; and in this
vast extent we had found but a very small number of inhabited places.
Coming from an almost desert country, we were struck with the bustle of
the town, though it contained only six thousand inhabitants. We admired
the conveniences which industry and commerce furnish to civilized man.
Humble dwellings appeared to us magnificent; and every person with whom
we conversed seemed to be endowed with superior intelligence. Long
privations give a value to the smallest enjoyments; and I cannot express
the pleasure we felt when we saw for the first time wheaten bread on the
governor's table.

THE LLANEROS OF VENEZUELA.

RAMON PAEZ.

[Don Ramon Paez, in his "Wild Scenes in South America; or, Life
in the Llanos of Venezuela," has given us some interesting
pictures of a region little known to travellers. These vast
plains are inhabited by a people many of whom bear a close
resemblance in their habits to the Argentine Gauchos. The
following selection is devoted to a description of this people
and their region of habitation.]

We left Ortiz as usual, very early the next morning, stumbling here and
there amidst the mass of loose stones which paved the way along the
winding bed of the _quebrada_. In proportion as we advanced on our route
the hills decreased in size, while the loose stones seemed to increase
in quantity. The splendid groves of hardy and balsamiferous trees, which
near Ortiz formed an almost impenetrable forest, gradually became less
imposing in appearance, until they were replaced by thickets of thorny
bushes, chiefly composed of several species of mimosas, with a delicate
and feathery foliage. The traveller accustomed to the shade of a
luxuriant vegetation, and to the sight of cultivated valleys, is struck
by the rapid diminution of the former, and the total disappearance of
the latter, as he emerges from the Galeras of Ortiz; yet he is somewhat
compensated by the almost overpowering perfume shed by masses of the
canary-colored blossoms with which these shrubs are loaded, from the
summits down to the bending branches that trail the ground at every
passing breeze.

Suddenly we entered a widely-extended tract of level land almost
destitute of vegetation. With the exception of a few clumps of
palm-trees with fan-like leaves, nothing but short grass covered its
entire surface, almost realizing the idea of an "ocean covered with
sea-weed." A dense mass of vapor p