United States or North Korea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was Paez who had led his Llanero cavalry so often to victory against the Spaniards, and who, as already related in these pages, had achieved the unique feat of capturing a flotilla of Spanish gunboats or, to be more accurate, gun-barges by means of this very cavalry.
Our task is at an end; the career of the Llanero has been unfolded; we have placed ourselves in the presence of the comrade of Bolívar, and have witnessed the rise of the Venezuelan Republic. The boat lay at the wharf, a pretty little craft of six or eight tons, with a mainsail and jib.
A llanero, or native of the elevated plains of Venezuela, he rose naturally to great influence among his fellow-herdsmen, and when the revolution began, in 1810, and he declared in favor of the cause of freedom, his reputation for courage was so great that they were very ready to enlist under him.
Such as he is, nevertheless, and for the purposes which his existence subserves, the true Llanero is indeed well placed in his peculiar region. A man of middle stature, usually of broad and powerful build, short-necked, with square head and narrow forehead, and with eyes that would be black, if it were not for the fire that flickers in them with a carbuncle-like intensity.
Others have been known to choose cats for their steeds, and perseveringly to keep their hold in spite of their active movements seeming to enjoy them as much as the llanero does those of a colt he is engaged in breaking-in. On the dry lands to the north of the Upper Amazon, a little timid inoffensive monkey is found with a long bear-like coat of speckled grey hair.
From the hips upward the Llanero is straight and well-proportioned; but his constant equitation curves and bandies his legs in a manner plainly visible whenever he attempts to walk.
The Llanero may be called a happy man. Two years more than half a century ago there lived a Creole trader of some wealth in the little town of Araure, in the province of Barinas, upon the outskirts of the Llanos. Don José had a stalwart son, aged about sixteen, whom he had trained to active usefulness amid the monotonous ease of the torrid little municipality.
His influence and example attracted multitudes of Llanero horsemen to the Revolutionary ranks, but the calamitous period of the earthquake put an end to his military service, and he returned, in 1812, to his pastoral post.
The animal, finding itself free, darted off, and then commenced to back, plunge, and whisk round and round, sometimes dashing on for a few paces at a furious pace, and then recommencing its eccentric movements. The rider, however, stuck on; and another Llanero coming behind, administered a lash with his long cutting whip, which made the poor animal start off with a snort like a scream.
At that instant the daring Llanero plunged his dagger up to the very hilt into the arm-pit the most vital part of the monster when, with a tremendous splash, it instantly sank beneath the waves. The tenacity of life exhibited by these monsters is often marvellous. Sir Robert Schombergh gives an account of shooting one when ascending the River Berbice.
Word Of The Day