, two hundred 
 having returned to their homes in the Llanos of Casanare. Barreiro 
 remained at Paipa and both armies were in practically the same 
 position as before the encounter, although the Spaniards had lost 
 confidence and the Liberating Army had practically gained a vic- 
 tory. After a few skirmishes the Royalist Army abandoned Paipa 
 and took up a position at Motanita on the main road to Tunja. 
 Bolivar determined to reach Tunja first if possible and again 
 marching by way of Pantano de Vargas and the Toca road, he was 
 successful in arriving at Tunja before Barreiro. 
 
 Barreiro was visited by a clever spy sent by Bolivar, who dis- 
 covered that the Spaniards did not propose to attack Tunja but to 
 go to Bogota by a road that passes west of Tunja, separated from 
 that city by a range of hills. In this way they hoped to be able 
 to reach Bogota and join forces with the troops held in reserve there 
 by the Viceroy. The spy having misled the Spaniards into believing 
 that Bolivar intended to spend some time in Tunja, escaped in the 
 night and made his report to the patriot general. The next morn- 
 ing, August 7, 1819, Bolivar chmbed the hills and was able with his 
 field glass to watch the movements of the enemy to the westward. 
 
 From the Spanish camp there were two roads to Bogota, one by 
 way of Chiquinquira and the other by the bridge of Boyaca. Lack- 
 ing a guide they took the more frequented road by way of Boyaci. 
 As soon as Bolivar saw them pass the fork in the road and realized 
 that they would go by Boyacl, he ordered his army to march to the 
 bridge as rapidly as possible. This order was given at nine o'clock 
 in the morning. Bohvar remained on the heights until half-past 
 eleven, when he could see the royalist army no longer, then mount- 
 ing his horse went to Tunja, had breakfast, and took the road to 
 Boyaca. The royalists reached the bridge ahead of BoHvar's army 
 and, thinking that they had nothing to fear from the patriots whom 
 they supposed intended to remain at Tunja, stopped for breakfast. 
 At about two o'clock the Liberating Army arrived in sight of the 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 275 
 
 bridge, but thanks to the woods were able to reach the banks of the 
 stream before they were seen. The Spaniards now hastened to 
 cross the bridge in order to place two four-inch guns on the hillock 
 at the right of the road. Owing to recent rains the river was so 
 swollen as to be impassable except at the bridge and at a little used 
 ford, some distance down stream. Santander made great efforts 
 to take the bridge, but owing to the difficulty of manoeuvring over 
 such rough ground was unable to do so. The patriot cavalry finally 
 succeeded in finding the ford half a mile down stream, where they were 
 able to cross without being observed by the Spaniards. The Llaneros, 
 having re-formed on the other side of the Boyaca River, attacked 
 the royalist artillery in the rear and caused great confusion. San- 
 tander was now able to cross the bridge and occupy the hills. A 
 large number of Spaniards were surrounded and taken prisoners. 
 The battle lasted less than two hours. By the time that Bolivar 
 arrived at the battle-field, about four o'clock in the afternoon, every- 
 thing had been decided and he found Barreiro a prisoner at the 
 inn of Boyaca. The battle of the 7th of August, 1819, was a com- 
 plete victory. The prisoners numbered sixteen hundred, including 
 General Barreiro and thirty-seven of&cers. 
 
 As soon as the Viceroy at Bogota heard of the defeat and 
 capture of his army, he packed up what treasure he could lay his 
 hands on, fled to the Magdalena and made the best of his way to 
 the coast. The days of Spanish power in Colombia were over. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 Battle of Carabobo 
 
 In the year following the battle of Boyaca an armistice was 
 signed by BoHvar and General Morillo, who commanded the Spanish 
 army in Venezuela. The armistice was badly observed by both 
 parties, but the patriot army was able to improve the interval of 
 repose better than the Spaniards. The Spanish Revolution of 1820 
 prevented reinforcements from being sent from Spain, while the 
 victories in Colombia enabled Bohvar to secure many additions to 
 his forces. The armistice was formally declared to be at an end 
 on the 28th of April, 182 1. 
 
 Bohvar had some four thousand men at Barinas. Paez was in 
 command of three thousand Llaneros scattered over the plains, and 
 Bermudez with two thousand men threatened the Spaniards in Eastern 
 Venezuela. Bolivar now took up his headquarters at San Carlos 
 and Paez assembled his cowboys at Pao. Bermudez made an attack 
 on Caracas from the east and his operations occupied the attention 
 of a considerable portion of the royahst army. The Spanish hnes 
 extended from Barquisimeto through Valencia to Caracas. 
 
 Sending some of his forces to attract the attention of the Spaniards 
 in the west as well as in the east, Bohvar proceeded to gather his 
 forces for an attack on the Spanish centre. The royalists had a 
 force of upwards of five thousand men, most of them quartered in 
 and about Valencia, while a small detachment held the town of 
 Tinaquillo on the northern edge of the Llanos. 
 
 About the middle of June, 182 1, Bohvar left his headquarters 
 at San Carlos and marching east joined forces with General Paez 
 who came west from Pao to meet him. On June 21 the Spaniards 
 were driven back from their outpost at Tinaquillo, and they also 
 retired from a hill called Buenavista on the road from Tinaquillo 
 to Carabobo which they should have held at all costs as it com- 
 manded the road effectively. Bolivar had now about six thousand 
 
 276 
 
BATTLE OF CARABOBO 277 
 
 men under his command. He had open to him two methods of 
 attack on Valencia, the direct road via Buenavista and the road from 
 Pao. Both roads unite on the plain of Carabobo and there General 
 La Torre in command of the Spanish forces placed his army as soon 
 as he learned of Bohvar's contemplated attack on Valencia. 
 
 The Pao road is much the more difficult and hilly of the two, 
 but had the Spaniards remained in force at Buenavista, Bolivar 
 would probably have been obliged to take the more easterly route, 
 which the Spaniards could doubtless also have held, although Bolivar 
 now had a slightly superior force. The country is very hilly and so 
 covered with trees and bushes that a small force, well posted, could 
 prevent a very much larger force from making an advance. 
 
 On June 23, 182 1, Bolivar held a grand review of all his forces 
 on the plain of Tinaquillo. Early the next morning they formed 
 in three divisions and started on the direct road to Carabobo. The 
 first division was commanded by General Paez, then a dashing 
 young cowboy barely twenty-five years old, brave, fearless, and 
 headstrong, the idol of his fifteen hundred Llaneros. In addition 
 to his cowboys he had in his division the famous British Legion 
 composed of veterans of the Napoleonic wars, who had been attracted 
 to Venezuela by the ghttering promises of Bolivar's agents, and 
 whose splendid fighting qualities had enabled him to win the cam- 
 paign of 1819, in which he drove the Spaniards out of Colombia. 
 
 At sunrise on the twenty-fourth, BoHvar and his staff arrived 
 at Buenavista, where he was able to make out with a glass the veteran 
 troops of Spain drawn up on the plains of Carabobo, under the 
 command of General La Torre. The plains, covered with grass 
 and chapparal, extend north to Valencia. From the Spanish po- 
 sition the road to the southwest lay through the valley of Naipe to 
 the western Llanos and the Andes. To the southeast were the hills 
 that divide Carabobo from the northern Llanos. Through a pass 
 in these hills goes the road to Pao and the central Llanos. 
 
 In a word, the royahst position at Carabobo commanded the 
 approaches to Valencia and Caracas from both Western and Central 
 Venezuela. Bohvar's view could not have been very distinct even 
 with a good glass, as the plain of Carabobo is five miles from Buena- 
 vista. Still he was able to make out that about five thousand soldiers 
 
278 APPENDIX B 
 
 were so placed on the edge of the plain as to make a successful frontal 
 attack very difficult, if not impossible. The Spaniards had placed 
 their artillery in such a manner as to command the valley through 
 which Bolivar must reach the plain. It was now too late for him 
 to change his plans and by going east take the road from Pao and 
 approach the Spaniards on their left flank. Furthermore, they 
 could easily have become cognizant of such a movement and readily 
 have changed their front so as to make it even more difficult for him 
 to bring his forces into battle array. While studying the situation, he 
 was told of an unfrequented path that led through the hills to the 
 west and came out on the plain a little to the rear of the Spanish 
 right wing. x\lthough it was a narrow and difficult trail it was, 
 nevertheless, just what he needed to enable him to break up the 
 Spanish formation. 
 
 As a movement along this path would take longer than that by 
 the direct route, the first division was hurried ahead under General 
 Paez with a native of Tinaquillo acting as their guide. The plan 
 was for them to arrive unexpectedly on the right flank of the Span- 
 iards just as Bohvar with the remainder of the army reached the 
 centre. All the trails were so narrow that it was necessarv for the 
 men to march in single file. Sometimes in the bed of a strong stream, 
 sometimes on the steep slopes of a hill, in tropical jungles and under 
 a hot sun, they made the best of their way over this rough trail for 
 two hours and a half, until suddenly they emerged on a hilltop from 
 which they could see the great plain and the Spanish armv drawn 
 up ready for battle, two miles away. 
 
 From this vantage point it appeared to be an easy matter to de- 
 scend the ridge and attack the Spanish tlank. Not taking the trouble 
 to bear more to the northward and so cut off the Spanish retreat to 
 Valencia, they charged down the ridge with great enthusiasm, bui 
 the distance was greater than they had imagined and it must have 
 taken from twenty to twenty-live minutes before thev could reach 
 the edge of the plain. Here it seemed as tliough they had fallen into 
 a trap, for at the foot of the ridge is a little valley, so that when 
 they crossed the ri\'ulet that flows through it they found themselves 
 one hundred and fifty feet below the level of the plain of Carabobo. 
 In the meantime the Spaniards had seen them descending the two- 
 
BATTLE OF CARABOBO 279 
 
 mile slope and had had time to change the position of both infantry 
 and artillery and place several companies on the western edge of the 
 plain, that is to say, on the crest of the hill above Paez. The cow- 
 boys arrived first, only to receive such a galhng fire that their efforts 
 to climb the hill were in vain and they soon turned and fled. 
 
 Had Paez known the lay of the land and not been so impetuous, 
 he might have gone farther north and coming out above the high 
 bluff have been able to attack the Spaniards in the rear. His pre- 
 cipitate action nearly lost the battle. In the meantime, however, 
 the British Legion had formed a hollow square in the little valley 
 between the bluffs and the ridge down which they had charged, and 
 in this formation withstood the Spanish fire w^hile the cowboy regi- 
 ment was reorganized in their rear. Having regained their forma- 
 tion the Llaneros charged up a slope, more to the north, where they 
 were partly covered by bushes and trees, and gained the plain. The 
 Spaniards had exhausted their first fire on the hollow square; they 
 were now attacked on their right and rear by Paez's Rough Riders. 
 A few moments later BoHvar and the second and third divisions 
 attacked the Spanish front, coming by the regular road. They arrived 
 at the psychological moment. A rout commenced, the confusion 
 increased, and in half an hour the Spaniards were in full retreat to 
 Valencia, pursued over the plains for sixteen miles by the reckless 
 cowboys who cut down the stragglers until what was left of one of 
 the Spanish regiments succeeded in taking a safe position on the 
 hills north of Valencia. Here the flying royalist soldiers found refuge 
 and the pursuit was halted. Most of the Spaniards, avoiding the 
 city streets, took the old road northwest of Valencia, and reached 
 the coast range, which they held successfully for several years. But 
 Valencia and the road to Caracas was lost and both cities now fell 
 into the hands of the patriots. All that now remained to the crown 
 of Spain was an insignificant strip of seacoast from which they were 
 eventually dislodged and Venezuela was free. 
 
 Noj-E, — xhis account of the battle has been prepared after a careful study of 
 the topography of the region. It does not agree entirely with the official dispatches 
 or with the accounts of one or two eye-witnesses, although it is of necessity based 
 largely on them. The discrepancies are due largely to the character of the country, 
 which have made it impossible to adopt in toto the accounts of any of the eye-wit- 
 
APPENDIX C ■ 
 
 Temperature and Weather 
 
 Thermometric observations were taken during the trip, together 
 with occasional weather-notes. The temperatures obtained are not 
 strictly comparable, owing to irregularity in the times of observa- 
 tion, to constant changes in the exposure of the instruments as a 
 result of varying altitude, conditions of travel, and constantly shift- 
 ing geographic position. The results given in the table below have 
 been computed from these observations, and, while they therefore 
 lack scientific accuracy, they may serve to show the general char- 
 acter of the temperatures encountered along the line of march. For 
 this purpose three periods of the day have been selected and called 
 "early morning" (5-7 a.m), "midday" (12 M. to 3 p.m.), and "even- 
 ing" (6-8 P.M.). The latest "early morning" hour is placed at 
 7 A.M., because in nearly all the recorded cases a rapid diurnal rise 
 in temperature began at about that time; "midday" is taken from 
 12 M. to 3 P.M. because the recorded diurnal ma.xima occur in practi- 
 cally every case within those hmits, most often between i and 2 p.m.; 
 6-8 P.M. is taken as showing the average time for the beginning of 
 the sunset fall in temperature toward the night. 
 
 In cases where there were sufficient observations under "early 
 morning" hours, a decrease in temperature from the night values to 
 a minimum occurring usually between 5 and 7 a.m., and then a rise 
 toward the coming day, were sometimes evident. These instances 
 were so infrequent, however, that no trustworthy mean value for 
 the early morning minimum can be deduced. Instead, the mean 
 of all recorded temperatures from 5-7 a.m. has been computed, 
 giving at best only a fair approximation of the conditions. It is 
 to be noted in this connection that the maxima and minima given in 
 the table do not indicate the true amount of change from 5 to 7 a.m., 
 which was usually much less (in the great majority of cases not more 
 
 280 
 
TEMPERATURE AND WEATHER 281 
 
 than 5° and often only 2° or 3°). The extreme irregularity of the 
 observations rendered the same treatment necessary for the mid- 
 day and evening temperatures. The basing of the results on the 
 large total number of cases for the respective periods (though these 
 totals necessarily vary widely) probably gives a truer idea of the 
 average temperatures encountered than would be obtained if the 
 results were based on the much fewer actually recorded maxima or 
 minima. 
 
 Three fairly distinct "provinces" of temperature along the line 
 of march can be made out, the conditions in each justifying its sepa- 
 ration from the others. The first extends from Carabobo toTinaco 
 (the semi-arid country), the second from Tinaco to Nunchia (the 
 northern Llanos), the third from Nunchia to Duitama (the Cordil- 
 leran region and its approaches). The averages for the last province 
 have not been computed, for reasons which will be apparent from 
 the discussion following the table. 
 
 Average Early Morning Temperature (Fahrenheit) 
 
 PROVINCE NO. CASES. MAX. MIN. MEAN. 
 
 Carabobo-Tinaco 17 69.0° 53.0° 57.3° 
 
 Tinaco-Arauca 26 71.5° 58.0° 66.9° 
 
 Arauca-Nunchia 13 76.0° 69.9° 72.8° 
 
 Nunchia-Duitama (See below) 
 
 MIDDAY 
 
 Carabobo-Tinaco 10 91.0° 81.0° 85.9° 
 
 Tinaco-Nunchia 47 95.2° 84.0° 90.0° 
 
 Nunchia-Duitama (See below) 
 
 EVENING 
 
 Carabobo-Tinaco 20 72.0° 62.2° 67.3° 
 
 Tinaco-Nunchia 21 85.0° 72.5° 79.5° 
 
 Nunchia-Duitama (See below) 
 
 The most striking fact indicated by the above table is the strong 
 diurnal variation in temperature, a well-known characteristic of 
 equatorial regions. The amounts vary, and in the present cases 
 
282 APPENDIX C 
 
 are probably controlled to a considerable extent by geographic factors. 
 A large part of the journey from Carabobo to Tinaco lay over hills 
 and plains which are semi-arid in character and hence favour active 
 nocturnal cooling, relatively low early morning temperatures, and 
 a consequent great diurnal range. Between Tinaco and Nunchia, 
 on the other hand, the heavy grass cover of the Llanos serves to 
 prevent this active cooling and results in relatively higher early- 
 morning temperatures, and, the midday temperatures being not 
 very different from those of the same time of day in the hill country 
 (averaging about 4° higher), a consequent smaller diurnal range. 
 The general change in temperature between the hill country and 
 the Llanos was obviously not so sudden as the table might imph', 
 though it was surprisingly sudden, owing to the rapid change in 
 geographic conditions. In both regions the nocturnal radiation 
 pushes forward the lowest temperature for the whole twenty-four 
 hours into the period just before sunrise. The greatest diurnal 
 range was recorded at Camp Naipe (Carabobo), January 16, when 
 the mercury rose from 54.7° F. at 6.30 a.m., to 91° at 12.40 p.m., 
 a range of 36.3°. 
 
 The weather accompanying this rhythmical variation in tempera- 
 ture was for the most part, as would readily be inferred, clear or 
 fair. When clouds were observed, it was usually in the late forenoon 
 or early afternoon, and they had the typical form of clouds produced 
 by diurnal ascending currents, the cumulus. 
 
 The few winds recorded blew largely from the northeast quadrant, 
 especially during the earlier part of the trip, beginning usually be- 
 tween 6 and 7 a.m., increasing rapidly in force until the latter part 
 of the forenoon and usually dying out to uncertain and infrequent 
 puffs by early afternoon. These winds appear to have been an 
 extension of the northeast trades, blowing far inland under the con- 
 trol of the equatorial trough of low pressure, the barometric equator 
 running at this season a little north of the geographic equator in 
 South America. They apparently owed their diurnal character to 
 the convectional ascent of air under the influence of the diurnal 
 variation in temperature. They show from the first of iVTarch a 
 change in average direction from the northeast quadrant into the 
 northwest, and a preference for the afternoon. 
 
TEMPERATURE AND 'WEATHER 283 
 
 No rain fell during the first two months of the journey. Showers 
 began with the first of March on the Llanos, were usually accom- 
 panied by thunder and lightning, and showed a distinctly diurnal 
 character, occurring almost without exception during the hottest part 
 of the day. Sudden drops in temperature, of varying amounts, 
 were sometimes recorded during these showers, the maximum fall 
 noted being 12° in fifteen minutes during a thunder-storm on the 
 afternoon of March 27. During the latter part of March and early 
 April the showers gradually assumed the character of rains of con- 
 siderable duration, the sky was more often overcast, the trades little 
 by little ceased to blow, the air was frequently sultry, — conditions 
 in general indicating the approach of the belt of equatorial rains 
 on its northward migration. At this time the party was in the region 
 of Nunchia. 
 
 Beyond Nunchia, where the journey over the northern Llanos 
 ended and the ascent to the Paramo of Pisva began, the expedition 
 encountered weather as unlike that of the hill country or of the Llanos 
 as sub-arctic weather is unlike equatorial. Between Nunchia and 
 Pisva the maximum recorded temperature was 76° F., on April 7. 
 At Pisva, April 10, 9 a.m., the mercury stood at 66° and reached 
 a maximum of only 70.8° at 10 a.m. During the early morning of 
 April II it stood at 60.5°. April 12, at 6 a.m. (5.45), showed 55.5°, 
 noon of the same day showed 56°, 6 p.m. showed 47.5°, and during 
 the night occurred the lowest recorded temperature for the whole 
 trip, 31°. A mean temperature for April of 30° occurs nowhere in 
 the northern hemisphere south of latitude 50° and is found north- 
 east of the Scandinavian peninsula only beyond the arctic circle. 
 Thus the expedition passed in eight days through temperature changes 
 ecjuivalent to a minimum of 45° of latitude, from a tropical to a sub- 
 arctic cHmate. This was occasioned largely by the change of alti- 
 tude. The Paramo of Pisva has a maximum height of about thirteen 
 thousand feet above the sea, or approximately ten thousand five 
 hundred feet above the Llanos. 
 
 The rains, which at the lower elevation of the Llanos had been 
 warm and accompanied by sultry conditions, now became bitterly 
 cold as the moisture-bearing air was forced to ascend in crossing 
 the mountains. 
 
284 APPENDIX C 
 
 Beyond the Paramo, conditions changed for the better, though 
 the temperatures, as far as Duitama, seldom went above 60°. This, 
 doubtless, was partly the result of the nine thousand feet altitude 
 at which this part of the journey lay. No record of temperature or 
 weather was kept beyond Duitama. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Acarigua 50 
 
 Achaguas 83 
 
 Agua Blanca 49 
 
 Algarobo 88 
 
 Amparo loi 
 
 Andes of Cocui 159 
 
 Trip over 186 
 
 Angostura, Congress of 269 
 
 Painting of 8 
 
 Ants, roadways 47,6$ 
 
 Aparicion 53 
 
 Apure River 82, 89 
 
 Araguatos, howling monkeys 58, 173 
 
 Arauca 109 
 
 Araure, Battle of 51 
 
 Arenas, D. Sylvestre 171 
 
 Ariporo River 158 
 
 Armadillos gs 
 
 Ayacucho, Painting of Battle of ... . 9 
 
 Banco 262 
 
 Barinas 67 
 
 Barrancas 66 
 
 Barranquilla 265 
 
 Bathing, Custom of 178 
 
 Bingham, Dr. Hiram, Picture of . . . 230 
 
 Birds 58, 87, 122, 127, 13s, 153 
 
 Egrets 82, 104 
 
 Jabiru 72, 81 
 
 King Samurs 86 
 
 Boca Suripa 82 
 
 Bocono River 64 
 
 Bogota, City of 231 
 
 Bolivar 
 
 Portraits 8, 267 
 
 Grave of 14 
 
 Headquarters at Casa de Bonza. . 212 
 Headquarters at Guanare 60 
 
 PAGE 
 Bolivar 
 
 Headquarters at Socha Viejo .... 205 
 
 Boyaca, Battle of 220, 274 
 
 Painting of 9 
 
 Briceno, D. Rafael 97 
 
 Brisson, Jorge 147 
 
 Bull-fight at Caracas 16 
 
 Cajigal Observatory, Caracas 18 
 
 Caiia Flores 100 
 
 Canagua River 77 
 
 Cano Guata 139 
 
 Cano Muato 175 
 
 Caparro River S;^ 
 
 Capriles, Dr. Isaac vi 
 
 Capuchins at Caracas 23 
 
 Capybaras or chiguires ....117, 121, 122 
 Carabobo 
 
 Battle of 276 
 
 Painting of 9 
 
 Plains of 31 
 
 Caracas 3 
 
 National Museum 13 
 
 University of 12 
 
 Caribe, Cannibal fish 139 
 
 Carigua River 53 
 
 Cartagena 267 
 
 Casanare 148 
 
 Castro, President 
 
 Illness of 15 
 
 Portrait of 11 
 
 Villa of 6 
 
 Chire 155 
 
 Chirgua River 37 
 
 Chocolate 22, 112 
 
 Choconta 225 
 
 Club Concordia, Caracas 17 
 
 Cojedes River 48 
 
 28s 
 
286 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Concerts 
 
 Barinas 68 
 
 Bogota 244 
 
 Caracas 21 
 
 Corozal 153 
 
 Corral de Bonza 212 
 
 Corral Falzo de Paez 75 
 
 Corrales 207 
 
 Cotton spinning, AXethod of 195 
 
 Currency 29, 112, 154, 237, 165 
 
 Desecho Ranch 174 
 
 Duitama 2ii 
 
 Ele River 1 29 
 
 Food 3S, 57, 77, 95, 123, 144 
 
 Chocolate 22 
 
 Gotio 87 
 
 Majule 175 
 
 Soup 191, 209, 217 
 
 Funeral Customs 240 
 
 Gabaldon, Dr 83 
 
 Gambling 17, 164 
 
 Gamboa, Colonel 109 
 
 Gamelotal 96 
 
 Games 103, 225 
 
 Bowling 69 
 
 Gonzalez Alvarez, D. Miguel ..161, 168 
 
 Gregory, Prof. Herbert E vi 
 
 Grenadillo 94 
 
 Guamita 39 
 
 Guanare 59 
 
 Guaratarito 119 
 
 Guasdualito 98 
 
 Guerrera, General, Ranch of 94 
 
 Heimke, Major William vi, 232 
 
 Honda 257 
 
 Hospitals at Caracas 15 
 
 Iguanas 92 
 
 Independence 
 
 Declaration of 10 
 
 Hall 10 
 
 Painting of 10 
 
 Temple of 79 
 
 Irrigation 79 
 
 PAGE 
 
 La Calzada 78 
 
 La Dorada 257 
 
 La Gloria 262 
 
 La Guayra i 
 
 Laguna Seca 202 
 
 La Tigra 88 
 
 Las Quebradas 199 
 
 Las Queseras del Medio 97 
 
 Landaeta Resales, Gen. Manuel .... 14 
 
 Levar, Jose Antonio 161, 167 
 
 Libraries at Caracas 14 
 
 Limbo 141 
 
 Llanero characteristics 94, 115 
 
 Lotteries 
 
 at Bogota 248 
 
 at Caracas 17 
 
 McGregor, Gregory 
 
 Portrait of 9 
 
 Magdalena River 250 
 
 Map Commission, Caracas 19 
 
 Matos, General i 
 
 Michelena 
 
 Painting by 18 
 
 Monagas 
 
 Grave of 14 
 
 Morcote 185 
 
 Moreno jcg 
 
 Nemocon 228 
 
 Nunchia 177 
 
 O'Lear)', General 
 
 Grave of 14 
 
 Orchids iSo, 18S 
 
 Ospino 56 
 
 Paez, General 79, 277 
 
 Corral Falzo of 7c 
 
 Grave of 14 
 
 Portrait of n 
 
 Paguei River 73 
 
 I^aipa 216 
 
 Palmarito 89 
 
 Pantano de Vargas, Battle of . . . 213, 272 
 
 Parada Leal, D. Francisco 76 
 
 Paramo of Pisva 197 
 
INDEX 
 
 287 
 
 Paul, Dr. Jose Jesus 
 
 Pauta River 
 
 Paya 
 
 Paz, General Narcisso 
 
 Perez, General 
 
 Periquera 
 
 Phelps, William 
 
 Pisva 
 
 Pombo, Sr. Jorge 
 
 Pore, Fair at 
 
 Portuguesa, Jungle of river 
 Prieto Villate, D. Elias . . . . 
 
 Puerto San Salvador 
 
 Puerto Wilches 
 
 .189, 
 
 173 
 271 
 
 94 
 142 
 106 
 
 vi 
 192 
 248 
 161 
 
 57 
 213 
 1 48 
 261 
 
 Railroads 6, 26, 228, 251, 259, 261 
 
 Rangel, D. Fernando 96 
 
 Reyes, President Rafael . . . .vi, 161, 244 
 
 Explorations of 245 
 
 Rice, Dr. Hamilton v, z 
 
 Root, Senator Elihu vi 
 
 Sabaneta 64 
 
 San Carlos 42 
 
 San Ignacio 148 
 
 Sanjon 155 
 
 San Jose 44 
 
 San Martin, General 
 
 Portrait of 9 
 
 San Sylvestre 74 
 
 Santander, General 190, 247, 270 
 
 Santo Domingo River 67 
 
 Schools 27, 69, 185, 209 
 
 Silkworms 19 
 
 Sleeper, Jacob i, 7 
 
 Snakes 23, 56, 135, 185, 254, 255 
 
 Socha Nueva 202 
 
 Sogamoso River 201 
 
 Sogamoso, Attack upon 271 
 
 Slelling, D. Carlos vi, 28, 32 
 
 Sironge, Francis vi 
 
 PAGE 
 Sucre, General. 
 
 Death of 14 
 
 Portrait of 9 
 
 Standard of 11 
 
 Sugar-making . . . 19, 45, So, 99, 192, 196 
 
 Suripa River 82 
 
 Theatres 
 
 Bogota 245 
 
 National Theatre, Caracas 21 
 
 Valencia 27 
 
 Tinaco 40 
 
 Tinaquillo 37 
 
 Battle of 276 
 
 Tobacco paste 31 
 
 Tocaria River 177 
 
 Tocupido 62 
 
 Tocuyito, Battle of 31 
 
 Totomal 74 
 
 Totumiio River 141 
 
 Tovacar 195 
 
 Tunja 218 
 
 Universities 
 
 Caracas 12 
 
 Guanare 59 
 
 Valencia 27 
 
 Urgueto, Dr 18 
 
 Valencia 26 
 
 Valle 6 
 
 Vallee, General 107 
 
 Voghera, Father 27, 97 
 
 Wax Industry 193, 195 
 
 Winship, George Parker vi 
 
 Women, position of, 22, 115, 186, 236, 246 
 
 Yaruros Indians ....119, 128, 131, 133 
 
 Zipaquira 229 
 
The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
CARACAS TO BOGOTA 
 Bingliaui. 
 
 lO 
 
 SOUTH AMERI CA, 
 
 Sltetclx Map 
 
 sh.o"win^ the route 
 
 of 
 
 PROF. HIRAM BINGHAM 
 
 from 
 
 CARACAS TO BOGOTA 
 
 I907. 
 
 Scale L 3.000,000 orl Inch 47 35 Stat.Miles 
 
 ZO lO o 
 
 20 AO eo 60 
 
 SeLghie in, ieet. 
 
 Scale 1:25.000,000 or Hu«ili - 384? Stat, Mis 
 
 '<^0, , I 9 IQO 200 ayo 400 500 
 
 I\^hlishAd.-'mtK the perrriissiarL ofOxe- Ray jL Ge^qraphxc/xl. SocLety. 
 
\ 
 
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