As an evidence of the variety of plant life in this part of the world, it suffices to state that Bonpland, the companion of Humboldt in his memorable journey to South America, discovered no fewer than six hundred species of new plants on his way to the Cassiquiare, and that, too, in spite of the fact that his investigations were necessarily confined entirely to the banks of the river along which he passed. There are still many large tracts in Venezuela and Colombia that have never been visited by the botanist. [↑]
[10] S. Pérez Triana, op. cit., p. 309. [↑]
[11] Campaigns and Cruises in Venezuela and New Granada from 1817–1830, Vol. I, p. 119, London. [↑]
[12] In his Travels and Adventures in South and Central America, Don Ramon Paez, the son of the first president of Venezuela, writes as follows of a certain cattle farm in the llanos: “Its area, would measure at least eighty square leagues, or about one hundred and fifty thousand acres of the richest land, but which under the present backward and revolutionary state of the country is comparatively valueless to the owner. The number of cattle dispersed throughout the length and breadth of this wide extent of prairie land was computed to be about a hundred thousand head, and at one time, ten thousand horses; but what with the peste, revolutionary exactions, and skin hunters, comparatively very few of the former and none of the latter have been left.” Pp. 202, 203, New York, 1864. [↑]
“My wife and my valued horse
Died both at the same time.
To the devil with my wife,
For my horse do I repine.”