[14] “With my lance and horse, I care not for fortune, and it matters not whether the sun shines or the moon gives light.” [↑]

[15] For valuable information regarding the llanos and their inhabitants, the Llaneros, the reader may consult, besides Páez, already quoted, Aus den Llanos, von Carl Sachs, Leipzig, 1879, and Vom Tropischen Tieflande zum Ewigen Schnee, von Anton Goering, Leipzig. [↑]

[16] Uncle, a name by which Páez was frequently addressed by the Llaneros. [↑]

[17] Recollections of a Service of Three Years during the War of Extermination in the Republics of Venezuela and Colombia, pp. 176, 178, London, 1728. [↑]

[18] El Orinoco Ilustrado, Cap. XXII. [↑]

[19] Op. cit., Cap. VIII. [↑]

[20] Tom. I, p. 2. [↑]

[21] Purgatorio, VI, 124–126. [↑]

[22] The unstable and turbulent condition from which the country has so long suffered cannot be attributed to a defective constitution or to impracticable laws. The constitution of Venezuela is modeled after that of the United States, and the laws are largely based on the best legislation of other countries. But this is not sufficient. Of this unhappy country, and especially of its rulers, one may exclaim in the words of the great Florentine poet:—

“Laws indeed there are,